Sunday, May 3, 2009

Duel Memories

[A small note on Steven Spielberg's Duel, from The Blackboard.]

I've written about this before somewhere, but I vividly recall seeing Duel in its premiere as an ABC Movie of the Week on November 13, 1971. I was 13, in 8th grade, and I watched the Movies of the Week regularly. Not only was this one better than any I had seen before, but there was also something about it that told me that a particular sensibility made it, as an author writes a book, and that was an electrifying realization for me. My understanding of auteurism and of film generally was born that evening.