Duel (1971)

[**** stars/*****]

It's just another day, another business trip for California salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver).

Now put yourself in David's shoes. 

What would you do if, out of the blue, a monstrous truck driver starts obstructing your vehicle and then deliberately tries to cause your death? 

David is at first stunned at the possibility - is this really happening? The day otherwise seems ordinary and David is clearly one who has lived a fairly routine life. 

Why would a stranger want to kill him? Who is this truck driver and what does he want?   

Truck vs. Car is the brilliant premise of Steven Spielberg's impressive road trip action thriller Duel (1971), inspired by a Richard Matheson short story (Matheson wrote the screenplay).  

The theatrical version is available on YouTube, at the time of writing.     

Consider it from Spielberg's perspective now. 

How does the director ensure constant audience engagement throughout this unusual one-track 89-min (theatrical running time) action adventure?     

Years later, in an interview to legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, Spielberg spoke on how Duel was treated like a monster movie. 

The ace director went on to credit the sound effects editors in creating the truck's menacing personality - something like a Godzilla on wheels. 

Jack A. Marta's cinematography and the Frank Morriss edit powers this turbocharged experience. The visuals from the driver's perspective, the doctored engine sounds make the experience personal. 

Billy Goldenberg's impressive background score adds measured weight to the relentless face-off. 

David's 'ordinary working man in danger' aspect connects instantly. You want David to be safe, he's like a typical colleague you know from work.  

The strength is in the writing, the stark Mojave Desert setting that adds authenticity to the scary proceedings, and the tank truck's unpredictable, absorbing audio-visual traits - we never see the truck driver, an aspect that adds to the thrill of the chase. 

Duel review 
If Duel is a lesser movie, it is in the budget constraints - resultant scale limitations in production quality, cinematography and sound effects - Duel was initially a 74-minute made-for-TV ABC network special.

Would Duel be a better movie if attempted on a larger budget (probably later in the 90's) with upgraded technology and equipment?  

There is no end to the ifs and buts, and incredibly Duel remains extremely watchable and untarnished by time. 

Spielberg's first feature film is impressive for the director's near perfect execution of an unusual, challenging premise. 

Go watch Duel, a robust reminder of how the most influential director of our times (arguably) began enthralling audiences around the world.  

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

[**** stars / *****] 

"He says the sun came out last night. 

He says it sang to him."

Would Steven Spielberg movies feel as awesome minus the John Williams score? 

The Close Encounters of the Third Kind introductory buildup scene is classic Williams, a pitch black screen lights up to suspenseful nervy music, revealing a present day Mexican desert. 

We see officials running excitedly in disbelief to discover World War II airplanes in pristine condition, since their mysterious disappearance 30 years ago at the Bermuda Triangle.     

More strange events occur over the following days. Two commercial planes brush past an unidentified flying object (UFO), even as air traffic control center personnel listen intently. 

Then somewhere in Indiana, USA, three-year-old Barry wakes up in his room to see his toys moving about in the middle of the night. When his mother Jillian chases a wonder-struck Barry down the road, an astonishing event unfolds, changing the world as we know it. 

Sci-fi cinema magic 
Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut (acclaimed French director in a rare English film role) and Melinda Dillon are among the ensemble cast who invest us in this mystical sci-fi drama like no other.  

Even the outdated special effects doesn't take the sheen away from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, that's the kind of encompassing effect it invokes.  

One of a kind
The best movies take you on a journey. As the story unfolded, was relentlessly fascinated by - what happens next? 

The audio-visual, despite the make-believe, transcended, became a part of me. 

There is yet an alien movie to match what Spielberg has achieved here, the eternal wonder, unexpected culminating calm of discovering we are not alone. 

Though Spielberg did follow it up with the bewitching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an sci-fi alien drama like no other. 

Alluring, enigmatic, and strangely fulfilling. 

Kaithi (2019)

[*** stars / *****]

Will Dilli (Karthi), free after ten years of imprisonment finally get to meet his kid daughter? He will, if he makes it alive through a night involving a drug consignment, hardened criminals out to get it, and a truckload of sedated police officers.  

Great action movie concept 
Writer-Director Lokesh Kanagaraj fills up this central premise of Kaithi (Prisoner) with tense, mostly impressive, original action set pieces, matching the energy vibes in Keanu Reeves-Sandra Bullock starring Speed (1994) and Steven Spielberg's Duel (1971). 

'Believe it or not' parts 
After having set a new level for action dramas, I had to sigh when a stabbed person beats up goons without any discomfort. The one-man-army mode scenes reek of the hot air proceedings that mar the Nicolas Cage-starring Con Air (1997).  

Despite the escapist, logic-defying moments, Kaithi is one of the best Tamil action thrillers I have seen. 

Kaithi review 
The superb action scenes, and how the cover of night is cleverly used to keep the proceedings tense, are huge plus points. 

Keeping this relentless without songs does Kaithi a lot of good, the length is just right too. The sharp night-time camera work by Sathyan Sooryan adds to the movie's impact.     

Jurassic Park (1993)

[**** stars / *****]

Robert Muldoon: 

Quiet, all of you! They're approaching the Tyrannosaur paddock.

Anticipation, breathless excitement, the wait in the rain and then the Tyrannosaurus rex appearing with a deafening roar, the dinosaur egg-hatching moment, they don't make sci-fi action like that anymore. 

The coronavirus lockdown has enabled my rediscovery of yet another sci-fi action adventure masterpiece, Steven Spielberg's magnificent 'dinosaurs and not sharks eat/kill humans'  movie experience, Jurassic Park (1993). 

My first time 
This was the first Hollywood movie I ever watched in a cinema hall as a kid and it was as wondrous to again get the first awe-struck view of the gentle Brachiosaurus, the heart-pounding moment of the Tyrannosaurus rex crossing over the non-functional electric fences, and the scarily intelligent can-open-door-handles-no-big-deal Velociraptors. 

Flat TV screens do help replicate the big screen experience to a teeny-weeny degree. 

Human drama
Again, as in Jaws (1975), Jurassic Park is still immensely watchable because of the human conflicts unfolding in between the body count. 

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) doesn't fit around kids and ends up protecting John Hammond's (Richard Attenborough) two grandchildren Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards),  Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Grant's partner, is ahead of her times, assured, confident woman who gets the best lines: 

Ian Malcolm: 

God creates dinosaurs. God destroys ... Man creates dinosaurs.

.

Dr. Ellie Sattler: 

Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the earth.

Shades

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) as a flirtatious mathematician, John Hammond as the rich, ambitious but rash park owner, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) as the greedy, scheming computer man, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck) as the sharp game warden, honest matter-of-fact computer worker Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) and the money-minded lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero)...there are as many varied shades of human characters as the numerous dinosaur species of the park, adding layers to the drama, and supporting the fabulous action. 

What makes Jurassic Park tick?        

The dinosaurs for the first time in movie history, look scarily, intimately real, like they were beasts come alive and not monsters, as many previous dinosaur movies made them out to be.

The sheer scale and size proportion of the dinosaurs gets conveyed through the screen, you actually sense their size. 

The beautifully choreographed action sequences, there is so much conviction in how the animals attack, sound, run, plan, and eat. Even though Velociraptors opening doors may have been a bit too much. At that rate, they must have evolved beyond humans by now. 

Also, how does Dr. Grant know that the T-rex can only sense movements? He knew that just by digging dinosaur bones?! But the action is such an impressive takeaway, it all sticks in Jurassic Park. 

The close-up human-dinosaur relationship has never been equaled in any other sequel, Sattler sampling Dinosaur shit, Grant heaving with an ill dinosaur's breathing, all pure cinema magic. This deceptive peace makes the later attacks look even more real, like the video of a tiger attack during a otherwise routine jungle safari. 

The gorgeous Dean Cundey cinematography and the stunner John Williams music. Jurassic Park with music by another composer, would that have been as effective?  

Universal, timeless story of man taking nature for granted and nature in turn teaching us a lesson, under the present circumstances, you better believe it.