Steven Spielberg first movie, with fine performance from Dennis Weaver , giving one of his best ones as a driver who is at first harried and eventually horrified by a large truck. It results to be a fascinating killer game of the classic chase of the cat and mouse. A top-notch made for TV picture, concerning a relentless pursuit, including a provoking and relentless exercice in paranoia. It deals with a commuter businessman who is repeatedly threatened and attacked by an massive, huge trailer on an open desert highway. Along the way, the starring cannot see the face of the driver of the giant truck.
Spendid thriller originally made for TV plenty of thrills, chills, breathtaking chases, suspense, and many other things. There
are not motivations, no explanations, except perhaps for a hint of allegory in the screenline and a tense visual suggestion about the ancient fight between the vulnerable, prancing knight and the lumbering, nasty dragon. Dennis Weaver, only protagonist, delivers a nice acting as a docile traveling salesman who takes on a malevolant juggerneaut, an ominous tractor-trailer causing wreak havoc.
It contains a nail-biting and suspenseful musical score by Billy Goldenberg. As well as a colorful and adequate cinematography by
Jack Marta . Based on a story and screenplay by the prestigious novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson. The motion picture was very well and superbly directed by Spielberg, being his Film debut. And while in US premiered in Television, it was released threatically in Europe . Here Steven maintains the whole nightmarish situation at total tension and fever pitch. Spielberg successful film to be continued by a series of hits, such as : Sugarland express, Jaws, Close encounters in third phase , Raiders of the lost ark, ET, The color purple, Amazing stories, Empire of the sun, Hook, Jurassik Park, Amistad, Schindler list, Lost world, A. I. , Minority report, The terminal, Munich, War of the words, Indiana Jones and the last crusade and many others. Rating : Notable, better than average, 7.5/10. An absolute cracker that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
