David Mann is a travelling salesman whose career isn?t going all that well, much like his marriage. He sets out one day for what was supposed to be a routine drive to see a client. All seems fine as he sets off to drive through the mountains until he happens upon a dirty old tanker who gives him grief as he tries to pass. The tension rises from there as the tanker takes on the persona of a killer driven by a man whose face we never see.

When not trying to run Mann off the road the tanker driver waves him to pass on a blind bend well aware that there was an oncoming car, one Mann only just misses. He finally manages to get past the truck and sets off to restore some normality to the day only to look in the rear view mirror to see it filled by the killer truck trying to ram him. Mann fights for his life as the faceless murderer pursues him for mile after mile until Mann finally pulls off at a diner to calm down. The way he views with suspicion all the people in the diner when he sees the truck parked out side is a great piece of suspense. Unfortunately he doesn?t find the driver on returns to his seat to see the truck driving off. Convinced he is safe Mann hits the road again. Bad move!

The truck is out there waiting, trying to kill Mann as he helps a stranded bus load of kids and trying to ram him into the path of an oncoming train. He manages to escape again but when he calls in for petrol the truck tries to run him down, wrecking the petrol station in the process and letting loose all the creepy crawlies on display for the tourists. Mann gets away again and outruns the truck for a while but you just know the truck will be back.

After a series of scrapes and a harrowing trip up a mountain when it looks like the car will loose all speed and be caught by the truck Mann finally decides enough is enough. He lures the truck towards a cliff and then sets his car to ram into the truck. In the resulting crash the truck lurch over the cliff in a spectacular fall to the bottom in a great death scene. Mann is victorious over machine.

This movie is a classic and was Steven Spielberg?s entr?e to mainstream directing. The film was originally made for TV and had to be lengthened with additional footage to qualify as a feature film. The way the suspense is built up throughout the film is sensational and the fact that we never see the face of the truck driver just adds to it all. With the concept of road rage now quite commonly understood the film explores the worst possible type ? a maniacal driver intent on using his machine to kill someone. The truck has a series of number plates on the front and these symbolise the number of deaths in other States the truck had caused. Mann struggles desperately to make sure he isn?t added to the list and triumphs in the end. This is one DVD well worth getting ? you will pull it out every so often and look at it again because it is that good!

THE EXTRAS

The DVD is even better value when I consider the extras. I found the discussion with Speilberg about how he went about making the movie fascinating and I have a much better appreciation of the whole movie having heard him explain so much. Speilberg went to a great deal of trouble to source the right actor (Dennis Weaver), the right car (he had to have a red one), the right truck (the truck was cast from a group brought to the studio for ?casting?) and the right location. There is so much more to this movie than I had picked up that this is one time where you might like to consider watching the extras first just so you know what to look out for. If you reckon that might spoil it, watch the movie, then the extras and I?ll bet you want to see the movie again. We also find out that Speilberg did a lot to TV work as a training ground, including such classics as Columbo and Marcus Welby M D.

Richard Matheson, who wrote the original short story, explains that he got the idea from a real life incident where he and his mate were run off the road by a truck. He also tells us that the story was published in Playboy, proving once and for all that it is possible to buy Playboy just for the articles (hoho). The film trailer is shown as is a photograph and film poster gallery.

CONCLUSION

An ordinary man sets out on an ordinary trip to see a client. His trip turns into a fight for life when a large tanker truck tries to run him off the road, push him under a train and smash his car to pieces. He finally throws down the gauntlet and conquers the machine in a tension packed ending to a tension packed film.