Action · Thriller · TV Movie
American
1971 · Directed by Steven Spielberg · 74 min
A mild-mannered salesman sets out across the California desert for a business appointment. A brief, ordinary moment of road impatience puts him in the path of a huge, rusting tanker truck whose driver is never fully seen. What follows is a lean, relentless chase.
Why it matters in cinema history
A landmark of the made-for-television movie and the earliest proof of Spielberg's talent. It also stands as an early example of the pared-down, anxious genre filmmaking of the New Hollywood generation.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a film about how a camera can make an object feel alive, and a human being feel small.
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