David Mann is a travelling businessman venturing to an appointment across California but is slowed down considerably by an ominous truck that at first inconveniences him until things suddenly take a much darker tone.
Also, when David goes to the garage he asks the attendant to ‘Fill her up’ with the attendant replying ‘You’re the boss.’ To which David responds ‘Not in my house I’m not!’
David’s continued oneupmanship with the truck represents a display of masculine superiority. Who’s the bigger man, who has the bigger penis?
The truck is the Return of the Repressed in the guise of David’s more base-level, undomesticated masculinity. It’s always present, it’s inescapable and is waiting to confront him when he thinks he’s shaken it off.
Witness the scene in which David stops to use the payphone at the garage owned by the woman who keeps exhibits of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and lizards. Whilst the truck smashes the cages of these creatures and inadvertently sets them free whilst trying to run David over, it frees them from their cages and places them where they would have been before- the wild. This is also symbolic.
The truck’s very deeds are also freeing David’s more primal masculine survival instincts which it thinks should be just as free but have become more deeply embedded and seemingly eradicated due to the decade’s society with its emphasis on Women’s Liberation and, thus, the emasculation of men. The fact that the owner of the caged animal exhibit is female is also telling.
But, whilst the truck might possess and exhibit brute force and traditional ‘Alpha Male’ qualities, it’s David’s qualities of cunning and intellect that save him. He utilises attributes that are above the level of the truck’s ‘id’ and he uses them advantageously.
Notice also the dinosaur roar the truck makes as it faces its demise. This could be seen as symbolic of this outdated, destructive and potentially dangerous version of untamed and unrefined masculinity. This dinosaur roar was also referenced in Spielberg’s later masterpiece, Jaws. He even made the roar louder when it was released in a new print on Blu-ray a few years ago.
This really is a stunning piece of work. Acted to perfection, beautifully framed and paced amazingly. This may have been made for American TV but it proved so successful that it was expanded and released theatrically in the UK the year after.
A special mention to the gorgeous cinematography. The American landscape has never looked so beautiful along with the quintessentially American institutions such as its diners and random sideshow attractions such as the garage owner’s snakes and spiders exhibit. A gorgeous love letter to Americana and a few examples of what makes this country so amazing.
Spielberg went on to make another horror-themed TV movie, Something Evil the following year. This is also a resounding success but unfortunately never released on home media.
4/5 out of 5 stars
Meathook Cinema 