Joe and Stephen?

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skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
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They co-wrote Throttle and In The Tall Grass. I liked them both, and for all people compare the two men as writers, I didn't think it was all that difficult to tell who wrote what. Their phrasing and vocab are different.

I read Throttle in the He Is Legend book. It's another take on the story of the truck in Duel, a Matheson story. I remember seeing that TV movie years ago, but I don't think I've ever read the actual story.
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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The comic is quite good. What I like is that you get to see all the faces of the members of The Tribe. Lemmy is actually drawn like Lemmy from Motorhead (the art gallery also has likenesses of SK and Joe). As with 'N' and 'Dark Tower' the art suits the story well. Considering the writers, it's fitting that it's about a father/son relation, although a bitter one. The ending with the two men just sitting there, reminds me of the ending of Carpenter's The Thing.
I have just two problems with the story:

(Spoilers)

1. It was just a little bit too coincidental that of all places Vince and Lemmy happen to be talking about the dead girl right next to Laughlin's truck, so that he could hear.

2. This I noticed more in the comic than the story. Toward the end when Vince wants to throw the stungrenade, he flips Laughlin the finger so that he will lower his window. But as he does so, in the same hand he has the grenade. It is implied that Laughlin might have been in the army (served in Vietnam like Vince) and he would have recognized a grenade and the last thing he would do was lower his window - in fact most people would recognize a grenade.

I don't care much for the art of the adaptation of Matheson's Duel in the same book, by Rafa Garres. It feels very unfinished, like preliminary sketches rather than finished drawings. But the adaptation itself (by Chris Ryall, who also did Throttle) is really good and dynamic - you can not like the drawings themselves, but can still like the composition, the way the space is used on the page. It makes you want to watch the movie again right away.
 
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Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
...I prefer Throttle, but Grass is OK...
TWSS? (or would that be considered inappropriate) - wow this is an old thread that has somehow been revived.

It would be nice if they could try a co-write together again, similar to what was done with Sleeping Beauties, now that Joe has had some time to "hone his craft".

Then they could do a tour! Hurray! :cupcake::jammin:
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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Cambridge, Ohio
The comic is quite good. What I like is that you get to see all the faces of the members of The Tribe. Lemmy is actually drawn like Lemmy from Motorhead (the art gallery also has likenesses of SK and Joe). As with 'N' and 'Dark Tower' the art suits the story well. Considering the writers, it's fitting that it's about a father/son relation, although a bitter one. The ending with the two men just sitting there, reminds me of the ending of Carpenter's The Thing.
I have just two problems with the story:

(Spoilers)

1. It was just a little bit too coincidental that of all places Vince and Lemmy happen to be talking about the dead girl right next to Laughlin's truck, so that he could hear.

2. This I noticed more in the comic than the story. Toward the end when Vince wants to throw the stungrenade, he flips Laughlin the finger so that he will lower his window. But as he does so, in the same hand he has the grenade. It is implied that Laughlin might have been in the army (served in Vietnam like Vince) and he would have recognized a grenade and the last thing he would do was lower his window - in fact most people would recognize a grenade.

I don't care much for the art of the adaptation of Matheson's Duel in the same book, by Rafa Garres. It feels very unfinished, like preliminary sketches rather than finished drawings. But the adaptation itself (by Chris Ryall, who also did Throttle) is really good and dynamic - you can not like the drawings themselves, but can still like the composition, the way the space is used on the page. It makes you want to watch the movie again right away.
...sure, there were inconsistencies but I just hung onto the truck bumper and had a hell of a ride.....
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
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...sure, there were inconsistencies but I just hung onto the truck bumper and had a hell of a ride.....

It's amazing that Spielberg did the whole movie on location in just twelve days - he went two days over schedule. He didn't want to do it in the studio, because it would look too studio-based and wouldn't have a realistic feel. The dinosaur roar you hear when the truck goes down the hill at the end is used again when the shark is blown up at the end of Jaws.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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It's amazing that Spielberg did the whole movie on location in just twelve days - he went two days over schedule. He didn't want to do it in the studio, because it would look too studio-based and wouldn't have a realistic feel. The dinosaur roar you hear when the truck goes down the hill at the end is used again when the shark is blown up at the end of Jaws.
....that's a cool bit of trivia!.....thank ya sir......
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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....that's a cool bit of trivia!.....thank ya sir......

There's a 3 part making of on Youtube (probably from the dvd) with all sorts of trivia told by Spielberg himself.

They also got away with letting Dennis Weaver doing dangerous stunts. The scene where the truck drives over the phonebooth and Weaver barely escapes, that's really the actor himself. There were safety precautions of course, but one human or technical error and it could have gone horribly wrong as it's a very real truck. Nowadays if you would want a shot like that with the actor's face you'd let a stuntman do it and CG the actor's face on him.

As with anything that's successful there were followers and imitators. You could argue whether Maximum Overdrive belongs to these as it's the trucks themselves being alive rather than someone driving them, but there was also Breakdown (1997) with Kurt Russell, Monster Man (2003) and Roadkill (2010).
But the best was probably Joy Ride (2001). Co-written by J.J. Abrams the bad trucker himself got more of a personality due to the voice of Ted 'Silence of the Lambs' Levine as Rusty Nail.
Even a movie like The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer has a similar feel of being targetted and pursued on the road by an unknown to the ultimate limits through no fault of your own. I remember The Hitcher was quite intense the first time I saw it at the theatre, because it doesn't build up tension slowly, but right away shows how ruthless and vicious Hauer is.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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Cambridge, Ohio
There's a 3 part making of on Youtube (probably from the dvd) with all sorts of trivia told by Spielberg himself.

They also got away with letting Dennis Weaver doing dangerous stunts. The scene where the truck drives over the phonebooth and Weaver barely escapes, that's really the actor himself. There were safety precautions of course, but one human or technical error and it could have gone horribly wrong as it's a very real truck. Nowadays if you would want a shot like that with the actor's face you'd let a stuntman do it and CG the actor's face on him.

As with anything that's successful there were followers and imitators. You could argue whether Maximum Overdrive belongs to these as it's the trucks themselves being alive rather than someone driving them, but there was also Breakdown (1997) with Kurt Russell, Monster Man (2003) and Roadkill (2010).
But the best was probably Joy Ride (2001). Co-written by J.J. Abrams the bad trucker himself got more of a personality due to the voice of Ted 'Silence of the Lambs' Levine as Rusty Nail.
Even a movie like The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer has a similar feel of being targetted and pursued on the road by an unknown to the ultimate limits through no fault of your own. I remember The Hitcher was quite intense the first time I saw it at the theatre, because it doesn't build up tension slowly, but right away shows how ruthless and vicious Hauer is.
.....well said....
 

Hill lover35

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Jan 8, 2017
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TWSS? (or would that be considered inappropriate) - wow this is an old thread that has somehow been revived.

It would be nice if they could try a co-write together again, similar to what was done with Sleeping Beauties, now that Joe has had some time to "hone his craft".

Then they could do a tour! Hurray! :cupcake::jammin:

Messy, this whould be interesting to see them do it. But I wonder considering they are very similar writters how it whould be and if it whould be as exciting. Owen and Steve are very differnt writters. I can see joe finishing of an old book or writtimg started by mr king, after a major life event
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Messy, this whould be interesting to see them do it. But I wonder considering they are very similar writters how it whould be and if it whould be as exciting. Owen and Steve are very differnt writters. I can see joe finishing of an old book or writtimg started by mr king, after a major life event
Who told you I was messy?:a11:

:hmm:






::P


I did enjoy Joe's book NOS4A2 very much - I think if they tried a collaboration together it might turn out quite different from Sleeping Beauties
:monkey:
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
2,201
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I like the original Matheson story 'Duel' a lot, it's one of those truly tense short stories - especially the way it builds again in the second half after the truck café scene (he called it a novelette himself, but it's just 20 pages or so).
However I find the ending a bit confusing.

(SPOILERS for 'Duel')

Finally Mann (the protagonist) drives uphill, but his motor breaks down (steam comes out the radiator). This is probably the most tense part of the story, cause you so want him to make it to the top so the car can go down the other side by itself even with the motor broken.
He does make it, but the pursuing truck is catching up. Then he sees a truck escape route, which is for trucks whose brakes stopped working (I don't know if these actually exist). So he drives up the truck escape route, which is a sort of dirt road. The truck follows him, but when Mann's expecting to be hit, it suddenly capsizes and goes down a canyon. I really don't understand what made the truck capsize, as it was a special escape route made for trucks...

The comic follows the story exactly, but the movie has more of a full-on confrontation at the end from what I remember.
 
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Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
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Apr 11, 2006
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I like the original Matheson story 'Duel' a lot, it's one of those truly tense short stories - especially the way it builds again in the second half after the truck café scene (he called it a novelette himself, but it's just 20 pages or so).
However I find the ending a bit confusing.

(SPOILERS for 'Duel')

Finally Mann (the protagonist) drives uphill, but his motor breaks down (steam comes out the radiator). This is probably the most tense part of the story, cause you so want him to make it to the top so the car can go down the other side by itself even with the motor broken.
He does make it, but the pursuing truck is catching up. Then he sees a truck escape route, which is for trucks whose brakes stopped working (I don't know if these actually exist). So he drives up the truck escape route, which is a sort of dirt road. The truck follows him, but when Mann's expecting to be hit, it suddenly capsizes and goes down a canyon. I really don't understand what made the truck capsize, as it was a special escape route made for trucks...

The comic follows the story exactly, but the movie has more of a full-on confrontation at the end from what I remember.
Yes, they do exist.
 
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Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
What Matheson does so well in the story is give you the feeling of high speed, you really feel like you're on that road driving way too fast.
He actually got the idea from a real incident, which took place the day Kennedy was assassinated, where he and a friend drove home from golfing, and a truckdriver started to terrorize them on the road. It was so bad ,they had to turn off the road at a certain point. He got the idea for the story but wrote it only years later.
What also adds to the story is the description of all the things Mann sees by the roadside. What makes it feel so realistic is that Mann can see these things go by, but he sometimes doesn't see the details of them clearly, which is what happens when you see things flashing by when you're in a speeding vehicle: you can see what you pass by broadly, but it's often gone by too quickly to see it really well.

This is one of the later (maybe even the last short story he wrote) short stories by Matheson and it feels more modern than a lot of the other classic stories. It's also a little less economically written, it's a little longer than most and he takes his time with it more.
Actually it feels very close to a King story - it could have been in Night Shift or Skeleton Crew.
I think the main difference between them is the characterisation. This is what King truly shines at - even in something as short as Throttle, you do care to a degree about the father/son relation and the loyalty between these gang members, even when they're not the most sympathetic people overall (essentially criminals). Matheson's Mann (the name stands for 'mankind') remains just an ordinary businessman trying to make a meeting in San Francisco, who just wants to pass that damn truck. You get to know he is married, but he doesn't get a lot of background besides that. It's not that you don't care for Mann, but you identify more with his situation than with him as a character because he remains too general.
 
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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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I was just watching 'Le Porte del Silenzio' (1991). The English title is 'Door into Silence', but it should be 'Doors into Silence', as Porte is plural.
It is the last film of Lucio Fulci, the Italian director mostly known for his zombie-films of the late '70s/early '80s. In fact, he was a much more versatile director than that, and this is a film that shows that. It feels more Twilight Zone than typical Italian horror. But it reminded me most of Duel, with the change that instead of a tank truck, a businessman is terrorized by a hearse. It's a nice idea. The execution could have been better - it's a little slow, but the nice Louisiana locations with lots of backroads and unstable bridges make up for it.