As a kid, I dreamed of being a truck driver. The open road, sleeping in cheap
motels with flea-bitten waitresses; a CB in one hand, a stick shift in the other,
and an orangutan by my side. It was the American ideal of freedom. Somehow,
though, I lost my way and ended up with this crummy job at the Mercury, riding
a four-wheeled office chair instead of an 18-wheeled Peterbilt. We can still
dream, though. Here are three films that put the pedal to the metal. Ten-four,
good buddy.
Duel (1971)–It’s all been downhill for Steven Spielberg since his
first major movie release: A peaceful traveling salesman is stalked, chased,
and attacked by an evil tractor trailer. Not even the swashbuckling Indiana
Jones can touch the stunning cinematography of a bulldog truck cutting across
the open desert.
Every Which Way But Loose (1978)–Like the woeful and touching lyrics
of a country western song put to celluloid: Clint Eastwood stands tall as a
brawny truck driver in a world where bare-knuckles stand for virtues and big
wheels for masculinity–A touching love story about a barroom fighter who is
on the big highway racing towards his love in the Colorado Rockies while being
chased by a motorcycle gang. Clyde, a grinning orangutan riding shotgun in Eastwood’s
rig, steals the show.
White Line Fever (1975)–A one-two punch of romance and morality. Good
triumphs over an evil convoy as a baby-faced trucker (Jan-Michael Vincent, pre-Airwolf
fame) and his dreamy high school sweet-tart set off to put some religion back
in the rough-and-tumble world of trucking. Unsurprisingly, this movie also features
a edge-of-the-seat chase scene!