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Reviews
The Wonder Years: The Family Car (1989)
1968 Dodge on its last legs in '69!
I think that the script writers need to to a little fact checking. Their '68 Dodge is a pile and only a year old and the Arnolds need a new one. They advertise it as a '63 and indicate that it is 9 years old in 1969! But other than that, it is a fine episode, typifying what most practical dads went through in keeping an old car running and then dealing with a fast talking car salesman.
Duel (1971)
A great action adventure with a little something extra
At face value, this movie is about a case of road rage gone wild. Our hero, David Mann, played by Dennis Weaver passes a slow moving, smoking big rig on a mountain pass on the way into the desert. The psychopathic truck driver flips out and continually tries to kill Mann in a game of cat and mouse. But look a little deeper. David Mann is meek and mild. He has a domineering wife who also feels sleighted because Mann didn't stop a male neighbor who was being too flirtatious with her at last night's party. He tries to smooth things over on the phone at a gas staion stop but she continually nags him to be on time when coming home. Next is a domineering boss that is briefly hinted at. So Mann feels perpetually picked on and taken advantaged of due to his easy going nature. So in a way, this big "souped up diesel" that he can't get away from, despite having a typical car that could easily outrun it, can be considered an allegory to Mann's inner demons. He can't change his lot in life by taking the easy way out, thus, he can't seem to shake the Peterbilt, whose driver is almost clairvoyant in finding him at every turn. Also, no one believes his story about this truck driver trying to kill him. After several false starts in trying to defeat these inner demons (being defeated in a brawl at the diner, which he instigates and running after the truck and then running away as the truck almost backs into his car) Mann has had enough and decides to have a showdown with the trucker, win or lose. Using his car as his only weapon, he finally defeats the trucker and thus has successfully defeated his inner demons. The movie ends here with Mann sitting at the edge of the cliff, tossing rocks over the side. I would have loved to have seen Mann demanding dinner on the table when he finally gets home and then going next door to kick the crap out of that Steve Henderson, the flirtatious neighbor! I guess you could say that the school bus driver, the poor lady with cages of the snakes and animals that the truck barrels through and the old couple who are too afraid to call the police for Mann would blow my theory out of the water since they, too saw the Peterbilt but let's just say these were all just props, manufactured in David Mann's mind to add substance to his inner battles!
Adam-12: Log 24: A Rare Occasion (1970)
OK, We've settled that!
Generally a good episode as it depicts 1970 very well as I remember it, although I was only 8 or 9 years old when it aired. As a previous reviewer stated, drugs were a fairly new thing and pushers were everywhere, preying on young teens. My parents were also worried about the drug situation at this time and warned me of the dangers of drugs and the seedy characters that inhabit the drug scene. David Cassidy appears as Jim Reed's neighbor who is trying to escape a drug pusher intent on killing him. Luckily, Jim and his pretty wife, Jean, played by the cute and perky Nikki Jamison were intent on setting up unsuspecting bachelor Pete Malloy with one of her friends on a pretext for just having him over for "dinner at the Reed's". Pete is taken by surprise by this blind date and both Jim and Pete are a bit distracted as well because the night before, 2 LAPD policemen in their division were critically injured in a car accident during a police pursuit. When Pete first arrives, he innocuously asks whether Jim had heard anything new (Pete had visited the injured officers before coming to the Reed's home), and Jim answers that he hadn't heard anything new since he had recently called to inquire. Right off the bat, Jean curtly piped in, "OK, We've settled that!" I thought that she came across rather poorly here and lacking in empathy. Her main concern was her little get together and trying to get poor Pete hitched. Well, David Cassidy's character, strung out on seconal, comes over, trying to escape this pusher intent on killing him. Reed and Malloy get him in the house and catch and subdue the pusher in Reed's garage. They bring in the dad of Cassidy's character, who wants to take care of the pusher personally but is dissuaded by the officers. The pusher is later taken into custody. Later in the evening, the two couples are relaxing in Reed's livingroom, Jean enjoying her little party with Reed while a distant Pete and Jean's friend, who earlier referred to herself as a predatory animal, are sitting on the couch when they get the word that one of the officers in the hospital has died. Reed's wife somewhat redeems herself by offering to go to the hospital to console the now widow of the officer that died. Jean's friend offers to watch Jean's and Jim's baby. That's where it ends. All in all, a sad episode, with Jean's frustration in getting Pete hooked because bachelors infuriate her. Jean's friend, who wanted to become a married woman doesn't succeed in becoming a twosome as Pete wants to just be left to having a the life of a carefree bachelor. Pete, Jim are called back into work. The two men, sworn to uphold the law having to bury another friend who swore to do likewise.