Including that bit about some other guy having made a pass at his wife? I have my own theories as to why, but what do you all think?
shareI guess Spielberg added it because it helped pad the film out from the original tele-film of 74 minutes up to a theatrical-release-able 90.
Plus, of course, it built up the tension by calming things down a bit - the calm before the storm, that sort of thing.
It plays into the overarching theme of emasculation. It's no coincidence his character's name is Mann. The radio broadcast right before the truck appears, his interior monologue about being right back in the jungle; it's one nebbishy modern man's journey back into the primal.
shareI had thought two things, perhaps related to emasculation:
. Firstly, when you consider the whole film, his interactions with others were negative pretty much every time, to the point at which he seems to be alienated, ridiculed and demonised at every turn: The worker in the cafe makes a joke about his "rather big problem to me!"; he ultimately gets punched by the driver of 'another' truck; one of the schoolkids tells him "you must be out of your brain"; other schoolkids pull faces at him out of the bus window; the bus driver ends up saying that he would say it was him that was mad, not the truck driver; the old couple refuse to give him a lift, with the woman saying that he is scaring her; and, obviously, the truck driver himself. His wife being mad at him was yet another angle of ridicule for him.
. Perhaps it was there to portray him to be a wimp, thus increasing the image of him being vulnerable and out of place, being hounded by a big truck, and ending up in a the midst of a testosterone battle, effectively. We are lead to infer that some guy had made a pass at his wife, yet he hadn't confronted him for it; could you imagine the truck driver (whoever he may be......) not confronting someone who made a pass at HIS wife????
Just some thoughts......
It was to offer background on Mann, some insight into his character.
He is a very hen-pecked husband, yet has a core of arrogance himself.
This shows us some of why Mann made the decisions he did regarding the truck driver, such as NOT turning around right away (like most of us would) or actually making it worse in the beginning.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
To fill screen time and to show that the guy is a loser. First he gets nagged by his wife and then he is bullied by a red-neck trucker. So we sympathise with him.
I like the idea of the scene itself, but I wish that we didn't actually see the wife, just hear her voice over the phone. My only nitpick about the scene.
shareHeadbasket already gave the definitive answer. The conversation with the wife establishes that Mann is essentially a coward. He's the kind of person that avoids moments of confrontation; even when his wife is being accosted by another man, the central character chooses to ignore it.
The point of the film is that you have two characters (Mann and the truck driver) that have been emasculated by modern society. The only place the truck driver can find a sense of security is behind the wheel of his truck. When Mann overtakes him on the highway, this is interpreted by the truck driver as a threat against his sense of dominance and authority and triggers what is initially a playful game of oneupmanship that eventually goes too far.
There are other elements in the film that reinforce the idea of societal emasculation; the radio piece at the start of the film is about a man who stays home and raises the kids while his wife goes out to work and how he finds this embarrassing to admit. Later, when the gas station attended says to Mann "you're the boss" Mann replies "not in my house I'm not." And finally when the old couple stop to assist Mann on the side of the road, the husband is continually interrupted by his bossy wife who doesn't want to get involved.
Too many people interpret the truck driver as psychotic or a serial killer, and I don't think either of these things are true. He's someone with no control over his own life. The only place he can assert any kind of power is on the road. When Mann overtakes him, the sense of power becomes threatened and the truck driver then decided to reassert his domination and sense of importance by disrupting the course of Mann's journey.
Weird how when he is listening to the talk radio station in the beginning , there is a man calling to the radio station about the Census question about head of household, since he stays home and is a househusband and his wife works! Seems really irrelevant , but the more you think about it. That was 1971, you never heard of a husband being home and the wife working! Than Mann calls his wife from the payphone and we learn that a guy made a pass at her and Mann did nothing about it! He had it on his mind about "week men" and maybe the truck really was there, but in his mind feeling inferior and insecure could he have imagined and /or exaggerated the harassment? Maybe the trucker was annoyed and a little aggressive but in Mann's mind he was making it a lot worse than it really was?
Bottom line Big vehicle- little vehicle / Strong man- weak man !!!
Brilliant post, enjoyed reading it.
shareIt lets the audience learn about his character and his relationship with his wife. I thought it was a good way to do that versus him talking to himself about it or to a stranger. And yes, it gives insight into this motivations when dealing with the trucker. He didn't want to turn around and deal with his wife....haha.
shareIt shows he's a beta male.
His wife was "practically raped" by another man and he looked the other way.
This is important because the truck was essentially a giant phallus chasing him through the desert. Its dominance and aggression tormented him by forcing him to confront his own lack of masculinity.