Duel

October 23, 6:55 PMSteven Spielberg ExaminerJustin Murphy

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   This was the early ABC Movie of The Week Steven Spielberg directed that brought him to the attention of producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck.  Two producers whom he later collaborated with on his first theatrical feature The Sugarland Express and his first breakout hit JAWS. This early film starred Dennis Weaver as David Mann and chronicled his intense race with a large truck. Many fans considers one of the best features of this film is the fact the driver of this truck is never shown. Therefore, you never see any humanity in the truck and how it terrorizes the main character.

    Duel was a made for television adaptation of the short story by science fiction author Richard Matheson. After a few years of directing television assignments for Universal, including a Columbo NBC Mystery Movie and an episode of the ninety minute anthology series The Name of The Game, itself a forerunner to the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series. He was then offered a contract for three made for television movies with Universal. Duel was the first of these, followed by Something Evil and Savage. Of course, then came The Sugarland Express and JAWS, the rest is history.

    Many fans see Duel as a forerunner to the suspense filled style he later became known for with JAWS and Jurassic Park. A great deal of Hitchcock influence can be seen both of Duel and JAWS. The identity of the truck driver is kept a secret throughout Duel and the shark in JAWS is not seen until the last thirty minute of the film. Yet this technique has always been effective and worked for Spielberg. Maybe because he has only done a few suspense films while the rest of his career has been split between science fiction and fantasy on one end and serious and personal films on the other.

    There is no denying Duel was a ratings grabber for ABC when it hit in 1971. It lead to a much larger career for him as one of the biggest box office draws of all time. For almost thirty five years, Spielberg has had summer blockbusters year after yea, they are all because of Duel. There would be no JAWS if it was not for this early ABC Movie of The Week. The summer blockbuster trend would not have happened and the idea of high concept would not have escaped the ABC Movie of The Week.