2. Loosing Steven Spielberg On The World - Duel
Richard Matheson was not responsible for Spielbergs career, nor solely was anyone else who took chances or creatively partnered with the young man. For the most part, Spielberg is responsible for his current level of fame, down to how hard he worked and the level of skill he brought to each and every one of his early productions. The man was on a crazed bent of creative energy, but Mathesons script did help him unlock a particular strength; the ability to give plausibility and a human face to pulpy genre concepts. This 1971 TV movie jumpstarted his career in a big way, and after a few more televised dalliances he approached Jaws, the movie that catapulted him into the stratosphere of big budget filmmakers. Duel is a quite fine little horror movie, deserving of acclaim even outside of Spielbergs presence as director. You can see the Berg cutting his teeth on concepts and tendencies that would show up later in his work, his own stylistic identity stretching its wings on Mathesons tightly coiled, deceptively simple script that takes a particularly favorite theme of the writerthe lone character vs. the unknown threatand turns it on its head. Weaver, as a harried driver, fending off a dangerous big rig that continues to pursue him, delivers one of the best performances of his own storied career. Also worth mentioning is that Mathesons screenplay might be one of the most structurally concise things Spielberg ever worked on, and there are shades of Weavers David Mann in other Spielberg protagonists like Chief Brody, Quint and Roy Neary. It should also be noted that Matheson more directly, and less positively, contributed to the Jaws franchise with his screenplay for Jaws 3D, that found Dennis Quaid and trained dolphins fighting off the giant shark.