Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: It Began As It Would End — With a Crash
Chapter 2: Richard Matheson and “Duel”: From Genesis to Short
Story
Chapter 3: Steven Spielberg, Universal Contract Director
Chapter 4: A Well-Oiled Machine: Pre-Production
Storyboards for Duel
Chapter 5: Duel in the Sun: The Production, The Film
Chapter 6: Cutting to the Chase: Post-Production
Chapter 7: Premiere
Chapter 8: On the Road with Duel
Chapter 9: Legacy
Appendix: Teleplay of Duel by Richard Matheson
Additional Scenes
Duel Maps
Bibliography
About the Author
Steven Awalt holds a master’s degree in cinema studies from DePaul University. Writer, film historian, and noted authority on Steven Spielberg’s career, Awalt appears in the retrospective documentary The Shark Is Still Working on the Blu-ray edition of Jaws.
'The destruction of the truck...was just a beginning,' film
historian Awalt writes in his in-depth look at famed director
Steven Spielberg's first major film, 1971's Duel, a television
thriller starring Dennis Weaver and a menacing 18-wheeler based off
of a short story by Richard Matheson. Duel is legendary among film
buffs and is regarded as both a relic from the 1970s and a cult
classic. It was instantly well received and Spielberg, only
25-years-old at the time, was highly praised. Awalt is eager to
share every possible piece of information on the film, including a
full copy of the movie's teleplay, storyboards of one sequence, and
scene-by-scene analysis. Interviews with Weaver, Matheson, the
film's producers, and Spielberg himself grant unparalleled access
to the process of making the film. This book will surely be beloved
by film students for that very reason.
*Publishers Weekly*
Like The Sugarland Express, Steven Spielberg’s first theatrical
film, Duel (1971) is a Spielberg movie a lot of people have heard
about but never seen. It was a TV movie, with a screenplay by
Richard Matheson (who wrote the short story on which the film was
based), starring Dennis Weaver as an unassuming traveler harassed
by the faceless driver of a big rig. Doesn’t sound like much, but
in Spielberg’s hands, as film historian Awalt notes in this very
engaging and perceptive 'making of' book, the film delivers fear
and nail-biting tension. This is really two making-of books in one:
the story of the production of Duel, and the story of Spielberg
himself, the kid who dreamed of making movies, who was directing
episodic television when he was barely old enough to drink and who
leveraged a brilliant TV movie into a brilliant film career. This
well-presented look at a legendary director's beginning contains,
as an added bonus, the complete Duel screenplay, itself a small
masterpiece.
*Booklist*
In reflecting on the kingdom he created, Walt Disney once said, 'It
all started with a mouse.' For filmmaker Steven Spielberg, it all
started with a truck. That is the premise that drives Steven
Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career by Steven Awalt.
Awalt's thoroughly researched yet accessible book chronicles
Spielberg's formative years and production of the film, and it
contains archival treats such as storyboard drawings and a
reproduction of the script.
*Chicago Tribune*
To reconstruct the story of “Duel,” Awalt interviewed both
Spielberg and the screenwriter Richard Matheson (also the author of
the original magazine story), along with others associated with the
shoot, and accumulated a large amount of documentary material,
including a draft of Matheson’s teleplay. No doubt Spielberg
completists and film scholars of the future will find a use for
this highly detailed account.
*The New York Times*
Using unseen memorabilia from the director’s archive plus a
brand-new interview with him, renowned Spielbergologist Steven
Awalt tells the tale from its origins as a Playboy short story, to
its instant-masterpiece status as a movie of the week, to its
canonisation on the big screens of Europe. Like the film itself,
it’s an economical, intelligent, unpretentious read, and brings the
film alive. ... Through evocative writing and reminiscences from
all the key players, Awalt does a great job of putting you in the
desert on the shoot or on the recording stage laying down Billy
Goldenberg’s score. . . [T]he book is at its best in its close
textual analysis, be it of Matheson’s short story or Spielberg’s
M.O. Elsewhere it bombards the reader with cool trivia , peppers
the story with sidebars that enrich the tale, and offers a reprint
of Matheson’s taut teleplay. Awalt makes the astute point that Duel
is, at once, classic and overlooked. The book’s Peterbilt passion
confirms the former and, hopefully, rectifies the latter.
*Empire Magazine*
Author Steven Awalt is no stranger to the career of Steven
Spielberg, having created and run the extremely popular web site
SpielbergFilms.com. It is through this web site that Awalt shared
his admiration for all things Spielberg. Here he takes that
admiration and shares it with the reader. In an incredibly precise
step by step process he guides the reader through the process of
making a major motion picture. Thanks to recent, in depth
interviews with many people involved in the production, including
Matheson, Universal executive Sid Sheinberg, composer Billy
Goldenberg and, most importantly, Spielberg himself, the book puts
you on the set and involves you in almost every aspect of the
production. It is because of this attention to detail that Awalt
has created one of the best 'making of' books in recent years.
*Media Mikes*
Steven Awalt’s excellent new book Steven Spielberg and Duel: The
Making of a Film Career. . . gets deep into this film’s creation,
from the inspiration for and publication of Matheson’s story to the
film’s eventual American theatrical run in 1983 in the wake of
Spielberg’s domination of cinemas with E.T. The history is
complete, amusing (the 'casting' of the automobiles is documented
here, as is the Incredible Hulk’s theft of Duel footage), critical
(though mostly of Awalt’s fellow Duel theorists), and often just as
thrilling as the film it details. . . . Because Duel is so
significant a milestone in Spielberg’s career, Matheson’s major
role in its creation is often minimized. Not so in this book, which
also contains that writer’s complete teleplay for his and
Spielberg’s film. So this book functions as both an informative—and
very entertaining—resource for students of Spielberg and a nice
tribute to the recently deceased Richard Matheson.
*Psychobabble*
This book by Steven Awalt is a marvelously detailed and
entertaining document of Spielberg’s humble beginnings as a
director-for-hire for Universal Television, ultimately culminating
in Duel. That film belied its budget-conscious TV origins in every
way imaginable, with a truly cinematic look and tone that even
impressed the likes of Frederico Fellini. . . .Even today, Duel is
widely considered one of the greatest stand-alone made-for-TV films
ever made, which broke traditional rules because a young, ambitious
director wanted to make it something more than the usual Saturday
night schedule filler. With this book, we totally appreciate Steven
Spielberg’s inert genius and understand how he was able to parlay
Duel’s success into what’s arguably the greatest directorial career
of all time. This book is a must-read for any film fan.
*Moviepilot*
[T]he author’s exhaustive research taking in everything from
Spielberg’s unplanned cameo, fisticuffs in the dubbing room and the
penny-pinching at Universal that led to footage being recycled in
an episode of the live-action The Incredible Hulk TV show.
Matheson’s complete teleplay script and 25 pages of storyboards
round out an indispensable purchase for any self-respecting
fan.
*Total Film*
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