Steven Spielberg and Duel
The Making of a Film Career
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
March 3, 2014
"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. Awalt isn't always the most graceful writer and occasionally his prose overreach for gravitas ("The brute was vanquished" is his description of the truck at the end of the film) but there's so much information here, these flaws will be overlooked by satisfied readers. Photos.
April 15, 2014
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
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