Duel
It’s easy to forget about Steven Spielberg’s Duel, seeing as his next two films (along with George Lucas’ colossal Star Wars) were destined to become the first real blockbusters of New Hollywood. Duel is Spielberg at his most skillfully contained and minimalist, a road movie involving an average joe being chased down a highway by an unseen truck-driving menace throughout its runtime. Jaws will go on to be acclaimed for it’s restraint, not allowing us to see the shark until a pivotal moment, but let’s not forget that Duel employed these same tricks and confined it to a narrow stretch of road.
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