Stuck Behind the Truck: Spielberg’s Early Television Work and the Shadow of Duel

Duel was unique among American made-for-television movies (TVMs) of the time in that, after a successful airing in the U.S., it found critical acclaim and respectable box office returns across Europe and Asia as a theatrical feature. Forty-five years on, Duel’s place as a TVM of unusually high quality is assured; it regularly tops internet lists of the “Best Ever TV Movie” variety, and its position is exalted in more sober and academic histories of the genre (Allen 1979; Marill 1987; Edgerton...