Spielberg Calls His 1971 Thriller More Daring Than Jaws

Steven Spielberg has spent five decades creating some of Hollywood's biggest hits. The Fabelmans proved he can still deliver personal stories. Blockbusters remain his specialty. But the director has a surprising pick for his most challenging work.

In a 1977 interview with BFI, Spielberg made a bold claim. His 1971 TV movie Duel was more daring than Jaws. The cult classic about a deadly truck chase pushed him harder creatively than his shark thriller.

Writing Never Came Easy for the Master Director

Spielberg admits writing isn't his strength. He prefers collaboration over solo scriptwork. Actors help him discover what scenes really mean through improvisation and instinct.

This approach shaped his early career completely. On Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he relied heavily on cast members to find emotional truth. Scripts served as starting points, not final blueprints.

The process worked like this: Spielberg identified each scene's emotional core. Actors improvised around that theme while he recorded everything. Then he'd rush to his typewriter overnight, pulling the best lines and rewriting scenes from scratch.

"There are moments with the people when they improvise and go beyond the script. Essentially I'm not a writer and I don't enjoy writing. I'd much rather collaborate," he explained. "The actors helped me shake out the fat and get right down to what the scene was about."

Jaws Became a Primal Scream Experience

Spielberg chose Jaws for one simple reason. He wanted to scare audiences on a gut level. No deep philosophy or complex themes. Just pure, instinctive terror.

Reading Peter Benchley's novel gave him that visceral fear. The idea of being on something else's menu horrified him completely. That basic terror became the movie's driving force.

"When I read the book I had a lot of fun, and when I began reworking the screenplay I had even more fun. And I really said, I'm going to make a primal scream movie," Spielberg recalled. "The thing that terrified me most was the idea that there's something else out there, that has a digestive system with intake."

Studio executives left him alone during production. He changed scripts daily without interference. "For some strange reason, I got away with murder on Jaws. They just left me alone," he said. That freedom let the movie become something raw and unforgettable.

Why Duel Presented the Greater Challenge

Despite Jaws' massive success, Spielberg still considers Duel his more daring achievement. The challenge wasn't about budget or scale. It was about creating fear from something ordinary.

Sharks are naturally scary. Trucks aren't supposed to be. Making a vehicle feel possessed and menacing required inventing new suspense rules. No music guided emotions. No clear villain explained motivations. Just pure, unexplained menace on an open road.

"Jaws is a raw nerve movie, it's just baring your nerves," Spielberg said. "That's why I like parts of Duel much better than I like parts of Jaws, because Duel was more daring. It was about a very unnatural occurrence, whereas Jaws is as natural as the evolution of mankind."

The truck in Duel feels almost supernatural. It stalks and waits like a predator. We never see the driver's face, only boots and hands. This anonymity transforms him into pure threat rather than character.

Creating tension from a single vehicle on empty highway required precision. Limited tools made success more impressive. For Spielberg, pulling off that kind of fear made Duel braver than his shark blockbuster.

More than 50 years later, Duel still delivers intense thrills. Road rage taken to deadly extremes. The pacing builds naturally through engine sounds and minimal dialogue. Brief calm moments make the next attack more terrifying.

Maybe Spielberg was right about his early TV movie. Sometimes the biggest creative risks happen in the smallest projects.