Duel influenced Jaws

Spielberg made both, and Jaws is Duel's method applied to a different animal. He has said so plainly, and Universal gave him Jaws on the strength of Duel. The method: an ordinary man, an implacable pursuer that is never explained and barely seen, and suspense built out of the pursuer's absence. The truck's driver is never shown; the shark is kept off screen for most of the film, first because the mechanical one did not work and then because Spielberg had already learned in 1971 that it was better that way. Carried across:

• The low camera, at the height of the thing hunting rather than the person
• Point-of-view shots from the predator's position, approaching
• A sound cue standing in for the creature, so the audience knows before the character does
• A long final act stripped to one man and the thing, with the rest of the world out of reach

Filed HIGH: this is the same film-maker solving the same problem twice, and the second time with a budget.