We can’t really imagine a huge filmmaker like Steven Spielberg doubting himself so much that he even considers leaving the profession. And yet…
Steven Spielberg is one of the most important directors in the history of cinema, whose impact, both in terms of technical and financial innovations, is absolutely considerable. It has thus enabled, over the course of an immense career – despite also failures – the studios to earn more than 16 billion dollars thanks to works that are no longer presented, largely entered through the main door of the pantheon of Pop Culture.
In the midst of so much success, it is hard to believe that the master could have really doubted this career path, to the point of wanting to completely let go. However, this was indeed the case, and not, as one might imagine, at the very beginning of a career in the making, at the time when he was still working on television on series like Columbo or Night Gallery.
In 1971, he made an impressive television film, Duel, for ABC. This adaptation of the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay, was then the second feature film by Spielberg, who was 25 years old. In 1972, Duel is released in theaters in a revised version, 16 minutes longer. Spielberg waited three years before making his next film, the very beautiful Sugarland Express, which was unfortunately a very painful failure in theaters.
“I was blown away by the film”
In 1972, Spielberg was already a young director full of potential, but he had only scratched the surface of immense potential in the making. That same year, Francis Ford Coppola released The Godfather into theaters, at the end of a Homeric filming. Almost everything has been said about this fabulous film, which was a huge success in theaters, garnered three Oscars and a host of awards around the world. While definitely putting Coppola’s career into orbit.
This work destroyed the confidence that the young Spielberg had in himself, shaken by the spectacle offered before his eyes when he discovered the film. To the point that he even thought about quitting cinema, believing himself incapable, one day, of also rising to this level of artistic perfection.
He thus recounted this anecdote in one bonuses on the restoration of the film The Godfather. “I was pulverized by the story of The Godfather and by the effect that the film had on the young filmmaker that I was. I even thought that I had to stop this profession, that there was no no reason for me to continue doing it because I will never be able to reach this level, this ability to tell a story. So in a way, this film shook the confidence that I had in myself.
Fortunately, as everyone knows, Spielberg did not throw in the towel. In 1975, his Jaws forever changed the face of the box office, before his old accomplice George Lucas took the crown from him with a certain Star Wars, two years later.