With Steven Spielberg’s latest, Bridge Of Spies, being released this weekend, it’s a perfect time to look back on the bearded one’s first major short film: 1968’s Amblin’.
“It was going to be a tone poem about a boy and a girl who meet in the desert hitchhiking their way to the Pacific Ocean, “ Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly in 2011.“Very simple story. I wrote it in a day.” That’s just what Amblin’ is, two young hippies, amblin’ through an American desert, eating olives and smokin’ grass. There’s no dialogue, but there is music provided by a band called October Country, who got the gig simply because Spielberg’s main backer, Denis C. Hoffman, also managed the band. Hoffman was a California businessman who ran an optical effects house called Cinefex; according to Open Culture, Hoffman “read a script Spielberg had written and agreed to give the young man $10,000 to make the film,” that is, as long as October Country was featured prominently on the soundtrack.
While October Country’s career never really took off—although American Horror Story: Coven missed an opportunity to utilize its single “My Girlfriend Is A Witch”—Amblin’ can be credited with jumpstarting Spielberg’s career. After seeing Amblin’, Chuck Silvers—an editor at Universal—screened it for Syd Sheinberg, head of TV production at Universal. Sheinberg immediately offered the young director a 7-year contract to direct episodic TV for Universal studios, according to L.A. Video Filmmaker. This led Spielberg directing episodes of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, Columbo, and the made-for-television Duel before going theatrical with The Sugarland Express and Jaws.
You can certainly see the influence of Amblin’ on Duel in the way Spielberg shoots the open road surrounded by deserts, but Amblin’ is not necessarily indicative of the Spielberg that American audiences would fall in love with in the ’70s and ’80s. There is a clever shot involving a rearview mirror, use of shadow against the southwest sun, and plenty of influence from the French New Wave. There is also a certain dose of cynicism—something Spielberg was never known for—at the film’s ending. However, Spielberg saw Amblin’ more as a promo reel of filmmaking tricks to shop around to various film studios. Before the shooting the short, Spielberg would “bundle the pictures [his 8mm films he shot as a teenager] in a briefcase and literally carry my projector over to somebody’s office. It was like I was a very young Willy Loman.”
Amblin’ certainly paid off in that it brought Spielberg to the major leagues, where he has been involved with films that have defined an entire generation. However, the director said of Amblin’ in 1978, “I can’t look at it now. It really proved how apathetic I was during the ’60s.” In his later years as a filmmaker, the director tackled more politically charged issues in films such as Amistad, Munich, and Schindler’s List. “I was off making movies, and Amblin’ is the slick-by product of a kid immersed up to his nose in film,” he’s said.
Amblin’ is slick, and it’s a fun little movie. If anything, the Spielberg touch can be felt in how imminently watchable the short is. The director can’t be completely ambivalent towards the short as he ended up naming his production company after it. Perhaps Spielberg has regrets about the man he once was, but it was this film that laid the groundwork for E.T., Indiana Jones, Jaws, and most of the best fantastical entertainment of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.