I don't believe anything on wikipedia which is an amateurish bullshit replacement for what SHOULD be a professional peer-reviewed encyclopedia, but yes, you're right I noticed elsewhere it was shot on 16mm, which was extremely unusual for a network movie at that time. It's funny how I truly feel without trying to be obnoxious that it is the only Spielberg movie I like. With all the gobs of money and infinite resources and production values thrown at those films he has made since, I still like that gritty little thing much more than any of his later ones.
Speaking of 8mm, there was no professional film stock at the time, just reversal Kodachrome, Ektachrome and black and white reversal. (though Kodachrome was a beautiful film stock unfortunately no longer made.) Also, no really professional cameras. Nowadays they make some color negative film for super 8 but it is so expensive and the quality is so much lower than 16mm due to the smaller size why would you use it? I do like super8 though, especially black and white. I guess this is major OT but I love talking about small film gauges. Do you know that 9.5 mm is still made? Now that would be super cool to use.