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June 1974: "50th Anniversary Spielberg Nostalgia" Launches With Screening of "The Sugarland Express"

posted 5 months ago by roger1 (3626)
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(SPOILERS for "the downers of 1974": The Sugarland Express, Chinatown, The Parallax View, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Covnersation, Godfather II, The Longest Yard, and Lenny.)

A few articles on this subject have caught my attention:

Sometime in the last week or so(June 2024 as I post this), Steven Spielberg went somewhere (LA? New York City?) to introduce a 50th Anniversary screening of his first theatrical film: "The Sugarland Express" of 1974.

The movie starred Goldie Hawn when she was a fairly big star(who was going to get BIGGER in the 80's with Private Benjamin) in a rare dramatic role. Universal would only greenlight The Sugarland Express if Spielberg could get a star. The movie had three main roles: two men and a woman. Spielberg landed the biggest star for the woman's role.

At this presentation, Spielberg was pretty direct and perhaps a bit disingenuous: "This movie flopped. It was pulled by Universal after two weeks. This is the first time its been seen in 50 years."

Really? I think The Sugarland Express has made the rounds of cable and streaming over the years, but not much, I'll admit. I don't think Spielberg much wants it shown. Not because its a bad movie(it is not, as a matter of the technical and the acting, etc.) But because it WAS a flop and -- more importantly -- it was a huge DOWNER, pretty much start to finish.

But downers were all the rage in 1974 and Spielberg -- again in his first theatrical film -- wanted to be part of that trend. Here was a year in which, in so many major films, the heroes failed (Chinatown with Jack Nicholson). Or died (The Parallax View with Warren Beatty). Or one of them died(Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, with Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.) Its debateable but it looks like at the end of The Longest Yard, Burt Reynolds will be in prison for the rest of his life. And Dustin Hoffman died in "Lenny." And Al Pacino in Godfather II and Gene Hackman in The Conversation came out of their films in worse shape than they started. Everybody who didn't die ended their films in catatonia (Nicholson in Chinatown -- Goldie Hawn in The Sugarland Express.)

Goldie Hawn sent in a video of love to Spielberg for his Sugarland Express screening, but didn't attend. Too much of a downer, I suppose.

As I read all of this, I figured something out(I think): Spielberg emerged to introduce the failed Sugarland Express on its 50th Anniversary because -- once he gets done introducing THIS one...its gonna be gravy for 50th Aniversary celebrations of his films for about the next 8 years.

Consider:

2025: He can introduce the 50th Anniversary of Jaws. (He said he read the Jaws script at the producers office for The Sugarland Express -- same guys -- Richard Zanuck and David Brown.)

2027: He can introduce the 50th Anniversary of the FIRST version of Close Encounters. (And in 2030, he can introduce the 50th Anniversary of the SECOND version of Close Encounters, from 1980.)

2029: He can introduce the 50th Anniversary of ...1941, with Belushi and Ackroyd and the Animal House cast and Brian DePalma's ex-wife Nancy Allen. This was a flop, too but I know people who love it and I very much like it it.

2031: He can introduce the 50th Anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

2032. He can introduce the 50th Anniversary of ET.

Simply put, Mr. Spielberg RULED the 70s into the 80s (along with that Lucas guy) and he's set up real sweet to bask in the 50th Anniversary of almost all of his work in that boom period. (I am among those who believes he never really bettered that period for societal impact -- Jurassic Park wasn't as good as Jaws.)

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Spielberg lore is plentiful. The execs at Universal entrusted the wunderkind with lots of TV series to direct: Night Gallery(he directed Joan Crawford); Columbo(he directed the episode that launched the series in 1971 after two pilots were shown) and a TV movie called "Duel" that was pure Hitchcock suspense and action (psycho driver in truck chases neurotic man in car) -- it got a theatrical release in Europe and it got him The Sugarland Express.

That downer.

Based on a true story, "The Sugarland Express" is about how a very selfish and self-absorbed young mother(Goldie Hawn) breaks her mild-mannered low level convict husband(William Atherton) out of a low security Texas prison. The two of them then kidnap a highway patrolman hostage(Michael Sacks) and lead an ever-growing fleet of cop cars, TV vans and fans on a chase across Texas to "rescue" the couple's baby from foster care.

Everything about the story was depressing. Hawn couldn't WAIT for her husband to get released from prision(months away) so she breaks him out. Makes him a fugitive. And they kidnap a cop. Adds the prison time on. And their announced goal -- go rescue the baby from the "bad" foster people -- is doomed from the start and the whole thing keeps getting more hopeless.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) 5 months ago

To the extent the movie had a commercial selling point, it was Spielberg's "technical command"(also on display in the road movie Duel) of all those cars, vans and trucks. Car chases, car crashes, cars flying through the air...plenty of action in this movie, but all in service of a depressing story and, frankly, not terribly interesting characters in the lead car. (Ben Johnson, with his Texas-based Last Picture Show Oscar in hand, gave the story some gravitas and heart as the sympathetic sheriff leading the chase.)

And this: though one could certainly sympathize with Goldie Hawn as a distraught young mother out to get her baby back, her overall selfish bullying of her convict husband to "get the job done" (in the face of certain failure and more jail time) made her a pretty reprehensible character(Spielberg said at this week's presentation that LOT of actors turned down the role of the husband accepted by the near-unknown Atherton -- who would go on to fame as the jerk villain of Ghostbusters and Die Hard.)

Anyway, though Spielberg had Night Gallery, Columbo and Duel on his resume first, he debuted in theaters with Sugarland Express and he dutifully has "taken us back" to that frustrating movie. Next year, he can talk about Jaws and we will ALL feel better.