The Sugarland Express

Although The Sugarland Express has been compared to Thelma And Louise most often, there was a film that came out the following year from Stephen Spielberg's first big screen classic that it most resembles in my mind.

Goldie Hawn's Lou Jean might not have all that much in common with Al Pacino's Eugene in Dog Day Afternoon except for two things. Neither are the sharpest knife in the drawer and both concoct a really whacked out scheme that gets them in way over their heads.

Unlike Pacino who put a little thought into his bank robbery plan, on a visit to a minimum security prison to her husband William Atherton who has only weeks to go on his sentence, she persuades him to bust out to kidnap their baby who foster parents are looking to adopt. The parents are in Sugarland which is West Texas near the Rio Grande.

They actually bust out quite easily. But then during a routine traffic stop they misread signals and take rookie state policeman Michael Sacks a hostage.

Just like Dog Day Afternoon anyone with a working brain knows that this crazy thing is doomed, but the adrenaline rush for Hawn and Atherton is out of control. The two become popular cult figures one way or another.

Hawn, Atherton, and Sack are fine in their roles. Kudos also go to Ben Johnson for his role as the man in charge of the hunt, the chase, and the hostage negotiation.

Stephen Spielberg started his big screen career with a winner.

Steven Spielberg's theatrical feature film debut is a smartly crafted, expertly composed & skilfully executed adventure drama that clearly exhibits the legendary director's penchant for turning an on-screen moment into a larger-than-life event without ever going over the top and is also significant for marking the commencement of one of cinema's greatest collaborations.

Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express tells the story of a young woman who successfully breaks her husband out of prison to help her assist retrieving her child, about to be placed in the care of foster parents. Things soon take a turn for the unexpected when they're left with no choice but to take a patrolman hostage & are pursued by the police throughout their journey.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film wonderfully introduces many of his trademarks & themes that would continue to recur in his later works and is a solid work that has enough style & substance to keep the viewers engaged for the most part. Camera-work is dynamic, makes excellent angle choices & remains consistent throughout while editing steadily paces its narrative.

Coming to the acting department, the cast comprises of Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, William Atherton & Michael Sacks amongst which it's Hawn who chips in with the most impressive performance. Marking his first collaboration with Spielberg, John William provides a score that beautifully reflects the film's tone with tracks that are adventurous, light-hearted & at the same moment, slightly poignant.

On an overall scale, The Sugarland Express is one of Spielberg's highly underrated flicks & although far from a masterpiece, it's still a quality work of passionate filmmaking that's admirable for a number of things. Full of crowd-pleasing elements, presenting the then-young filmmaker refining his craft & an indication of greater things to come, The Sugarland Express is a must for Spielberg's fans as well as critics.

Critics at the time were impressed by this new director, Steven Spielberg, who had previously directed Dennis Weaver in that spooky TV movie "Duel", but they were really impressed with Goldie Hawn, still mainly known as the blonde nitwit from "Laugh-In". She had been quite respectable in "Butterflies Are Free" in 1972, but she turned in a beautifully nuanced performance in this one.

I would certainly argue with any notion that this film is "underrated". It's always been well regarded, even back in the days when Spielberg was known as the clever kid who made "Jaws". That doesn't mean it has ever been easy to see.

Now, with the passage of time, "Sugarland Express" looks even better than it did in the 1970's. One still has no trouble at all getting caught up in the quixotic mission of these characters.

'The Sugarland Express' is a very special film, it stands out. Here's why: It's based on a true story and it is the first theatrical feature film directed by Steven Spielberg. Now, 2 ACES, can never disappoint?

'The Sugarland Express', based on a true story is about a husband and wife trying to outrun the law, they want their life back, they want their Baby Langston back. It's a joyride! The incident has been made with ease, the Legendary Filmmaker never disappoints -- as simple as that!

Coming right away to the acting department, Goldie Hawn steals the show with a magnificent performance. The Legendary Actress delivers a performance of a lifetime! William Atherton is superb, this is his most mature performance to date. Ben Johnson is, as always, terrific. Michael Sacks emotes the helplessness and support remarkably. Others are satisfactory.

On the whole, this Superb Piece Of Cinema cannot be missed by Cinema-Devotees. Thumbs Up!

The first theatrical feature by Spielberg, his last as just another director before "Jaws," this story is saddled by what I call an 'idiot's resolve' plot. This means the main characters behave like complete idiots and, in real life, wouldn't get two steps in the direction they're going, much less the miles of roadway managed in this pic. But - and this is an important point - the story is supposedly based on a real life incident, which means such theorizing may not apply here. It all depends on how much Spielberg and the writers exaggerated events, which I tend to think was quite a bit. The story is jump-started in that a 2-year old baby is placed in foster care; the real parents (Hawn & Atherton), small-time criminals, won't have it and break the father's incarceration to set out for the foster home. But, from the outset, these two are presented as such obvious losers, I was hoping they'd never reach the kid. The father, for example, has only 4 months remaining of post-prison time to do; in short order, the idiot couple's transgressions escalate from auto theft to kidnapping of a cop (Sacks). In essence, they quickly sabotaged any chance for themselves of getting the kid back in a happy fashion.

I also got the impression Spielberg was poking a lot of fun at Texas and Texacans in general, where this takes place. Besides the two idiotic so-called parents, most everyone else is also presented as a buffoon, a country hick with no clue. The more sinister examples are those who live for the opportunity to shoot someone - this is gun country, after all. The only one who escapes with his dignity intact is the police captain, well played by Ben Johnson. There are traces of the imagery and poignancy which many of Spielberg's later pictures would be laced with. There's the absurdity of that long, very long line of police vehicles, lights flashing, following that one car with the fugitives (I guess no other crimes needed attention in the county that day?). And the sudden look on Atherton's face when he watches a Road Runner cartoon is amazing. But these are a few instances far and between in an ambling picture. Hawn is immensely likable, of course, but in the end she comes off as an idiotic screaming shrew who directly causes bad stuff to happen. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like women such as this. But then, if this is true-to-life, Spielberg captured some sense of an unpleasant reality we have no control over. It just didn't retain such a consistency through the entire movie.