The Sugarland Express (1974)

When I saw that this was about to leave Netflix, I finally got curious about it. I knew only that it was the first wide-release feature directed by Steven Spielberg and probably the most popular of the few that I hadn't seen, most of which are from early in his career. Indeed, I doubt he was a household name before Jaws. Would I even recognize his style?

In Texas, twenty-something Clovis Poplin (William Atherton) is eight months into a one-year sentence. His wife, Lou Jean (Goldie Hawn), has her own criminal record and thus has lost custody of their toddler son. Clovis reluctantly agrees to her plan to bust him out, drive to Sugarland, reclaim their son illegally, and head to Mexico. Phase 1 goes smoothly, but then their driver gets pulled over for reasons unrelated to the passengers. One thing leads to another, and for most of the picture, the Poplins hold Patrolman Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks) hostage, followed from a slight distance by dozens of cops under cautious Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson).

Name changes notwithstanding, the story has a basis in true events. This would partly explain why even comic moments are rarely over the top enough to amuse me, even if the cop car damage reminds me that Spielberg had a small role in The Blues Brothers. The hardest detail to believe, the effortless jailbreak, turns out to have been made up. Evidently, no character is all that smart.

I'm also reminded of the next year's Dog Day Afternoon, not least in the way the two hostage takers gain vocal public support. People readily sympathize with their desire to reunite as a family, and from what little we see, the tyke deems his foster mother no substitute for "Mommy." The ending is similar too. In general, the third act disillusioned contemporary audiences who expected less drama.

This was the first collaboration between Spielberg and John Williams, but I'd hardly have noticed. We barely hear any music, and much of it is country radio. Maybe the makers would have used more if Smokey and the Bandit had come out sooner.

One lauded aspect is Hawn's acting. I'm pretty sure she's the biggest-name actor herein, with Ben Johnson a perhaps distant second. Personally, I got tired of her: Whether happy or unhappy, she plays it hard toward the end. (It doesn't help that characters tend to talk at the same time.)

Her performance may have something to do with Spielberg's approach. He shot every scene chronologically, and his perfectionism demanded many takes. Only in reading up afterward do I notice the expert cinematography, including a then-unprecedented shot in the car.

In terms of directorial signatures recognizable in retrospect, Spielberg's early effort is less like Christopher Nolan's Following and more like Tim Burton's Pee-wee's Big Adventure. In terms of quality, it's just OK. The best reason to watch this box office bomb is to see how far he's come.