"The Sugarland Express". Although "Duel"did eventually get a cinema
release it was made for television so this very different kind of
road-movie was really Spielberg's official big-screen debut and it's
brilliant. (It's also very underrated, both in the Spielberg canon and
in that series of road movies that came out of America in the
seventies). It's a fact-based tragi-comedy about a young woman, (Goldie
Hawn, remarkably good), who breaks her husband (William Atherton) out
of prison so they can go get their child
out of foster care. On route to Sugarland (great name), where the
child is being kept, they hi-jack a police-car complete with patrolman,
(Michael Sacks), and in the process become celebrities of a sort. This
period marked something of a golden age for American movies and this is
both a key film in that Renaissance, (it's surely one of the best
American films of that decade), as well as being a very entertaining
one. It confirmed Spielberg as a major new director, Hawn's status as
an actress of real potential and newcomers Atherton and Sacks as actors
of considerable promise. The marvellous script was by Hal Barwood and
Matthew Robbins and it's a great satire.
The films reviewed here represent those I have liked or loved over the years. It is not a list of my favourite films but all the films reviewed here are worth seeing and worth seeking out. I know many of you won't agree with me on a lot of these but hopefully you will grant me, and the films that appear here, our place in the sun. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS
"The Sugarland Express". Although "Duel"did eventually get a cinema
release it was made for television so this very different kind of
road-movie was really Spielberg's official big-screen debut and it's
brilliant. (It's also very underrated, both in the Spielberg canon and
in that series of road movies that came out of America in the
seventies). It's a fact-based tragi-comedy about a young woman, (Goldie
Hawn, remarkably good), who breaks her husband (William Atherton) out
of prison so they can go get their child
out of foster care. On route to Sugarland (great name), where the
child is being kept, they hi-jack a police-car complete with patrolman,
(Michael Sacks), and in the process become celebrities of a sort. This
period marked something of a golden age for American movies and this is
both a key film in that Renaissance, (it's surely one of the best
American films of that decade), as well as being a very entertaining
one. It confirmed Spielberg as a major new director, Hawn's status as
an actress of real potential and newcomers Atherton and Sacks as actors
of considerable promise. The marvellous script was by Hal Barwood and
Matthew Robbins and it's a great satire.
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