Film 45/52: The Sugarland Express (1974)

We had narrowed down our 'S' selection to two different titles, and then after watching The Fablemans and the documentary Spielberg on HBO, we decided to push those aside and finally schedule a long overdue screening of Steven Spielberg's theatrical feature film debut, The Sugarland Express.

Goldie Hawn stars alongside William Atherton (who would go on to portray memorable jerks in both Ghostbusters and the first two Die Hard films) as a couple (Lou Jean and Clovis) on the run from law with a patrolman hostage, on their way to pick up their baby from a foster home so they can escape across the Mexican border to live happily ever after. Ben Johnson plays the kind-hearted lawman on their tail throughout the slow-speed caravan through Texas.

While Spielberg doesn't orchestrate anywhere near as many car crashes as John Landis does in The Blues Brothers, it seems as if he's got more police cars involved in the chase than Landis assembled for his film. 

The Sugarland Express also represents Spielberg's first collaboration with John Williams, in a very different style than we would come to be familiar with in Jaws and beyond, though the score does take an interesting turn almost into electronic music after a particular point in the story. 

It's a beautifully shot film, and I was surprised that the ending is a bit darker than I was expecting for Spielberg's debut effort, but seeing as it was based upon a real-life incident, perhaps that should have been expected. The film was co-written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, the same pair who would hire Ralph McQuarrie to paint illustrations to help sell their science-fiction film Home Free that would lead to their introducing him to their other director friend, George Lucas.

Nice to check another early Spielberg film off the to-be-watched list, and to do so on the big screen like it deserves!


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