Watch The Sugarland Express For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

hyped garbage

Great Film overall

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Following Duel, movies heavily featuring cars were what Spielberg seemed to be offered, as he was set to direct Burt Reynolds in the action film White Lightning. He worked on it for a few months before quitting to take on this movie. "The one thing that I almost made was White Lightning the Burt Reynolds picture," Spielberg said "I spent two-and-a-half months on the film, met Burt once, found most of the locations and began to cast the movie, until I realized it wasn't something that I wanted to do for a first film. I didn't want to start my career as a hard-hat, journeyman director. I wanted to do something that was a little more personal." Reynolds was hurt by him quitting saying " He wanted out and it really hurt me, I felt like he just didn't want to work with me, and that was the reason. And he didn't."Shot in perfect continuity (for financial reasons) The majority of this movie is filmed in a car. But there was no rear view projection or shoot it and then have the actors lip-sync later. Spielberg's timing was just right Panavision inc had recently developed and the Paraflex, the first totally noiseless camera, compact enough to be handheld or shoulder rested. Virtually the entire movie was shot in sync dialogue with only 10 lines a looped later. The Sugerland Expressis one of the first fiims to be shot in this then revolutionary style, though shortly, all filmmaking would follow suit.This movie shows that Goldie Hawn could have been a fine dramatic actress had her career gone in that direction. Hawn's plan, slightly mad as it is, in fact does have an inner logic. I expected her infedelity (She prostitutes herself to a male neighbour for $65) to become a bigger issue. But it's surprisingly dropped pretty quickly. There is no villain in this movie. Captain Tanner certainly isn't one. I also like a tender scene involving a Wile E. Coyote cartoon which was probably my favourite scene in the movie. This film marked the beginning of Spielberg's friendship with John Williams and we get a Spielberg trademark (images seen in a side mirror) This is one of the few Steven Spielberg films that ends on a downbeat note. And boy what a downbeat note it is!! Sugerland Express grossed $7.5 million (against a 3 million dollar budget) at the domestic box office.

Movie Review: "The Sugarland Express" (1974)Director Steven Spielberg gets lucky with leading couple Goldie Hawn & William Atherton, both actors in their late 20s, when this "Duel" (1971) follow-up for the director falls flat under an unimaginative plain coverage editoral of seemingly endless 105 Minutes, when the story of a wife busting her husband out from prison, then on the run cross country to reunite with their family, when nearly the same picture has been done with emotionally-deeper-engaging couple on the road portrayed a year earlier by Martin Sheen & Sissy Spacek in "Badlands" (1973) written and directed by Terrence Malick tends to be more entertaining in retrospective as sophisticated in content by same generation directors.Nevertheless Universal Pictures takes care of his 10-picture-contracted "Wunderkind" of a director Steven Spielberg, who finds himself right after in his first royal discipline of book adaptation in order to take Peter Benchley's book "Jaws" by the horns in creating a suspense masterpiece, homaging best manners of an Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) succession toward "New Hollywood" of the 1970s, when "The Sugarland Express" leaves the station under beautiful as professional to technically-flawless-received cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond (1930-2016) and a clean-cut Universal production for exclusivley-contracted producers Richard D. Zanuck (1934-2012) and Dan Brown (1916-2010) and solid taste of being a "director for life" with regard to Steven Spielberg, at age 27.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

by someone not named Spielberg, it would have been consigned to the obscurity it so richly deserves. Audience would see it as the totally implausible movie it is. I know, it's based on a true story, but I can't believe this movie is very faithful to the facts of the actual case. It certainly isn't true to the cinematic tenet that a story and its characters must be internally consistent.

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.