The Sugarland Express

6/1/2020

Steven Spielberg's first proper cinema movie has some great photography from Vilmos Zsigmond. The tone is uncertain. A road movie, a tragic comedy with car pile ups that is based on true facts. Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn) takes her husband Clovis (William Atherton) out of a minimum security prison just weeks before his eventual release. All to save their child who has been taken away and ready to put up for adoption. They kidnap a police officer which leads to them being pursued by the police and the media. Goldie Hawn is spiky as Lou Jean but she is also stupidly impulsive. A story that needed more work, Spielberg does make an accomplished film.

4/1/2023

When "Clovis" (William Atherton) is incarcerated, his wife "Lou Jean" (Goldie Hawn) is facing losing their son to adoption. She's having none of this so decides to spring her husband from jail so they can go collect their bairn and head for Mexico. Things do not go to plan, though, and pretty quickly they are in an hijacked police-car being driven by "Officer Slide" (Michael Sacks). Needless to say, the police - under the shrewd "Capt. Tanner" (Ben Johnson) now up the ante and we are now looking at a chase that involves just about every police vehicle in the country! They are gradually digging themselves deeper with each mile they drive, but equally they begin to befriend their hostage and elicit a degree of sympathy from their pursuer as their predicament starts to tug at heart strings. I

5/8/2024

Quality! <em>'The Sugarland Express'</em> is Steven Spielberg's first theatrical release as director, which is quite something given the movie seems like it was made by a seasoned vet. On a similar note, the look and feel of the film is absolutely outstanding; it has aged remarkably well visually, almost hard to believe it came out in 1974! I also really enjoyed the score, particularly Toots Thielemans on the harmonica, but that's no surprise - John Williams, duh! As for plot, it is very entertaining. I like how silly everything plays out for the first chunk and the film knows it, but events gradually rise up a notch throughout the 110 minutes. The more serious conclusion would've felt quite sudden and out of place, though it is portrayed and paced perfectly. Cast-wise, Goldie Hawn,

5/14/2026

**_Inspired by the real-life incident from May 2, 1969, mixed with…_** …elements of the Bonnie & Clyde account from 35 years earlier, such as the way Americans were rooting for the couple. In truth, the chase only lasted 5-6 hours and not several days. So, there was no time for the press to get ahold of the story and spread it to the people. Neither did the kidnapped patrolman warm up to the couple. Furthermore, it didn’t end anywhere near the Rio Grande. The events started in Sugar Land, Texas (two words, not one), which is a town southwest of Houston, with the ensuing actions going counterclockwise around the outskirts of Houston. The actual chase started in Port Arthur with the couple hijacking the patrol care in Anahuac, both of which are east of the metropolis. The pursuit then