The Sugarland Express

Before he directed such fan favorites as Jaws, the Indiana Jones series and the Jurassic Park movies or classics like E.T., Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, even Steven Spielberg had to start somewhere. After several years directing TV shows and TV movies, the young director got a shot at a feature film with 1974's The Sugarland Express.

Going back to Duel and continuing here, it's obvious Spielberg had talent right away behind the camera. Sure, he refined that talent over the years as he became one of the most bankable directors of all time, but even before he was well known he knew how to shoot a movie. His debut tells the true story of a young couple in Texas trying to get their 2-year old son back after he's been put into foster care. Fresh out of jail herself, Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) goes to visit her husband, Clovis Michael Poplin (William Atherton), who's also serving a jail sentence. Lou Jean convinces him to escape so they can work together to get their son back.

It's not long though before trouble arises. At a routine traffic stop, Lou Jean freaks out and tries to escape, starting a car chase that ends with the couple kidnapping a young highway patrol officer, Patrolman Maxwell Side (Michael Sacks). They tell him all they want to do is get to Sugarland, Texas and get their boy back, but nothing goes smoothly, and soon enough a convoy of police cars led by Captain Harlan Tanner (Ben Johnson) is on their tail waiting to make a move.

Going into the movie, I knew the basic storyline, but I had a different movie in mind. The DVD cover makes the movie seem more like a light-hearted romp of a road trip with a young Hawn taking up much of the space. It's really anything but that. There's a darkness to the story I was not expecting that still, fits appropriately. As the Poplins drive closer to Sugarland to get their boy back, the "chase" becomes a media event. Newstrucks and field reporters join in the convoy, and fans begin to appear along the road to root them on in their efforts.

It was late in the movie when Lou Jean, Clovis and Maxwell drive into a town where they're met by hundreds of adoring fans that something clicked for me. I've never read anything to confirm this, but Spielberg must have been influenced by Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole with his debut here. Both films don't paint the main characters as true villains or good guys, but instead put that on the audience, the people who stop and slow down at a car accident for just one example. The movie serves as much of a condemnation of the American people and our fascination with crooks, criminals, and car chases as it does a condemnation of the Poplins for being lousy parents.

In Hawn as the lead, Spielberg had a rising star who gets to show off her legitimate acting chops, not just being cute, blonde and giggily as she was on Laugh-In. We don't know much about her or Clovis' personal background so it's hard to judge the character, but as a mother who just wants her son back, she gives a strong dramatic performance. She does want custody of her son, but she's still a young woman. Lou Jean gets sidetracked at all the attention and seems to momentarily forget why she's even getting that attention. As her husband, Atherton is somewhat more realistic, knowing that as is their situation cannot end as smoothy as they plan.

Sacks, who was only in a handful of movies in his career, is the third member of the trio in the kidnapped patrol car. He's conflicted from the start, trying to convince the Poplins to turn themselves in, but like Lou Jean this adoration catches him off guard and he begins to see their side too. Call it Stockholm Syndrome I guess, but when trouble arises he knows their plan cannot succeed. In another strong supporting performance, Johnson is nicely cast as a weary patrol captain leading the chase. He wants to help the Joplins, he legitimately does, but all the hoopla and circus-like atmosphere around the pursuit isn't helping his effort.

All that said, the movie doesn't quite know what it is. Is it a straight drama or is it an action comedy? Parts are funny poking fun at the idiocy of the situation. At one point, Lou Jean has to go to the bathroom so the whole convoy, squadrons of police cars too, pull to the side of the road while a port-a-potty is brought in. But then other parts, with car chases and even a chaotic gun battle in a used car lot are too over the top and really, uncalled for. The ending works on some levels, if the whole movie had been played seriously it would fit perfectly. But in general, there's not one tone that Spielberg takes, and because of it the movie is taken down a notch overall.

If you'd like to see the movie, a Youtube user was kind enough to post it all, starting here with Part I. Here's the trailer if you'd rather rent or buy it and you just want a feel for the movie. Looking at the movie as a whole, it's a good start for Spielberg as a director. Flaws aside, he tells the story well, showing both sides of the coin and letting your feelings fall where they may, rooting for the Joplins or for Harlan and his patrolmen. It's a good sign of the things that were still to come.