The Sugarland Express

It feels weird to see the guy who embodies the best of the Hollywood mainstream still learning his craft. But Goldie Hawn delivers an absolutely inimitable performance and Spielberg cannily relies on the landscapes to tell the rest of the story. Although Spielberg would achieve astronomically greater heights in his career, this film still has enough heart to stand side-by-side with some of his later work.

For better and worse, it's difficult to view this outside of its context as Spielberg's debut; it finds him not quite able to balance the broader moments with the more sentimental, humanistic ones, making the film feel like a watered down BONNIE & CLYDE that's been invaded by THE CANNONBALL RUN. It's still a fun ride, with Sacks perking things up thanks to his sparky moments with the two stars; stabs at social commentary ala ACE IN THE HOLE fall flat. What a beautiful end credits scene!

As a concept it is just the kind of movie I like: car chases, road trip moods, Bonnie & Clyde -kind of stuff with night-time gas stations and dusty roads to discover. The main issues with Sugarland Express are the pacing and the characters, though. It meanders on and doesn't really manage to gain that tension of the chase but for a few rare moments. We don't learn anything about the characters apart from them wanting their kid back and there's very little reason to care for them.

some real good cinematography and directing, story sorta dull and overlong tho

It's an impressive debut and proof that some people are natural with camera - also that even if you're one of the bests behind a camera and perfectly block a scene you could still be a boring director.

Spielberg's first feature film is quite good and his talent is obvious from the get go.

This seems more like a Coen Brothers movie than a Spielberg one. Through the manic humour permeating from the beginning, there is an uneasy dread as you just know it's impossible to end well. Some really creative and interesting shots. It's kind of surprising this isn't talked about all that much.

Finally got to see this one. Spielberg's first feature film. Excellent crime drama and one of Goldie Hawn's best performances.

Interestingly enough, this early film is one of Spielberg's most flawless blending of sentiment and drama. Add some wonderful cinematography and interesting political commentary and you got a movie worthy of the masterful director that Spielberg would become; here, still young and unsure of himself yet with an undeniable talent behind a camera.

Spielberg's best movie to date.

Certainly from the director of Duel, with all these cars getting up to various things on dusty Texas highways. It's a land of absurdities: our hopelessly thick protagonists, the local roadside color, overeager lawmen real and self-fancied, the media circus, the actual circus, and on and on. How well does the ending hit after all that? I'm not sure, but it was an interesting trip. Ben Johnson's second billing is well-earned: it's a nuanced burden to play the one sane man in this world.

80.000

Stevie shoots the hell of this story of two bad parents that choose to just get their child no matter what is costs -- hundreds of policemen after them in a patient, long car chase through Texas and a public status that go from complete anonymity to roadside attraction to folks that believe they must go forward to get their baby Langston. Not a Spielberg first tier, but still a hell of well-shot and entertaining ride -- it drags curiously when the couple befriends the patrol driver.

A mother's struggle. This was the film that really established Spielberg as a name to watch. Actually a bit of a trifle, but also a very sincere drama with a well-played Goldie Hawn, she was made for this kind of role.

Em honra de Louise Latham actor (1922 - 2018). Ano do Centenário de Ben Johnson filme #1. Único filme clássico do Spielberg que ainda não tinha visto, simplesmente por se situar nos anos 70 já o faz um grande filme, tem alguma coisa com aquela década que nenhuma outra atingiu, um teor de cool inigualável para o cinema. Surpresa com um papel simpático do Atherton, já que nos anos 80 ele se caracterizaria como um tipo dos mais insuportáveis nos filmes que participava. BlurayRip Yify.

Great film.

This one makes good use of cuts and sounds but the overall feel is lacking in excitement.

73.625

Spielberg's first real theatrical feature is good, but never truly great. You can definitely tell that he's a talented director, and he gets great performances out of all the leads, but you can tell that suburban nice boy Spielberg never completely connects with the rebellious lovers-on-the-run genre. Despite a really downbeat ending (that feels a little abrupt), this is really too nice a film to be a great one. One of the real highlights is Vilmos Zsigmond's beautifully muted cinematography.

Its plot may ape the countercultural road movies of its era, but Steven Spielberg's feature debut displays many of the crowd-pleasing elements he'd refine in subsequent films.

Spielberg's first. Not great, but good and entertaining. That's enough.

Miss Hawn, I'm impressed.

So many cars, and nothing original to say about them.

Great 70's nostalgia piece. Goldie Hawn is good albeit annoying but William Atherton steals the show. Think: Speilberg does "Raising Arizona".

Surprisingly excellent! Seriously, this is some good shit. Entertaining and suspenseful and funny and sad...all that stuff.

For his first foray onto the silver screen, Spielberg tells a somewhat familiar tale of two lovers on the run against the law, but the relationship between the two leads and the cop they drag along on their misadventure is genuinely touching.

Spielberg takes the vacant desert of his tense, spare debut film Duel and fills it with a Looney Tunes parade of used-car lots, drive-ins, diners and a detained, eccentric force. Like so many things in Texas, it doesn't seem that believable. It happened in '69, and the young couple garnered a lot of support from the people. More like Natural Born Killers than Bonnie & Clyde, the lovers on the lam find brief sanctuary from their Looney Tunes world by watching Looney Tunes in a camper.

The tale may be familiar, but the execution is far from it. An audacious debut from Spielberg that hits hard from a technical aspect. Impressive.