1941 (1979)

 

            I was student teaching at University High in Baton Rouge in 1979.  One of my students was a teenager named Steven Soderbergh. I became friendly with him and can still remember how excited he was about the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie. Soderbergh was interested in movie- making and went on to become a great director himself.  “1941” was Spielberg’s fifth film after “Duel”, “Sugarland Express”, “Jaws”, and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.  Although originally written as a drama, Spielberg had it rewritten as a comedy.  Some of his friends were skeptical that a man who had no sense of humor would be making his first comedy.  The critics were even more skeptical.  They crushed the movie and it has the reputation of being a bomb. It actually was a moderate success, making $95 million against a budget of $35 million.  The movie even received Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, Sound, and Visual Effects.  Spielberg offered the role of Gen. Stilwell to John Wayne and Charlton Heston.   Wayne turned it down, telling Spielberg that it was un-American due to it making fun of America’s early days in the war.  Heston probably turned it down for a similar reason. Robert Stack got the part.  It was his first comedy (although it seems like he did not know that).  He found John Belushi to be one of the craziest actors he ever worked with.  Belushi delayed the production a couple of times due to showing up tardy from late night hijinks.   Belushi and Dan Ackroyd were the biggest draws, but they had little screen time together.  Ackroyd was instead paired with John Candy as part of his tank crew. It would be the first of their eight movies together.  The tank was a tractor mocked up to be a M3 Stuart.  Its name, Lulu Belle, was an homage to Bogart’s in “Sahara”.  When Slim Pickens came on board, his role as “Holly” Wood was greatly expanded.  (That was a wise move.)  His listing of the contents of his pockets (“one box of genuine cracker jacks…”) was a reference to his Maj. Kong’s listing of the items in the survival kit in “Dr. Strangelove”.  The movie was one of a few American movies that Toshiro Mifune made.  This was the only one where he used his own voice.  Speaking of only one, there is only one black (Frank McRae) in the movie.

 

            The plot is a mess, as it careens from arc to arc.  The movie is set about a week after Pearl Harbor in Los Angeles.  Americans are paranoid about an attack and chaos ensues.  One arc follows an insane P-40 pilot (Belushi as “Wild Bill” Kelso) who is tracking phantom Japanese bombers.  The bombers may be figments of his imagination, but there is a very real Japanese sub off the coast that is interested in bombarding Hollywood.  Akroyd is a tank commander who gets involved in the defense of the city.  The tank is part of Gen. Stilwell’s command.  Along with anti-aircraft guns on the rooftops.  This all meanders to the big set piece which fills the streets with fisticuffs and skies of Los Angeles with cinematic fireworks.  The fisticuffs involve a brawl between civilian young men and soldiers.  This breaks out at a USO dance competition.  In the middle of this comes Kelso tracking a Japanese bomber which is actually an American one flown by Tim Matheson in the midst of coitus with a flight groupie.  And I haven’t even mentioned the artillery  piece put in Ned Beatty’s front yard or the two men and a ventriloquist dummy on submarine watch on a Ferris wheel. I wonder how far John Wayne got into the script.

 

            Before you ask how much drug ingestion was involved in the script-writing, you might be surprised to learn the movie is based on history.  In Feb., 1942, a Japanese sub did bombard an oil refinery in California.  The resulting paranoia led to The Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942.  On the night of Feb. 24, anti-aircraft guns opened wild fire in the skies over L.A.  (It was later believed to have been a rogue meteorological balloon that set off the chaos.)  The melee in the streets was based on the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 when Hispanic youths wearing zoot suits were attacked by sailors and soldiers.  But there still must have been some drugs because the movie is similar to “The Blues Brothers” in mayhem, but lacks the cohesive plot.  It also does not have the central duo of that much better film.  It substitutes an all-star cast (well, all-star might be an exaggeration) and then gives most of them little to do beyond slapstick.  None produces a resume highlight, except for Slim Pickens.  (That goes for John Williams, too.  His theme music is memorable.)  Pickens’ scenes on the sub are comedy gold.  Unlike “Dr. Strangelove”, he was aware that this movie was meant to be a comedy and he goes all-in.  This makes the flailing of the real comedians just more pathetic.  For example, Ackroyd’s character suffers a concussion that makes him go crazy.  This smacks of a desperation move to add some hilarity.  In fact, the movie would have been better if Ackroyd’s tank had been consigned to the cutting room floor.  But then who would have shot out all the lights? 

 

The movie certainly lacks subtlety.  More is always the answer.  The big “battle” was so noisy that Spielberg had to fire a prop machine gun in the air in lieu of “cut!”  That’s a good metaphor for the movie.  Spielberg had already proven himself to be a great director, but you wouldn’t know it from this effort.  He falls into the trap of believing destruction equals laughs.  As Stilwell says:  “Madness.  That’s the only way to describe it.”  (A line that he might have ad-libbed.)  Speaking of metaphors, the movie ends with a house going over a cliff.  Appropriate.

 

GRADE  =  C-  

Here is a clip with the great Slim Pickens stealing the movie from all those comedians.