1941 (film)

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1941
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by Buzz Feitshans
Written by Robert Zemeckis
Bob Gale
Starring John Belushi
Ned Beatty
Dan Aykroyd
Lorraine Gary
Murray Hamilton
Toshiro Mifune
Music by John Williams
Distributed by Universal Studios
Release date(s) December 14, 1979
Running time 118 min. (theatrical version); 146 min. (dir. cut)
Language Engllish
Budget $35,000,000
IMDb profile

1941 is Steven Spielberg's fifth film, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It starred John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. It is a comedy about a panic in the Los Angeles area that occurs after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Although the film was not as financially successful as Spielberg's previous films, it is widely recognised for its progressive action and camera sequences.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story takes place just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with panic and chaos among the citizens of Los Angeles. The story is told through connecting vignettes. At the center of the story is Major General Joseph Stilwell (Robert Stack) who tries to bring order among the people whose lives are intertwined with others. It is notable as one of the few American films featuring Toshiro Mifune, a popular Japanese actor. The plot is based on a few actual incidents that occurred during World War Two. The first is the West coast air raid. The second was the shelling of the Ellwood oil refinery, near Santa Barbara, by a Japanese submarine. (Both incidents actually occurred in 1942.) Also, the Zoot Suit Riots were alluded to, and the defunct status of amusement parks around Venice, California may have provided an inspiration for parts of the movie as well [citation needed].

The film begins with a shot of the California coast in rain and wind. A lady exits a black car with the words 'Polar Bear Club' across her dressing gown. She runs down to the beach, drops the dressing gown and enters the sea naked. What follows is a spoof from Jaws (with the same actress, Susan Backlinie) and instead of a shark in the water, a Submarine emerges with the lady clinging to the periscope. The submarine is German, onloan to the Japanese who have travelled to the West coast of America to destroy something honourable. They are joined by a hardline German naval Captain played by Christopher Lee. The submarine than submerges back into the ocean.

The next sequence focuses on the kitchen of a cafe where Wally Stephens Bobby Di Ciccio dances and washes dishes to the Jitterbug with his friend and fellow worker. Wally's father enters and an argument ensues as Wally informs his father of his intention to enter a dance contest with Betty Douglas. Wally then goes into the restaurant to pour coffee for a group of American soldiers. For the first time we meet the soldiers including Dan Akroyd as Sgt Frank Tree and John Candy as Private Foley. Because Wally is out of uniform, dancing and in a Pearl Harbour shirt he gets into an argument with Corporal Sitarski played by Treat Williams. The argument is ended by Sgt Tree who states "he cannot stand Americans fighting Americans" (he repeats the line throughout the movie).

Next Wally gets a suit from a shop, during which he uses an air raid siren to escape without paying. We then meet Captain Wild Bill Kelso, played by John Belushi for the first time. He lands his plane at a petrol station and orders it to be filled up. He enters the local shop and tells residents he's after a Japanese squadron. Meanwhile his plane begins to take off without him and he runs after it, firing his handgun and accidentally blowing up the petrol station.

We then meet Major General Stilwell, played by Robert Stack. He arrives and makes a press conference about the current defence and civil level of anxiety post Pearl Harbor. We also first learn of Colonel Mad Man Maddox who believes he is under attack from a secret airfield and we also meet the Generals assistant Captain Birkhead played by Tim Matheson. Donna Stratten played by Nancy Allen is the Generals new secretary and the Captain attempts to seduce her by inviting her into a B17 bomber (as she is aroused by airplanes, though we later discover only when they are in the air).

We then see for the first time the Douglas family home where Wally is attempting to persuade Betty to go the dance contest, only to find it is now for soldiers only. He is almost caught by Ward Douglas played by Ned Beatty and his wife Joan, as he previously destroyed their car. Soon after, the soldiers from earlier in the cafe arrive at the Douglas home on the coast. They deliver a large gun and Dan Akyroyd shows Douglas "what he should never do to the gun", instructions for firing it. Betty becomes the target of Corporal Sitarski, which further angers Wally.

We return to the Japanese submarine where they are lost and trying to find Los Angeles. Their compass is broken and they dispatch a landing party to shore to ascertain the position, Dressed as Christmas trees the Japanese sailors capture a local timber merchant Hollis Wood played by Slim Pickens who they mistake for being connected to Hollywood, which they are now trying to find to blow up and demoralise the US. We then get a shot of John Belushi in his aircraft as he chases the imaginary Japanese squadron. Hollis Wood is interrogated on the Japanese submarine by Captain Wolfgang (Lee) and Commander Mitamuru. We also see two men rise to the top of a ferris wheel at the Pacific amusement park in an effort to sight enemy planes.

The Japanese discover a small compass in a box of Cracker Jack belonging to Hollis Wood, however before they can use it, he swallows it. They then attempt to force it out of him as he sits on the toilet. However in an excuse for privacy, he escapes out of the submarine and swims to shore. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Major General Stilwell goes to the cinema to see Dumbo and Captain Birkhead and Donna Stratten decide to go the local airfield where Colonel Madman Maddox has both planes and the belief in a Japanese attack against his base of command.

We soon come to the USO dance, whereby Wally is unable to gain entry. He also enters into a fight with Sitarski again. As the USO dance continues Sitarski and Betty are inside whilst Wally gains entry by stealing an MP's uniform. The dance contest begins and Wally steals Betty only to end up fighting for her with Sitarski. A massive fight soon breaks out involving servicemen and then it extends outside. Birkhead and Donna meet the crazy Maddox and then get on a plane (though it has no radio so the US believe it is a Japanese plane). Meanwhile as fights rage near the USO, General Stilwell watches the movie Dumbo.

The fight is broken up by Sgt Tree (Aykroyd) as he arrives with his tank. Meanwhile interceptor command believes that a Japanese plane is attacking the US and Los Angeles goes to Red Alert. Over near the sea Ward Douglas sees the Japanese Submarine and begins firing his shotgun at them. As Birkhead and Stratten fly over Los Angeles in the back of the plane they are fired upon by the civil defence and military, who continue to fire even when the plane has flown past. Chaos continues as Captain Will Bill joins the fight, shooting at Captain Birkhead and is shot at by the Los Angeles defence. He sees the submarine but is shot by the two men on the Ferris Wheel who think he is Japanese, they also shoot at the submarine. Captain Will Bill makes it to the city and crashes, informing Wally (now in uniform) that he must get that submarine. Wally takes command of Sgt Tree's tank, giving instructions in the form of reciting the manual for installing a refrigerator.

General Stilwell meanwhile watches the madness as everyone heads for the coast, learning that Birkead and Stratten have crashed into the tar pits. Wild Bill follows on motorbike and along with the tank, they crash into a paint factory and then a turpentine factory where they are cleaned. Meanwhile Ward Douglas and the other people at his house move the gun dropped off by Tree early to the cliff and begin firing at the Japanese submarine. The Japanese return fire but soon see the Amusement park and the Ferris wheel. Believing that to be an industrial structure they destroy the Ferris Wheel as it rolls of the local pier. The tank with Wally and Tree arrive and attempt to sink the submarine but they too are sunk as they drive to the end of the pier and are blown up. Wild Bill also drives his motorbike off the pier and swims to the Submarine whereby he is captured by the Japanese, who contented now return home.

The following morning, General Stilwell arrives at the Douglas home and the story of how they were attacked by the submarine and how the amusement park was destroyed is retold. Ward Douglas goes to hang a Christmas wreath on his door as a symbol of peace and unity, only to accidentally push his damaged home into the Pacific Ocean. The movie ends with all the characters in front of the foundations of the destroyed home.

[edit] Reception

The film, mainly a production of Columbia Pictures (with some help from Universal Studios), was a moderate box office success, but not the blockbuster film the producers were hoping for. Because the film failed to match the box office numbers of Spielberg's previous films, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941 was considered a flop by comparison in regards to Spielberg's previous record on Jaws.

It did not help that some mainstream publications pre-labeled it as "Spielberg's Christmas Turkey". The film was slammed for being excessive and ham-handed. 1941, along with Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, and Robert Altman's Popeye, became major examples of excessive directorial control over a film and marked the beginning of the end of the New Hollywood era which closed with the historic failure of Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. While Apocalypse Now achieved critical acclaim and reasonable box-office success, the other films are regarded as each of the respective director's failures.

Spielberg humorously joked at one point that he considered converting 1941 into a musical halfway into production and mused that "in retrospect, that might have helped."

However, Bob Gale notes in a DVD documentary about the film: "It is down in the history books as a big flop, but it wasn't a flop. The movie didn't make the kind of money that Steven's other movies, Steven's most successful movies have made, obviously. But the movie was by no means a flop. And both Universal and Columbia have come out of it just fine."

[edit] DVD Extended Release

Because both Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios had major involvement with the production of the film, Spielberg was unhappy with the final theatrical cut of 1941 which was heavily influenced by the involvement of both studios. After the success of his directors cut of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Spielberg was given permission to create his own "extended cut" of 1941 for network television. It was only after this "extended cut" was aired on ABC that the film finally found a widespread audience and today is considered a cult classic. The "extended cut" has also been released on DVD.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • Susan Backlinie, the actress in the Polar Bear Club dressing gown at the beginning of the movie, was spoofing her role in a similar scene in Jaws.
  • According to Steven Spielberg's appearance in the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Kubrick suggested that 1941 should have been marketed as a drama rather than a comedy.
  • When Captain Wild Bill Kelso slipped off the wing of his airplane after being lifted by two soldiers, it was a real accident; it was left in the movie as it fitted his eccentric character
  • The filling station where Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) landed to refuel was also used in Spielberg's Duel. Lucille Benson, the filling station attendant, had a role in Duel as the owner of the Snakerama roadside attraction.
  • It took so long to set up the final sequence of shots in which the house falls into the sea that cast and crew members started a betting pool on the day and time the shot would begin filming. Dan Aykroyd won the bet.
  • Co-Writer Bob Gale stated that many of the events in the movie were based on real incidents, including the West coast air raid, the Ellwood Shelling, an incident where the army really did put an anti-aircraft gun in the yard of a homeowner on the coast (in Maine),[citation needed] and a Japanese submarine which made it past the U.S. defences and torpedoed a line of docks in Los Angeles.[citation needed]
  • Some of the scenes made so much noise during filming that the crew could not hear director Steven Spielberg yell "cut". For those scenes he had to fire a prop machine gun in the air to get the action to stop.
  • A deleted scene had Slim Pickens' character threatened with what looks like a torture device but turns out to be a coat hanger. Steven Spielberg hated losing the joke and swore he'd try to put it in every one of his future movies until it stayed there. Luckily, this happened in his very next film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Both John Wayne and Charlton Heston were offered the role of Major General Stilwell. Wayne phoned director Steven Spielberg, who had given him the script, and not only turned it down due to ill health but tried to get Spielberg to drop the project as he felt it unpatriotic.
  • A deleted scene showed John Belushi's Wild Bill crossing paths with Aykroyd's Frank Tree as Bill heads for the Japanese sub just as Tree emerges from the water submerged tank. The two look at each other as if they recognize one another, a reference to their friendship and partnership from Saturday Night Live. It was the only scene where they interacted.

[edit] Musical Score

The musical score for '1941' was conducted and composed by John Williams. The march song from 1941 is perhaps most memorable, repeated throughout the movie. The score included a mixture of 40's popular music such as the Jitterbug. Music from the score was based on characters and scenes from the movie:

  1. The March From '1941'
  2. The Invasion
  3. The Sentries
  4. Riot At The U.S.O.
  5. To Hollywood And Glory
  6. Swing, Swing, Swing Listen
  7. The Battle Of Hollywood
  8. The Ferris Wheel Sequence
  9. Finale of 1941

[edit] References

  • "1941, the making of" DVD Commentary (1999)
  • "The Complete Spielberg" by Ian Freer, Virgin Books (2001).
  • "Steven Spielberg" by James Clarke, Pocket Essentials (2004).
  • "Steven Spielberg The Collectors Edition" by Empire Magazine (2004).
  • "The Steven Spielberg Story" by Tony Crawley, William Morrow (1983).

[edit] External link


Films directed by Steven Spielberg
Duel • The Sugarland Express • Jaws • Close Encounters of the Third Kind • 1941 • Raiders of the Lost Ark • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom • The Color Purple • Empire of the Sun • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade • Always • Hook • Jurassic Park • Schindler's List • The Lost World: Jurassic Park • Amistad • Saving Private Ryan • Artificial Intelligence: AI • Minority Report • Catch Me If You Can • The Terminal • War of the Worlds • Munich • Indiana Jones 4 • Lincoln • Interstellar
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