The Sugarland Express (1974)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.
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What critics compared The Sugarland Express to
Echoes of Spielberg ("E.T.," "The Sugarland Express," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") and John Carpenter ("Starman") can be heard in the film, but Nichols is his own plain-spoken artist.
Comparisons have been made with Spielberg, and there are sprinkles of “The Sugarland Express,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and “E.T.,” yet he and Nichols could not be more distinct in their emotional signatures.
The climactic showdown between the Zord-piloting Rangers and their arch nemesis Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) is about as uninspired as these things get—but when it comes to the police chase that gets Jason in trouble, Israelite directs it as a continuous pan around the inside of a car, an homage to Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express by way of digital compositing effects.
Just about every scene is a conscious and loving 'steal’ from another movie, usually something directed by Spielberg – quotes from E.T. and especially Close Encounters abound, but there’s also riffs on Jaws, Duel, The Sugarland Express and even 1941!
Alana (Alana Haim), who’s got a firm hand and wild eyes; the chaotic vehicular choreography at once parodies and honors period car chases in comedies like The Sugarland Express or Smokey and the Bandit.
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It's as if he'd taken all the famous movies about two self-destructive outlaws films like Easy Rider, Badlands, The Sugarland Express, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Zabriskie Point, even Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat!
You’ve seen this story before, or just glints in prequels like “The Sugarland Express,” “E.T.” and “Catch Me If You Can.”
The acclaim and popularity of TV movie Duel led to a theatrical feature debut with the 1974 crime drama The Sugarland Express starring Goldie Hawn.
Every Spielberg feature, from The Sugarland Express to West Side Story , reveals elements of its creator’s passions.
The duo have had a long relationship dating back to The Sugarland Express in 1974.
The movie, for all its location shifts and elaborate scams, is essentially a feature-length chase, which puts it in the league of early single-minded Spielberg entries like Duel and especially The Sugarland Express.
Spielberg gives the movie a snappy, glitzy gusto of the type that he gave his early chase films like The Sugarland Express and 1941, and it's refreshingly lacking in that heavy nobility he injected into The Color Purple and nearly every film since.
He won a Best Screenplay prize here for The Sugarland Express back in 1974, and E.T. premiered here in 1982.
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Harkening back to his first studio feature – the non-stop on the road chase of The Sugarland Express (1974) – and evoking perhaps unintentional notes of last year’s always-roving One Battle After Another, Spielberg crafts a long-haul chase film…
…it’s interesting that his mom, Goldie Hawn, starred in Spielberg’s debut feature, The Sugarland Express, back in 1974.
It’s fun to see this director scattering police cars around the highway as per his The Sugarland Express…
"The Sugarland Express,"…
Certainly it's better than monster hits like Jurassic Park or self-important films like Amistad.