It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Blistering performances.

Movie Review: "The Sugarland Express" (1974)Director Steven Spielberg gets lucky with leading couple Goldie Hawn & William Atherton, both actors in their late 20s, when this "Duel" (1971) follow-up for the director falls flat under an unimaginative plain coverage editoral of seemingly endless 105 Minutes, when the story of a wife busting her husband out from prison, then on the run cross country to reunite with their family, when nearly the same picture has been done with emotionally-deeper-engaging couple on the road portrayed a year earlier by Martin Sheen & Sissy Spacek in "Badlands" (1973) written and directed by Terrence Malick tends to be more entertaining in retrospective as sophisticated in content by same generation directors.Nevertheless Universal Pictures takes care of his 10-picture-contracted "Wunderkind" of a director Steven Spielberg, who finds himself right after in his first royal discipline of book adaptation in order to take Peter Benchley's book "Jaws" by the horns in creating a suspense masterpiece, homaging best manners of an Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) succession toward "New Hollywood" of the 1970s, when "The Sugarland Express" leaves the station under beautiful as professional to technically-flawless-received cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond (1930-2016) and a clean-cut Universal production for exclusivley-contracted producers Richard D. Zanuck (1934-2012) and Dan Brown (1916-2010) and solid taste of being a "director for life" with regard to Steven Spielberg, at age 27.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

Good thing Ben Johnson's in the movie, otherwise Texas might permanently split from Hollywood. Here Johnson plays Capt. Tanner of the Texas Highway Patrol, the one sensible anchor in an otherwise zany movie. Seems Lou Jean (Hawn) wants her baby back after she's been judged unfit. So she inveigles husband Clovis (Atherton) to break prison and get their baby back. Trouble is the kid lives with foster parents a hundred miles across Texas. But what the heck, it'll be a fun trip. On the way the fugitives kidnap Officer Slide (Sacks) holding him hostage while every avenging patrol car in the state follows. It's almost like an LA freeway on a really bad day. Naturally, a parade of Hollywood's favorite car crashes ensue.It's a good goofy turn from Hawn whose blonde 20-year old resembles an aggressive 10-year old. She's got no idea what she's gotten the half-baked couple into, even when the line of patrolmen trailing them stretches to Oklahoma. Giggling in the backseat, she figures things are bound to turn out okay, even as hubby threatens to shoot Officer Slide. Memorable highlights include two gun-happy good-ol-boys massacring a car lot, and Lou Jean getting a portable john so she can pee in private. Also, there's a Stockholm Syndrome to the kidnapped Slide when he comes to almost identify with the fugitive couple. But then loopy innocence provides the twosome with a likable side. Though underplayed, don't miss the movie's tragic undercurrent. It's skillfully lurking despite the humorous overlay.Anyway, the zany production's a one-of-a-kind, and really put Spielberg on the movie-making map. Still, I doubt if it's on Texas's Must See list. But it is on mine.

"The Sugarland Express" is a decent chase movie about the world's most harmless prison escapees and the policeman they're forced to take as a hostage, becoming famous in the process.It's pretty slight, but Spielberg's direction shines through, a whiz kid even at this early stage in his career. It is slick and unobtrusive while still being inventive and masterful.Goldie Hawn is also a stand out. She would have stolen the show from the other two lacklustre performers anyway, so I'm glad Spielberg had the sense to focus the movie on her and not on one of the dullards like Hal Ashby did in The Last Detail.Ben Johnson is, as always, fantastic as the crusty old police officer who leads the chase.The movie does drag a little, though, ironically for a movie about a chase. It's not really Smokey and the Bandit - the runaways lead the police right at the front like a funeral procession.

Spielberg has constructed and shot his first feature film with skill. The camera seems to be exactly where it should be in every shot. The editing is done with skill, and Vilmos Zsigmond's photography vividly evokes a bare and wintry day in southern Texas. The musical score is a kind of whimsical folksy harmonica solo smacking of a Christmas carol. It was written by John Williams, he of the bum bum bum bum shark theme from "Jaws". His scores are usually orchestrated, fully and fulsomely, but you'd never know it from this spare tune. The director got a fine screenplay out of Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins. Most of these good folks sound dumber than they are. And the performers really get into the characters. Sometimes they ARE the characters.Here's an example that always cracks me up. Ben Johnson is a captain in the Texas Highway Patrol (or whatever) and has brought Goldie Hawn's wrinkled old father down to talk to his daughter over the police radio, urging her to surrender. Johnson has just given the old timer instructions on how to use the microphone in the police car. Hawn's father listens intently. Then we expect him to say something like, "Gimme the mike." Instead, in his cracked and weathered voice, he repeats Johnson's instructions word by word: "Press -- this -- button -- and speak -- in a NORMAL tone of voice." It's as if he's trying to memorize all of the instructions for getting the most out of Windows 8. And Johnson plays the scene straight and convincingly, showing a total respect for the man, being sure to call him "Sir", probably as Johnson would in real life. The father is played by George Hagy, who never made another appearance on any screen and who was probably picked out on the spot from the crowd of extras.The story is simple. Goldie Hawn talks her prisoner husband, William Atherton, into escaping from pre-release, planning to kidnap their baby and flee to Mexico. The police soon catch on and the pair take a highway patrol officer, Michael Sacks, hostage and ride off to the baby's home in Sugar Land, followed by a string of police cars a mile long. There are numerous comic incidents, and a few scenes involving gun shots and action. I hope the stunt men were paid well for the scene in which the news van flips over into a puddle. In some ways, the movie follows a trajectory illustrated by "Bonny and Clyde." As the scenes of action progress, they get more serious until they turn tragic. The couple are also lauded and helped by the ordinary folks of the towns they drive through. Spielberg has kept an eye on the size and response of the audience. It's not an art film. Hawn's and Atherton's first escape vehicle is an old clunker that steams and bangs at its full speed of twenty miles an hour, but when the escapees spin around to elude the police, the sound of the engine changes from a loud knock-knock-knock to that of a Formula V Maserati. And, for my taste, too much time is given to cute Baby Langston, a habit Spielberg has rarely been able to shake. In ninety percent of respectable movies, all children should be stomped. Their appearances tend to cheapen the film, except in W. C. Fields' movies.Goldie Hawn is sexy and delivers a fine performance as the mercurial screecher with the IQ of a head of broccoli. Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? Atherton, with his vacant face, is okay as the submissive husband. Once in a while, a pale beam of reality shines through his antics, but generally his character prompts one to ask whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? As the police officer who is their hostage, Michael Sacks is earnest and although he gets to like his captors and play games with them, he at least is in touch with the outer world. Ben Johnson is simple but reliable, and I miss the guy.