After the successful release of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, Steven Spielberg wanted to direct a comedy. Writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale originally wanted to write a serious film about the real-life 1942 Japanese bombing of Ellwood, California, and the 1943 Zoot Suits Riots. The story became a comedy after Spielberg was hired to direct the project after it moved to Universal Pictures.
The movie was released on December 14, 1979, and it proved two things. Spielberg was not immune to negative criticism and disappointing box office returns. Now, notice that I used the word “disappointing”, not box office bomb or flop. Most people believe that the movie was not a success financially, but this isn’t the case.
The movie was made for $35 million and went on to gross over $90 million worldwide. This is actually not bad for how a comedy would generally perform at the time. However, Spielberg’s last two films were blockbusters that had made over $300 and $250 million each. So, the film was considered a box office disappointment by the standards that Spielberg was held up to, but it also turned in a profit.
Box office disappointment aside, how good or bad is the movie? I finally got to find out as this is one of Spielberg’s films that I had never seen before writing about it here. I think I kind of subconsciously avoided it because any time anyone would bring it up, I would never hear anything good about the movie. In fact, Spielberg himself has even mentioned that it wasn’t that funny, but now that I’ve seen it, here are my thoughts…
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| Steven Spielberg directing "1941". |
Well… I’ve seen it. As mentioned before, the movie is based on a real-life Japanese bombing and a true scare that the west coast had of a possible Japanese invasion. I would tell you about the characters, but there are so many of them that none of them truly stand out.
There are people that also didn’t have to be here, either. Legendary actors such as John Candy, Ned Beatty, and Robert Stack are wasted here with very little to do. Now, is the movie totally bad? No.
There are visual effects that are amazing and big, huge set pieces such as an elaborate dance number and “dog fight” over the skies of Los Angeles that look spectacular. The problem is that sequences like this are all over the movie, leading you to feel overwhelmed instead of jumping out of your seat. Also, these sequences feel like they’re in the wrong genre and would be great in other big budget action films.
The true tragedy is the movie is mostly missing the one key component to any comedy… the comedy. Even if it wasn’t for a delirious Dan Ackroyd or Slim Pickens on a Japanese submarine, I don’t think I would have laughed out loud once. Even the mighty talents of John Belushi are wasted here as even he couldn’t pull in any of the laughs.
So, the movie is, admittedly, not good. If I were to review this as a new movie and give it a star rating, I would give it two stars out of five. One star for Ackroyd and Pickens at least eliciting an audible giggle and another star for the brilliant filmmaking including the special-effects.
This would also be the third time that Spielberg went over budget and over schedule, but the first time that it didn’t pay off with big box office returns. This meant that while Spielberg was a household name, the studios didn’t want to work with him. However, Spielberg’s closest friend and fellow filmmaker, George Lucas, would come to the rescue.
More on that later when I take a look at 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, a film that would not only be a comeback moment for Spielberg, but a movie that would launch one of the greatest action film series of all time.
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