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''The Sugarland Express'' is a 1974 American
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
directed by
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
in his
directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...
. The film follows a woman (
Goldie Hawn Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
) and her husband (
William Atherton William Atherton Knight (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor, best known for portraying Richard Thornburg in ''Die Hard'' and its sequel and Walter Peck in ''Ghostbusters''. Early life Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son ...
) as they take a police officer ( Michael Sacks) hostage and flee across Texas while they try to get to their child before he is placed in foster care. The event partially took place, the story is partially set, and the film was partially shot in
Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around ...
. Other scenes for the film were filmed in
San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...
, Live Oak, Floresville, Pleasanton, Converse and
Del Rio, Texas Del Rio is a city and the county seat of Val Verde County in southwestern Texas, United States. The city is 152 miles west of San Antonio. As of 2020, Del Rio had a population of 34,673. History The Spanish established a small settlement south of ...
. ''The Sugarland Express'' marks the first collaboration between Spielberg and composer
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
, who has scored all but five of Spielberg-directed films since; this is the only score he has composed for Spielberg that has never been released as an album, although Williams re-recorded the main theme with
Toots Thielemans Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for his chromatic harmonica playing, as well as his guitar and whistl ...
and the
Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
for 1991's ''The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration''.


Plot

Lou Jean Poplin visits her incarcerated husband, Clovis Michael Poplin, to tell him that their son will soon be placed in the care of foster parents. Even though he is four months away from being released from
prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
, she convinces him to escape to assist her in retrieving their child. They hitch a ride from the prison with a couple, but when
Texas Department of Public Safety The Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, commonly known as the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), is a department of the state government of Texas. The DPS is responsible for statewide law enforcement and driver license adminis ...
Patrolman Maxwell Slide stops the car, they take the car and run. When the car crashes, the two felons overpower and kidnap Slide, holding him
hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...
at the head of a slow-moving and growing caravan, initially of police cars but eventually including news vans, private citizens' vehicles, and helicopters. The Poplins and Slide travel through Beaumont, Dayton, Houston, Cleveland, Conroe, and finally
Wheelock, Texas Wheelock is an unincorporated community in Robertson County, Texas, United States. It is located 15 miles northeast of Bryan and 11 miles southeast of Franklin. Wheelock is located on Farm to Market Road 46 and Farm to Market Road 391. It is ...
. By holding Slide hostage, the pair are able to continually gas up their car, as well as get food via the
drive-through A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word ''through''), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was pioneered in the United ...
. During the lengthy pursuit, Slide and the pair bond and develop mutual respect for one another. The Poplins bring Slide to the home of the foster parents, where they encounter numerous officers, including the DPS Captain who has been pursuing them, Captain Harlin Tanner. A pair of Texas Rangers shoot and fatally wound Clovis, and after another car chase, the Texas Department of Public Safety arrests Lou Jean. Patrolman Slide is found unharmed. An epilogue preceding the closing credits explains that Lou Jean subsequently spent fifteen months of a five-year prison term in a women's correctional facility. Upon getting out, she obtained the right to live with her son, convincing authorities that she was able to do so.


Cast

*
Goldie Hawn Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
as Lou Jean Poplin *
William Atherton William Atherton Knight (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor, best known for portraying Richard Thornburg in ''Die Hard'' and its sequel and Walter Peck in ''Ghostbusters''. Early life Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son ...
as Clovis Michael Poplin *
Ben Johnson Ben, Benjamin or Benny Johnson may refer to: In sports Association football * Ben Johnson (footballer, born 2000), English footballer * Ben Johnson (soccer) (born 1977), American soccer player Other codes of football *Ben Johnson (Australian foot ...
as Captain Harlin Tanner * Michael Sacks as Patrolman Maxwell Slide *
Gregory Walcott Gregory Walcott (born Bernard Wasdon Mattox, January 13, 1928 – March 20, 2015) was an American television and film actor. Although he had roles in many Hollywood films and television series, he is perhaps best known for having appeared in th ...
as Patrolman Ernie Mashburn * Steve Kanaly as Patrolman Jessup *
Louise Latham Louise Latham (September 23, 1922 – February 12, 2018) was an American actress, perhaps best known for her portrayal of Bernice Edgar in Alfred Hitchcock's 1964 film ''Marnie''. Early years Latham came from Hamilton, Texas. She was from a fam ...
as Mrs. Looby *
Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel H ...
as Russ Berry The actual kidnapped patrolman,
James Kenneth Crone James Kenneth Crone, often known as Kenneth Crone (August 16, 1941 – February 10, 2011) was a Texas Highway Patrol officer from 1967 to 1978. During his law enforcement career, he was kidnapped on May 2, 1969, by Robert Dent and Ila Fae Holida ...
, played a small role in the film as a deputy sheriff.


Historical accuracy

The film's Lou Jean Poplin and Clovis Michael Poplin are based on the lives of then-21-year-old Ila Fae Holiday/Dent and 22-year-old Robert "Bobby" Dent, respectively. The character of
Texas Highway Patrol The Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety and is the largest state-level law enforcement agency in the U.S. state of Texas. The patrol's primary duties are enforcement of state traffic laws and commercial veh ...
man Slide is based on then-27-year-old Trooper J. Kenneth Crone. The character of Captain Tanner is based on Texas Highway Patrol Captain Jerry Miller. In real life, Ila Fae did not break Bobby out of prison – he had been released from prison in April 1969, two weeks before the slow-motion car chase began. Unlike in the film, Bobby died instantly when he was shot at Ila Fae's parents' house near
Wheelock, Texas Wheelock is an unincorporated community in Robertson County, Texas, United States. It is located 15 miles northeast of Bryan and 11 miles southeast of Franklin. Wheelock is located on Farm to Market Road 46 and Farm to Market Road 391. It is ...
where they had gone to visit Ila Fae's two children (born from a previous marriage). Ila Fae was sentenced to five years in prison, serving only five months. She died in 1992, in her mid-40s.


Production

Steven Spielberg persuaded co-producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown to let him make his big-screen directorial debut with this true story. A year later, Spielberg's next project for Zanuck and Brown was 1975's blockbuster hit ''
Jaws Jaws or Jaw may refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' * ...
''. A clip from the Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoon ''
Whoa, Be-Gone! ''Whoa, Be-Gone!'' is a 1958 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on April 12, 1958, and stars Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Eddie Selzer, who produced all of Warner Bros. cartoons since ...
'' is shown in silence during a scene at a drive-in theater. This was the first movie to use the
Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...
Panaflex camera.


Reception

''The Sugarland Express'' holds an 87% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
with an average score of 7.2 out of 10 from 52 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Its plot may ape the countercultural road movies of its era, but Steven Spielberg's feature debut displays many of the crowd-pleasing elements he'd refine in subsequent films."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "If the movie finally doesn’t succeed, that’s because Spielberg has paid too much attention to all those police cars (and all the crashes they get into), and not enough to the personalities of his characters. We get to know these three people just enough to want to know them better."
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' awarded the same two-and-a-half star grade and wrote that "whereas '
Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut (Champion) Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The c ...
' prompted our sympathy for its heroes because of their winning style, 'The Sugarland Express' asks us to care for Clovis and Lou Jean because they are thick-skulled and because, presumably, every mother has an inherent right to raise her own baby. It doesn't work." Arthur D. Murphy of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called Hawn's performance "generally delightful" but found that "something happens to the picture" toward the end as "the story opts for an abrupt series of production number shootouts, as though this was the real purpose in making the film, and all that preceded was introductory filler and vamp. Too bad, for two-thirds of the film is artful, the rest strident."
Tom Milne Tom Milne (2 April 1926 – 14 December 2005) was a British film critic. See also After war service, he studied English and French at Aberdeen University and later at the Sorbonne. Interested in the theatre too, he wrote for the magazine ' ...
of ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' wrote that it "seems peculiarly contrived ... it may have happened this way in real life, but in the film the fugitives are so unequivocally presented as poor, harmless innocents that the veritable army of police cars absurdly queuing up to be in at the kill looks very much as though both they and the film were taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut." Other reviews, however, were much more positive. Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' called it "a dazzling, funny, exciting and finally poignant film," and called it "astonishing" what Spielberg, Barwood and Robbins "have managed to accomplish within a simple trek plot. Starting out as a comedy that gradually darkens, 'The Sugarland Express,' which is based on an actual incident, becomes an increasingly disenchanted portrait of contemporary America."
Nora Sayre Nora Clemens Sayre (September 20, 1932 – August 8, 2001) was an American film critic and essayist. She was a reviewer of films for ''The New York Times'' in the 1970s, and, from 1981, a writing teacher for many years at Columbia University ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "Spielberg, the 26-year old director, has built up Texas as a major character in his movie. As the herd of cars races and heaves and crashes through the landscape, the state's personality surfaces like a sperm whale. Mr. Spielberg has also made marvelous use of many Texans, some of whom haven't acted before." Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' called it "an exciting new American film—a funny, tense and ultimately touching chase melodrama ... It's an odyssey you may never forget, and you might as well memorize the names of the young filmmakers responsible for it, the 26-year old director, Steven Spielberg, and the 30-year old screenwriters (and no doubt prospective directors), Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, because they've made one of the most stunning debuts in Hollywood history."
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' wrote that "Spielberg uses his gifts in a very free-and-easy, American way—for humor, and for a physical response to action. He could be that rarity among directors a born entertainer—perhaps a new generation's
Howard Hawks Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." A ...
. In terms of the pleasure that technical assurance gives an audience, this is one of the most phenomenal début films in the history of movies."Kael, Pauline (March 18, 1974). "The Current Cinema". ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. 130.
The film grossed $6.5 million in the United States and Canada and $5.5 million overseas for a worldwide gross of $12 million.


Awards

The film won the award for
Best Screenplay Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation, ...
at the
1974 Cannes Film Festival The 27th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 24 May 1974. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to ''The Conversation'' by Francis Ford Coppola. The festival opened with ''Amarcord'', directed by Federico Fellini and closed w ...
.


See also

*
List of American films of 1974 A list of American films released in 1974. '' The Godfather Part II'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highest-grossing films (U.S.) A–Z Documentaries See also * 1974 in the United States References External links 1974 films ...


References


External links

* * * *
Story from the Tuscaloosa News, May 4 1969, about Robert and Ila Dent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugarland Express 1974 films 1974 crime drama films 1974 directorial debut films 1970s crime comedy-drama films 1970s road movies American chase films American crime comedy-drama films American crime drama films American films based on actual events American neo-noir films American road movies Films scored by John Williams Films about hijackings Films directed by Steven Spielberg Films produced by David Brown Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck Films set in 1969 Films set in Houston Films set in Texas Films shot in Texas Films shot in San Antonio Films with screenplays by Matthew Robbins Southern Gothic films Universal Pictures films The Zanuck Company films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films