1941 **** (1979, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Treat Williams, Christopher Lee, Ned Beatty, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack) – Classic Movie Review 1,941

Steven Spielberg’s 1979 epic comedy film 1941 about a Japanese submarine arriving off Los Angeles, causing panic in the wake of Pearl Harbor, was a huge, unexpected flop. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Treat Williams and Christopher Lee are the main stars. 

Director Steven Spielberg’s extraordinary crash-bang-wallop 1979 epic comedy spectacular about a Japanese submarine arriving off Los Angeles, causing panic in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a huge, unexpected flop at the box-office, perhaps the only one of his brilliant career.

It cost and lost a fortune when it flopped, unfathomably so really, but arguably perhaps because as a comedy it’s crude, overblown and not always very funny. But there’s nothing much wrong with the story by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and John Milius, or the screenplay by Zemeckis and Gale. Maybe the theme of hysterical Californians preparing for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor just isn’t funny to most Americans.

Still, it’s a movie that is well worth watching for its on-form great, now vintage comic cast, the spectacular stunts and effects, and the youthful, boyish audacity and cheek of film-maker Spielberg, who seems to play with his movie as though it was his childhood train set.

John Belushi (as Captain Wild Bill Kelso), Dan Aykroyd (as Sergeant Frank Tree), Treat Williams (as Corporal Chuck ‘Stretch’ Sitarski) and Christopher Lee (as Captain Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt) are the main stars.

John Belushi stars as Captain Wild Bill Kelso.

The US TV version runs 26 minutes longer than the 118 minute cinema release version and the director’s cut runs 146 minutes. If you like it, you’ll be up for more of it. With a then vast $35 million cost, it took only $23 million in the US, though, weirdly, the Japanese liked it, and it took a lot of money there.

The film also stars Ned Beatty, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Elisha Cook Jnr, Slim Pickens, Nancy Allen, Bobby DiCicco and John Candy.

Also in the cast are Dianne Kay, Lucille Benson, Jordan Brian, Eddie Deezen, Perry Lang, Patti LuPone, J Patrick McNamara, Steven Mond, Wendie Jo Sperber, Lionel Stander, Dub Taylor, Michael McKean, David L Lander, Samuel Fuller, Joe Flaherty, Audrey Landers, Dick Miller, Mickey Rourke, James Caan and Penny Marshall.

1941 is directed by Steven Spielberg, is written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, shot by William A Fraker, produced by John Milius and Buzz Feitshans, scored by John Williams, and designed by Dean Edward Mitzner.

The year 2021 brought another bad shock for Steven Spielberg. His remake of West Side Story grossed $76 million against a $100 million production budget, making it a box-office bomb.

Retired American actress Lorraine Gottfried (born August 16, 1937), known as Lorraine Gary, is best known as Ellen Brody in Jaws and Jaws 2. She also appeared in 1941 and Car Wash. She retired from acting after her appearance in the film 1941 (1979), only briefly returning as Ellen Brody in Jaws: The Revenge (1987).

Richard Treat Williams (December 1, 1951 – June 12, 2023) is remembered for The Ritz (1979), Hair (1979), 1941 (1979), Prince of the City (1981), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Flashpoint (1984), Smooth Talk (1985), Dead Heat (1988), Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), The Phantom (1996), Mulholland Falls (1996), The Devil’s Own (1997), Deep Rising (1998), The Deep End of the Ocean (1999), Miss Congeniality 2 (2005), and Second Act (2018).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,941

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