The Sugarland Express (1974)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Steven Spielberg (story) and
Hal Barwood (story) ...

Release Date:

5 April 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The true story of a girl who took on all of Texas...and almost won.

Plot:

Lou-Jean, a blonde woman, tells her husband, who is imprisoned, to escape. They plan to kidnap their own child...

Plot Keywords:

Hostage | Texas | Police | Prison | Shootout

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Goldie Hawn	...	Lou Jean Poplin
Ben Johnson	...	Captain Harlin Tanner
Michael Sacks	...	Patrolman Maxwell Slide
William Atherton	...	Clovis Michael Poplin
Gregory Walcott	...	Patrolman Ernie Mashburn
Steve Kanaly	...	Patrolman Jessup
Louise Latham	...	Mrs. Looby
Harrison Zanuck	...	Baby Langston Poplin
A.L. Camp	...	Mr. Alvin T. Nocker
Jessie Lee Fulton	...	Mrs. Nocker
Dean Smith	...	Russ Berry
Ted Grossman	...	Dietz
Bill Thurman	...	Hunter
Kenneth Hudgins	...	Standby
Buster Daniels	...	Drunk (as Buster Danials)

Also Known As:

Carte Blanche (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:M (video rating) | Iceland:12 | Brazil:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:18 (original rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Del Rio, Texas, USA

Company:

Zanuck/Brown Productions

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Steven Spielberg] [father]Clovis

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The "Texas" of this film is a figment of the filmmakers' imagination. The trip from just outside Houston to Sugar Land takes two days, and Sugar Land is a few miles from the Mexican border. In fact, Sugar Land is a municipality southwest of Houston, not much more than an hour from anywhere in the Houston metro area. And Houston is on the Texas Gulf Coast, two days' drive from the border.

Quotes:

Maxwell Slide: Is your name Buster Daniels?
Drunk: Well, it was before I married.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'Duel': A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

I've Been Working on the Railroad

Spielberg's first film is wonderful, a classic.

Haven't heard about "Sugarland Express" till recently and I had to see it because it was vintage Spielberg, and I'm a fan. And I wanted to see the young Goldie Hawn. I was not disappointed. It was one of these road-chase movies, bigger than life, but it was unique, especially because it was based on a true story. That fact made me incredulous throughout the film, but everything in Texas is supposed to be bigger than life.

Goldie desperately wants to get her baby back. She was in jail for some minor crimes and was found to be an unfit mother and her baby was put in a foster home and the foster parents were going to adopt him. Despite being a young girl, or maybe because of it, she was desperate to have her baby back. It was a love-child and the mother-love was passionate and obsessive. Hawn played the part to the hilt and used her sexuality and femininity to overcome the objections of her husband who was in a pre-release facility with low security.

She had a plan to help him escape, but he didn't want to risk it, take a chance of being caught and being incarcerated again. He only had four more months to serve. The other inmates were incredulous as they disguised themselves and got an old couple to give them a ride.

From this quiet beginning the film proceeded to repeated crescendos of drama and excitement. Try to imagine the young couple, young officer in tow, leading a chase of police cars, first a few, then a few dozen, then many dozen and ultimately hundreds, law-enforcement officers from all over the state and then snipers and a helicopter.

Lucky for the young couple an old-hand cop realized they were just a couple of kids and he staved off snipers with telescopic long-range rifles and a couple of vigilante gun-nuts.

You know something bad is going to happen at the end, because these kids didn't know what they were doing; they were madly in love and in a fantasy-land of getting their little boy back and living happily ever after in Mexico. Something bad happened, but something good happened. It will be worth your while to see this little classic from one of the greatest directors of the 20th century.