The Sugarland Express

Eli Price (00:02.264)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmography's I am your host Eli price and I am going solo today. I Have done solo episodes in the past. This will be my first one covering a film by myself but just had some scheduling issues and so I had to Hop on this recording and and do it solo

But I am excited to continue in our early Steven Spielberg series that we're working through right now, covering the films of Steven Spielberg in the 70s and 80s, the first kind of third of his career. And yeah, I am excited about this. We are going to be covering the Sugarland Express today. This is Steven Spielberg's very first

feature film that was a theatrical release. He had some feature films that were kind of like TV made for TV movies. Um, and, uh, you know, last episode we covered, uh, three of those and, uh, one of them dual did have a theatrical release in Europe. And then later on in the U S it had a short theatrical run, but yeah, that's, that's kind of the, uh, still considered a TV movie made for TV. So.

This is really his first like theatrical release feature film. And yeah, I'm excited to dig into this today. The Sugarland Express. But before we get going, I just wanted to remind you that my, my podcast is listener supported. Everything that I do is either supported by you supporting podcasts financially.

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Eli Price (02:26.072)
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Eli Price (04:48.952)
Get into the film today. We're covering the Sugarland Express and Spielberg actually read a new story in the Hollywood Citizen News in 1969 about Baba and Bob Baba Bobby and Isla Ray Isla Fay Dent. I'm going to start that over. He read a story about Bobby and Isla Fay Dent and it might be ill of a I think it's Isla. It's I L .A.

It's a strange name, but, uh, I love Faden and he just knew as soon as he read this news story that he wanted to make a movie because it would make a really good story, uh, on film. And so, um, the real story involves a man fresh out of prison and, uh, his wife holding an officer hostage, making the, him drive them to, uh, to see their child who was being, um, who was under custody by his stepfather.

At the time. And, um, this, this original story has them driving 600 miles and, uh, over a hundred local police cars or right around a hundred local police cars, uh, involved in the chase. Um, and it ends with, uh, the release of the officer, the wife getting arrested and the husband, uh, Bobby dent getting killed. And, um, yeah, it's.

I mean, if you've seen the Sugarland Express, I hope you've seen it. If you're tuning in, we do deep dives and we cover everything. So, um, we're not gonna, it's a spoiler podcast. Basically. Um, don't listen to this if you don't want the movie spoiled. Um, but yeah, that, if you've seen the movie, which hopefully you have, if you're listening, um, or if you just want to hear about a movie Steven Spielberg made, that's fine too. I don't, it doesn't bother me. Um,

You will recognize that that is pretty much the plot of the movie. Husband and wife, the husband out of jail. They're trying to get their son who's in custody of someone else, take a police officer hostage. She gets, it ends with her getting arrested and the husband getting killed. That's pretty much the plot.

Eli Price (07:09.304)
And yeah, it's interesting. So Steven Spielberg kind of took the studi. This

He took this story to universal and, uh, really nobody that he was kind of, uh, I guess pitching the story to at universal thought it would be a viable movie to make. They, they just didn't think it would be profitable, I guess. And so he's pitching this movie. No one's taken it. Um, he, he had kind of gained favor with, um, this agent, um, who wasn't his agent, but, but.

He just knew him in the business. His name was Jennings Lane. And pretty soon after this, Jennings Lane became the vice president of universal pictures. And he liked Stephen and maybe I guess thought the story might be fine. And he greenlit the project finally. So Spielberg got began developing the script with two young screenwriters named Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins. They built.

The story pretty much around the reality of the original story, which if you just heard me say the original story and you've seen the movie, that's very much rings true. One thing they did though, is they shifted a high focus onto the character of Lou Jean, who's kind of the Isla Fey stand in the, in the film. And that was, that was kind of a decision they made, I guess, early on.

to make her kind of the main character, the focal point, the one through whom the whole story's perspective is kind of looked at. And so, yeah, they were developing the script. One thing they did was they went in April of 1972 to Texas, and they were kind of doing ride -alongs with officers in Texas, in that area, I guess. And yeah, just kind of seeing what they do.

Eli Price (09:15.384)
uh, following them around, uh, kind of just getting a feel for what it's like to be an officer in this area in Texas, uh, kind of the Houston area, I guess. Um, this is some, this is a quote, uh, from Matthew Robbins, one of the writers that I thought was, uh, just interesting. I thought I'd read it to share with, with you. Um, he says, quote, we'd showed up, we'd show up with our long hair and we felt like these guys wanted to show the little guys from Hollywood, the reality of life.

One day at the station, one of them opened his locker in front of us, which was lined with crime scene photos of dead bodies. He did it on purpose to see our reactions. Pools of blood, a half decapitated head. I've never forgotten those images." Unquote. So they had, I don't know if you could say a good time doing this, but they had a time, if that quote is any indication.

And so they did this for a bit. I guess they got their fill after seeing Disguised Locker went back and working on the script. And after a while, Universal executives ended up shelving the project for a bit because they still just didn't believe it could be profitable. Well, soon after that was shelved, producer, I think his first name is Richard, Richard Zanuck and

Brown Zanuck and Brown kind of became a pretty big producing duo in kind of the mid seventies on for a while and so Zanuck and Brown joined forces as this new producer duo and they they knew about Spielberg and they heard that about this film that he was wanting to develop and get going and Zanuck really

grabbed onto it. He wanted to make it. Um, he was meeting with the executives and of universal who him and Brown had kind of struck a deal with, and, uh, he convinced them that they could make the movie. One of the big things that convinced them, uh, to, to allow him to, to, you know, green light the program and to back it, the program, the project rather, and to back it was, uh, Xanax ace up his sleeve, which was that he.

Eli Price (11:40.13)
had Goldie Hawn interested in the project, who was a pretty big actress at that time. And he ends up getting the go -ahead from the head of Universal Studio, which at that time was Lou Wasserman. This guy was pretty still skeptical about the project at this point, but he believed in Zanuck as a producer.

Um, he believed in Spielberg as a director and, um, I guess Goldie Hawn was the one that tipped the scale. Cause he, I guess he kind of liked her as an actress, um, and thought, well, maybe this'll be, um, this'll end up doing all right with these three on the project. And, uh, yeah, he greenlit it and they, they got to work. Um, they, uh, the casting is interesting.

Goldie Hawn who plays Lu Jean, Lu Jean Poplin. She's kind of like I said, the main character focus in the film. She was recently nominated and won best supporting actress actress for Cactus Rose. Is that the name of the movie? I'm blanking on it now. I should have written it in my notes, but Cactus is definitely in the title. It was.

She won it for the 69 Oscars best supporting actress. And so, um, yeah, she's, she was pretty, um, pretty, I guess, like desired as an actress at that point in time. And, um, Spielberg was really happy, uh, with this casting decision with Zanuck being able to bring her on board, uh, because he just felt like she was the kind of ideal actress for the tone shift that happens in this movie. There's probably.

Uh, so I guess like before the final act, it kind of shifts from a more like comedic tone, wild zany tone to a more like dramatic tone. And, uh, Spielberg just felt like Goldie Hawn would be the perfect actress to, to kind of carry the audience through that shift and tone. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um, other, uh, casting decisions, um, you have William Atherton as Clovis Michael Poplin, the husband of Lujen.

Eli Price (14:02.872)
Um, he was a young stage actor, uh, at the, at the time, uh, I guess well known in that field, or at least known, um, and, um, and Michael Sachs plays, uh, the patrolman, Maxwell slide, the patrolman that, um, this couple in the movie ends up, uh, taking hostage and his, with his own, uh, police cruiser. And, um, Spielberg, uh, had said about casting Atherton and Sachs.

That they deliberately cast or deliberately cast to resemble one another. And he said, if not closely in body, then at least in spirit and attitude. And I think that's true. You know, you watch this movie and you you kind of get a feel for both the dynamic of each of these characters with Lujen. And she it is kind of like they do kind of have a similar dynamic with her. It's like they.

You know, she has something she wants to do. They try to convince her, Hey, that I don't think that's a good idea. And then she imposes her will and they crumble under, under her will. And yeah, it's, um, it's pretty funny. I think, um, to see that. And it rings true this quote from Spielberg that yeah, they were pretty similar in their attitude and then their, um, and the way they kind of interact and.

Um, have a dynamic with, uh, Goldie Hawn as, as Lou Jean. Um, you also have, um, the other kind of, I guess, big name you could say it would be Ben Johnson, um, as the captain, Captain Harlan Taner. Um, he's the, I guess he's the other person in the movie that you, you see the most and the, the other big, probably the biggest name after Hawn that's in the movie. Um.

And, uh, he was a kind of a veteran actor at this point. He had been in a lot of Westerns was, was kind of his most, where most of his experience was, um, uh, not, not in a ton of lead roles. Um, but he, he had a lot of, um, supporting roles in movies like the wild bunch, Shane and Rio Grande, um, a lot more. And, um, he really, really, uh, one of the things he was cast for was to play this kind of quasi -praternal authority figure.

Eli Price (16:26.674)
For especially Hans lugeen, but I guess I guess a little bit of for Clovis as well And and yeah, I think he plays that really well in the movie some other little fun fact Casting decisions a lot of the secondary roles were given to just Texans that they they found off the street the baby Langston pop pop Lynn the the son of

in the movie is played by Harrison Zanuck, who is the producer, Zanuck's son. So that's fun. And another kind of, I guess you could say...

Eli Price (17:17.144)
fun appearance in the movie is James Kenneth Cron, who was the real life officer that was taken hostage. He plays a sheriff at one point in the movie. So that's, that's fun to have him come on to. The one of the casting decisions that I thought was funny is this guy named Buster Daniels.

Uh, so apparently when, uh, Spielberg and the, the writers were doing those ride -alongs in Texas with officers, they came across this guy that was like passed out drunk in his car. Um, I guess on the side of road or a parking lot or something. And, uh, you know, waking the guy up and interacting with them, uh, Spielberg, I guess, decided we need to have this guy in the movie. And, uh, they did, they, they ended up casting him. He plays the, um,

towards the beginning of the movie, the guy that's in the back of the police cruiser with with officer slide. He is the kind of the drunk guy that is in the car and and, you know, gets out when the car wrecks and runs off. So I thought that was really funny, just this guy, this drunk guy in Texas, Buster Daniels got to have any speaking lines to he's not just like.

there to look at he, he's like interacting with the officer and stuff. I just thought that was funny. Um, yeah, they, they get the story done and, um, production, uh, get started in January of 1973. Um, they have a two and a half million dollar budget, uh, and they get to work. I want to say I saw, um, one of the sources I use, which is if you're watching on YouTube, it's right over here over my head. It's.

Uh, Steven Spielberg, all the films, it's the name of the book. It's a relatively new one. It usually gives, um, the, like the modern day equivalent of this money. So I want to say the 2 .5 million kind of came out to like 7. something million and, uh, and today's, you know, adjusting for inflation and whatnot. Um, but yeah, two and a half million dollar budget and, uh, Spielberg needed to establish himself early.

Eli Price (19:35.924)
uh, to kind of earn the respect of the cast and crew and you know, if you, if you've been listening along in this series, that's kind of something up to this point where you kind of know like his, his start in television and, um, doing show episodes, uh, episodes for TV shows and these TV movies, there was a lot of kind of turning up your nose at Spielberg done by the, is the cast and crew, uh,

just because he was so, so young. I mean, it's, it's 1973. He was born in 1946. Uh, so you're talking about, um, a 27 year old, um, that's, you know, leading the production of this, um, feature film. Um, and yeah, it, it's, it's just one of those things. He was like, okay, I, I know what it's like to deal with the, with being looked down on because of my age.

So I'm going to come in and right off the bat, I'm going to do a complicated shot to show, you know, what I'm capable of that. I know what I'm doing that I'm in charge. And yeah, that's what he did. He, I don't, the source I was reading this from didn't say what shot that might've been, but I'd imagine it was an early shot because they did shoot this in pretty chronological order. So.

Yeah. He, uh, he start starts off with a complicated shot. Um, I, you know, I assume he nailed it because he's students billboard. Um, and he was really good as a director, even from an early age. And yeah, he, um, he also, one of the things, uh, that I was reading was that he really was showed willingness, even though he knew what he wanted to do. He was taken charge.

He still showed a willingness to kind of listen to good ideas and make changes where those changes needed to be made, which is always a sign of a good director when they're willing to make changes, when those changes kind of call for being made. And like one example is he came across this Wiley Coyote Roadrunner thing and he kind of gets this idea to use it. And you do end up seeing that there in the RV and the

Eli Price (21:56.472)
It's playing like at a drive -in kind of next to where this RV is. And yeah, that part wasn't originally in the script, but he just kind of had this idea. I don't know if he heard it from someone or just saw this cartoon and thought it might be a good idea. And yeah, ends up working with Robbins to work that into the script, make the adjustment, make the change. And yeah, so that's one example of that. And Xanic2, he really...

worked on making a cocoon of sorts to protect Spielberg. He, he gave him people that would work well with him and tried to get him the people he requested to work with. And so, yeah, I really do think that Zanuck and Brown were really good for him early on in his career. They would go on to, they also produced the Sting, which probably shot around the same time.

Um, and it came out a little before this movie did, uh, and it was a pretty big, um, hit the sting with, um, Robert Shaw who ends up being in Jaws, which Zanuck and Brown do produce as well. Um, so yeah, they're, they're pretty big early on in, uh, as producers and Spielberg's early career getting going. And so, uh, yeah, I'm sure Spielberg appreciated, uh, Zanuck and how he really.

came along beside him and believed in him and tried to set him up for success. That's to something as I've been doing these director series. Typically early on, what you see in these successful directors careers is that they have people that really kind of fight for them and put their name on the line for them and try to just...

You know, try to help them jumpstart their career and, um, SID, SID, SID, Sheinberg did that for, um, for Spielberg early on. And it seems like Xanuck and Brown really did that as well. So I'm sure he appreciates those guys. Um, yeah. Uh, so like I said, this movie was shot mostly chronologically, um, from, from Houston to San Antonio. Um, so part of it was just, they kind of, it made most sense.

Eli Price (24:23.8)
I guess probably schedule wise and budget wise to shoot it chronologically moving along this highway. But yeah, it shot chronologically. This is how Steven Spielberg likes to shoot. I've heard him talk about how he really prefers to shoot chronologically so that the story can work out as it will so that actors don't get confused or misplaced and where they are in the timeline of the movie.

And also so that he can make kind of adjustments along the way. If, if the story is going in a certain direction, um, this is one of the things he couldn't do with Jaws. Uh, it was just, he had to shoot the set pieces on land. And then once it was time to shoot stuff on the ocean, you had to shoot the ocean stuff. It was kind of like, he, he couldn't really shoot everything in chronological order. So, um, so yeah, this is, that's something that he prefers to do. And they were able to do with this movie.

But yeah, as far as production design goes, really a lot of the production design, there's not a whole lot to it. It's a lot of on -location shooting. I don't know that they necessarily built any sets or anything for this one.

I really think it was all just like shot on location as they went, uh, went from Houston to San Antonio and, um, uh, just kind of found locations along the way to shoot in, uh, you know, and if you watch the movie, that's kind of the fill you get, you don't feel like anything's really on set and there's not really anything in the movie that could be on set except for maybe the house at the end. Um, but even that, you know, you, you pull up, you're pulling up to the house and you see.

The guy walking out, I don't see why they wouldn't have just shot in the house. Um, but yeah. Um, one of the things, uh, he did do, which he maybe pulled this kind of from his, uh, his maps that he used to, to kind of, uh, map out what they were going to shoot each day for dual. Uh, if you listen to that episode, but he, uh, in his office, uh, at the studio, I guess he built this giant storyboard.

Eli Price (26:48.216)
Uh, and it detailed all the shots, uh, that they were going to be doing along the way. And, um, yeah, he, he worked really hard to do that, uh, to, I guess, make that giant storyboard to make it kind of easier for, uh, for him and his crew to see what they were doing. Um, and this is probably, I would guess, I don't think he really did much storyboarding for Jaws, uh, maybe a little bit. Um.

Eli Price (28:21.432)
But yeah, this would be something that you would see, that we'll see as we work through his filmography, is that he is really big on storyboarding. It's just something that he believes in, that he really wants for people to see his cast and crew so that they really all are on the same page. And yeah, it kind of all starts here with this movie. And...

Other than that, as far as production design, they did only have money for 40 police cars, which if you remember the original story has like a hundred. I think he did do some work with like some miniature modeling or something to get some stuff. I didn't really see much about that. There's not a whole lot out there on this movie of the making of. And in fact, I bought the Blu -ray, which you can see right here if you're watching.

thinking like, oh, sweet, I'll get some special features. Nope, no special features. There are no special features on the Blu -ray, which I was very disappointed with. But I did get to watch the Blu -ray. And nice. So a better picture probably than streaming. But yeah, it really like he makes have, at some point, he makes those 40 cars look like 100 cars.

just the way he shoots them coming over the hills and on the highway and all that. Really, I feel like it's pretty impressive and pretty big scale stuff. He also, the guy that worked with him doing like some stunt driving in Duel also worked with him.

on this maybe for doing some of the stunts with the driving. I'm blanking on his name off the top of my head. Carrie Lofton, I pulled it up in time on my phone to remember. But yeah, Carrie Lofton, he worked with Spielberg on Duel too. I'm pretty sure he was the guy that drove the truck, the main antagonist.

Eli Price (30:47.48)
And so, yeah, he worked with him in some of the doing some of the stunts and all that kind of stuff for Sugarland Express as well. Talking about the cinematography and the camera work, Spielberg really wanted to work with cinematographer. Oh, where's his name? Vilmos Zygmunt. He was a Hungarian -American cinematographer. He did it.

worked on a ton of really popular movies. And some of them, some of them before. So the long goodbye, the Robert Altman film, Deliverance, John Borman film were a couple that he had worked on the big one. I think the long goodbye was one that Spielberg referenced and also McCabe and Mrs. Miller was another both Altman films that.

Zygmunt had worked on as a cinematographer. And yeah, he really wanted to work with this guy as his DP. And yeah, Zanuck was able to get another example of Zanuck getting Spielberg the man he wanted. And so, yeah, he gets Zygmunt on for this movie.

Zygmunt would go on to work with him on Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well, so I'm sure we'll talk more about him there. But yeah, one thing that they agreed with early on, and maybe just in their philosophy of how this should be shot, is they really wanted to use a lot of natural lighting to kind of get that documentary feel, since it is kind of based loosely on this.

true story. They wanted to really give that doc feel to this movie using a lot of natural lighting, not a lot of artificial. And that's probably another reason that it's shot mostly like on location because that's how you get natural light. Shoot outside on location. But one of the, one of the cool things about this movie is at that time, Panavision who, if you're unaware, Panavision is a pretty big, um,

Eli Price (33:08.874)
manufacturer of cameras that are, they're still a pretty big company today. In fact, I'm pretty sure at least maybe two, maybe three even of the best picture nominees for the this, this 20, 24 Oscars were shot with a painted vision camera. So they're still, it's, it's still a big, uh, widely used camera, uh, brand, but at this time,

They were coming out with a new camera called the Panaflex and it was kind of like a very compact mobile camera that they were developing. They were looking for a test run for a feature and they chose Sugarland Express over around 130 other applicants. And yeah, so this is the first feature film that uses camera. One of the things that, um,

because it was so compact and mobile. One of the great things about it was they really got some amazing shots inside the car. They installed it inside the car and it allowed for them to get these like 360 degree shots in the car. So there's one of the best examples of this is there's a scene where Captain Tanner is coming up.

He's behind their car where, um, where, uh, the poplins, the main couple and, uh, officer slide are in, uh, and he's behind the car. He goes around the car. He kind of comes into the left lane, passes them up and, uh, and comes back in, uh, in front of them. And, uh, the camera is pointed out the back windshield and it fought, it's able to follow his car going past them.

And it ends with him in front of them shooting from the back seat, uh, out of the wind, out of the front windshield, um, at Tanner's, uh, uh, patrol car. And so, uh, and then he, they, there's some things or some discussion is exchanged over the radio and, uh, Tanner goes back. He's, he gets back in the left lane, slows down, lets them pass and gets back behind them. Um,

Eli Price (35:32.6)
and the camera follows him in the car. So you get these really cool shots that I guess no shots like that had been done before because this was a really a brand new camera being used. So I thought that was really cool. And also it was a very, it was like a silent camera. So they were able to pick up dialogue in the car as they were going.

because they could. The camera wasn't too noisy. They were able to record the dialogue in the car. So that, I'm sure, was super helpful with less to do in post -production, with re -recording vocals, and being able to capture the actors in action in the middle of the scene.

instead of having to fix stuff in post and getting that more realistic sound. So yeah, that's another really cool thing about the camera. They also did some shots where they took the tires off of the car to kind of lower it down and had it on a trailer being pulled. And they had this like kind of platform set up around the car on the trailer.

And the camera was mounted on this and was able to move around the car to get some shots that way from the outside of the car. So they really, really took this test run to heart and tried to utilize this camera in many different facets. So I thought that was really interesting and cool to read about and hear about. Yeah.

Another, another couple of collaborations other than with his collaboration with cinematographers Vilma Zygman was Verna Fields. Verna Fields was a pretty accomplished, accomplished editor. She was, she was just a great editor. She would go on to work with Spielberg on Jaws as well. And, and did a great job with that, but yeah, she.

Eli Price (37:53.944)
Uh, in the summer of 73, when they were done shooting, um, she worked with Spielberg. Um, I think they finished shooting. They started in January, finished in March of 73 and then spent the summer of 73 editing this movie together. Um, another, uh, collaboration. This was, um, his first feature film and his first collaboration with, uh, uh, composer John Williams. And so, um, yeah, that's.

Really cool. John Williams goes all the way back to the beginning of Spillberg's career. And yeah, the score really has this kind of Americana feel to it. Varying like Western Americana sounding score. It has some a lot of harmonica by a guy named Toots Thielmans, who I know nothing about. But if you're Americana,

Harmonica connoisseur, I'm sure you'll recognize that name. I didn't look up this guy I should have to kind of hear hear his harmonica expertise, but um, but yeah, he also has a fun I don't know if his eyes his first real first name or a nickname, but Yeah toots that's a that's great Yeah, so those are some of his collaborations

One of the things kind of late in the process, they did a test screening and Spielberg noticed that it really wasn't getting good reactions from the audience. And I guess from either discussions afterwards or usually when you do test screenings, people fill out a form afterwards to kind of, that kind of gets out of them what worked, what didn't work, that sort of thing.

And Spielberg noticed that really like there was a real problem with the change of tone in the movie. There's that that tone shift from kind of comedic to dramatic. And part of the reason was because Goldie Hawn was more known as a comedic actress. And so that kind of threw people off when the movie turned dramatic. And and really the in their original the original.

Eli Price (40:17.528)
of this movie, there was a lot more gags in the first kind of half to two thirds of the movie before that tone shift to a more dramatic sort of ending. And so, yeah, that shift just kind of threw people off. And Spielberg, one thing that we'll start seeing with Spielberg is when something is not working,

Um, he will make the changes and he will make the cuts necessary to make it work. Um, and he, he's starting off early in his career, right off the bat. Um, he, this test screening happens, he's not happy with the results. And so he cuts out about 20 minutes, um, is what I read of like gags and stuff like that from the beginning of the movie. Um, and so there, apparently this movie got cut down 20 minutes, um, before it was released.

Um, which it's the, the release we got is 110 minutes. So I can't really imagine this being 130 minutes. Um, but maybe they, maybe they shifted some stuff around, took some stuff out, um, added some stuff back in. Um, I don't really know exactly how that worked, but, um, I do know that when they did, um, subsequent test screenings, it, it worked a little better, um, without having so many gags.

In the beginning of the movie where people were more willing to go along with the tone shift To the more dramatic in the final act So, yeah this movie was it came in I guess around budget I didn't really see exactly if they went over or under but it made makes it seem like it came in right around what the budget was supposed to do and

Yeah, it was only five days over schedule, which for a movie you're shooting on location, going from Houston to San Antonio is actually probably pretty, pretty good. And I do know I read that Zanuck, the producer was pretty delighted with, with this, which, um, the, the funny thing is, as you, as we'll see next week with Jaws is, um, Jaws was like the opposite experience of, of that. Um, but yeah, we'll get into that next week. Um,

Eli Price (42:43.594)
Spielberg was also allowed to work and be highly involved with the promotional material, which he really appreciated for this movie. And yeah, it was originally slated to release in December of 73. And here come the Universal executives, once again, not believing in this movie. And they get cold feet.

and ended up pushing it back to April of 1974. And that is, I think it had like a trial run maybe with a New York release at the end of March of 74, and then it got its proper wide release on April 5th of 1974. And it ended up with a worldwide box office of $7 .5 million in revenue.

And I'd say that's pretty good return on on two and a half million. It's it's over a hundred percent return. And so that I think that's saying something. And so, yeah, with with Spielberg sticking to budget coming in with good with the schedule, the movie makes a good bit relative to how much the budget of the movie.

Yeah, this, this is one of those things where you make, you make a movie efficiently and you make a movie, um, that, that gets the studio profits. You're going to get to make more movies. Um, and so, yeah, this movie, um, you know, dual got him the opportunity and this movie, um, gets him, you know, the chance to do some, some bigger stuff. Um, and you know, I think.

We all know we're going to talk about it next week, but I think we all know what Jollis did for his career. Joll's really catapulted him, um, and, uh, in his favor with the studios. And so. Yeah, it's, um, yeah, you know, this is just something, this is something that like, not quite as much with Anderson, but definitely with, um, with Nolan that you saw as well.

Eli Price (45:04.792)
when we went through his filmography is that early on, they're really making the studios happy, getting them good returns on their product. And so that's just like, I think as we work through more and more directors that are hugely successful like this, I think that's what we're gonna see is making the studios happy early on really buys you a lot of time and a lot of...

money with the studios to make the things that you want to make. Yeah. So, uh, one of the things that did come out of this that I thought was funny was the real woman. I love Faye Dent. I love made no, I love Faye Dent. Uh, and some of her family members, um, were not happy cause they were not, uh, they were not informed that.

Her and her husband's story was going to be used as an inspiration for a movie and they Drove I think they were in California. They drove there from there to Texas or maybe the opposite I'm second -guessing myself now. They drove a good ways to to meet with the Spielberg and the Universal executives and Issue you know issue their complaint. I don't know if they

threatened to sue, I would imagine probably so. And they walked away with settling for $1 and a color TV set. And I guess that was enough to make them happy. And I don't know, that cracked me up. You know, hey, I see you're angry. How about $1 and we'll throw in a color TV? And they're like, deal.

I really liked that. But yeah, this the reception of this movie was a little bit back and forth. It was kind of a disappointment as far as just like the general audience goes. Not really a whole lot of like fanfare, but it did make back its budget kind of in kind of tripled its budget out, I think. And so, yeah, you know, it.

Eli Price (47:31.16)
It's, it's like, it didn't get a whole lot of fanfare, but it's not like a movie that maybe would get that. And, um, but it did well enough to do well profit wise. And so, you know, while it didn't have like this big praise from the general audience, it also like, wasn't like maligned either by the general audience. Um, just kind of like middle of the road, which for Spielberg was a bit of a disappointment, um, is what it seems like.

Um, but it didn't get it's it's fair amount of praise from critics and other filmmakers. Um, in fact, uh, Billy Wilder himself, um, at one point said, quote, the director of that movie is the greatest young talent to come along in years, unquote. And, uh, that's pretty high praise for, um, a big director like Billy Wilder who, um, by the way, I would really love to do a series on Billy Wilder's films.

Um, you know, I was debating doing that before I decided on Spielberg. Uh, but yeah, so be looking forward to that. Cause I definitely am going to, to cover a wilder at some point, uh, a fascinating career. Um, anyways, um, it also got praise from some critics, um, Pauline Kale, um, who, um, is, uh, she's probably most famous for the, the P the, the,

long form piece she wrote about Citizen Kane back in the day, but she was kind of known as a critic that was like, I don't know exactly how to put it. She was, she could be pretty harsh, I guess is the best way to put it on movies. And, uh, Kale actually was, was pretty positive on this movie. She was kind of wary about the sort of director he might be.

Um, but this is a quote that I, that I got from kale in a, in her review of the movie. She said, quote, he could be that rarity among directors, a born entertainer, perhaps a new generations Howard Hawks in terms of the pleasure that technical assurance gives an audience. This film is one of the most phenomenal debut films in the history of movies. Unquote that is, uh, that's.

Eli Price (49:55.256)
That's that sounds pretty good coming from a person like Pauline Kale, uh, who, um, who was known as being kind of a pretty harsh, hard, maybe not hard to please, but like your movie had better be real good for her to, um, to give it high praise. And, uh, she just, she kind of saw in, in Spielberg kind of, you know, that she, she says the technical assurance, just that knack for what to do with.

the camera to draw the audience in, to please the audience, to excite the audience, to help the audience sympathize with your characters, which we'll talk about. And yeah, I thought that was a really interesting kind of take from Kale. But he also got his fair share of negative reviews as well. He, in kind of foreshadowing,

some of the, I guess, criticism he would get as a filmmaker that we'll probably get more into that next week with Jaws because of the nature of how big Jaws was as a movie. But this quote that I'm going to read kind of foreshadows that thought process of the sort of filmmaker Spielberg was in the eyes of some critics. But this is from Stephen Farber in the New York Times review.

He said, quote, the Sugarland Express is a prime example of the new style factory movie, slick, cynical, mechanical, empty. Everything is underlined. Spielberg sacrifices narrative logic and character consistency for quick thrills and easy laughs.

So yeah, that was kind of, I guess you could say like that kind of foreshadows some of the criticisms that would get even more amplified with the release and success of Jaws. This idea that Spielberg was really at the end of the day just about cheap thrills. He didn't really have a knack for deep care.

Eli Price (52:13.464)
development or he didn't have, you know, just kind of that sort of like very like snooty, you could say, pretentious view on what movies should or shouldn't be. And yeah, he definitely would get that. But yeah, so I'm looking at awards. It didn't get any Oscar nominations or anything like that. It was...

At the the Cannes Film Festival in 74 it actually won best screenplay, which is pretty impressive I would say to win that at Cannes and It was also a Palme d 'Or nominee didn't win the Palme d 'Or which is the the Palme d 'Or is like a the grand prize of the Cannes Film Festival And it was nominated and didn't win Yeah, that's that's kind of a big deal

for that move for a debut film, you know, to debut at Cannes and get that kind of, or at least, I don't know if it debuted there, but it showed at Cannes. And to, you know, get nominated for the Palme d 'Or and win best screenplay, that's a big deal. But yeah, that's kind of it as far as like production and release and all that goes. I do want to kind of move into some key points of this movie.

And let's start off with some of the lessons that it seems like Spielberg really learned here and took along through his career. So one of the things that you can probably guess from what we've talked about so far is that he really learned to pay attention to mood. He ended up having to go in and do a lot of extra editing and cutting.

after that test screening because he just, I guess he just hadn't paid attention to the mood of the movie. How am I leading my audience through this? Is it going to, is it going to be good for my audience this sudden tone shift and this, the mood that I am expressing and leading them through. And so he learned that and he learned to guide his viewers and their perception of the complete.

Eli Price (54:41.048)
And then to do this also with the marketing, with the promotional stage. Let your viewers know what to expect and don't do too much to betray that trust, I guess. And I think you can start to see that with Jaws, the promotional material for Jaws. And Jaws, you're never like, it's never in question. Is this a comedy? Is this a drama? Is this a thriller? You kind of know what the tone and the mood is. And you...

It's the same thing with Raiders or with Close Encounters. These big movies that start to follow this is you see that Spielberg tends to stick with a tone. Now, he does have drama and comedy and different things going on in movies, but the general overall mood or tone, he starts to work more consistently as far as that goes. This one does have a pretty dramatic shift.

there for the final act that um that personally does i think too like uh didn't exactly work for me um uh but uh i did enjoy a lot of the like comedy and gags i thought it was pretty situ it had a lot of like situational humor that was um kind of chuckle worthy um but yeah that then when you go into very like melodramatic uh tonal shift um it is kind of a little jarring.

So that's a that's a big lesson that Spielberg I think learned in this film as far as the plotting goes to I Don't know for me So I'll say this I did enjoy this movie, but overall I think it's really just kind of a fine movie. It's it's just okay And that's fine for a debut feature feature film, you know, I think

Honestly for me, this was a bit of a step down from duel. I like to do a decent amount more than this movie Which is really saying a lot for a TV movie To be better than your first theatrical movie and I think in general people would would probably agree with that sentiment from what I gather But yeah, I don't know for me the the problem with this movie is that it just gets very low

Eli Price (57:09.528)
laborious there's a bit of repetitiveness to Maybe not like the dialogue or what's going on but just like the general circumstances Because it's just one long chase I don't know. I wrote down in my notes when I was watching the movie that It was it was a little bit before the hour mark of the movie, which again, this is

This is a movie that's an hour and 50 minutes long. And so not even I guess. Yeah. Right around the halfway point of the movie, I wrote down that I was just it was just getting laborious. It's like, OK, let's let's move on. And maybe it has something to do with the fact that.

It is just one long chase scene. It feels like you're watching the same sorts of things just in different circumstances over and over. Or maybe it's, it has to do a little bit with the pacing of the film. Maybe it has to do with a lot of the first half of the movie is kind of like, okay, what's another gag we can kind of pull with these kinds of crazy kids.

That'll get that can get a laugh and it just kind of gets to the point where it's like, okay, where are we going with this? I know we're it's I know they're on the run. They have the hostage the police are chasing them. Okay, where are we going with this? And for me personally, I just felt like it just kind of bit Repetitive and then you know at about that hour mark. I just started to felt like okay This is just kind of ridiculous. Like why?

Why don't they stop these guys? Why? I just didn't get it. It was hard for me to like, I don't know, it was just hard for me to like get on board with what was happening narratively in the movie. And yeah, it does have some good gags. I'll say that. My favorite one was with the old couple. So early on, Lou Jean baked

Eli Price (59:26.488)
breaks Clovis out of jail and They get they get in the car with this older couple. They're like, hey Where y 'all headed? Oh, yeah, we're heading there too. Do you mind giving us a ride our ride didn't show up or something and It's a they get in the car with this old couple the old couple first of all, the old man is driving like I mean 20 miles an hour down a highway nowhere

gets pulled over from a, by a cop because he's going too slow, which is already pretty funny situationally. And then he, uh, he, they, he, him and his wife can have a car and, um, you know, uh, Julie, um, wow. My mind is just like all over the place. Lou Jean, not Julene. Um, and, uh, Clovis, uh, get nervous. And so they still, they get in the.

They get up in the front seat and steal the car and drive off. And, um, the officer just leaves the whole couple on the side of the road. And he's like, y 'all stay put. I'll be back. And, uh, you know, of course, you know, he chases the car down. It's a long chase scene, which is actually really well done. I'll say that it's a great chase scene. I'm sure. I'm sure, uh, Carrie Lofton, the stunt, uh, driver really had a lot to do with making that, um, a great chase scene.

through this little town and ends with, you know, the little wreck of the car. But yeah, so an officer drives, you know, they get an ID on the car and there's this chase and all the cops are heading into this town in the area to find this car. And so an officer is on the highway and he stops next to this old couple and he's like,

What you know, what's the story while y 'all out here and They're like somebody's this couple stole our car. They said they were I don't know whatever and the officers like are you Is it this car and he's like, yeah. Yeah, and he's like, are you this man? He's like, yeah, and he's like he's like, alright y 'all stay put he just drives off and leaves them on the side of the road to Really really cracked me up

Eli Price (01:01:51.544)
And actually Steven Spielberg had said, um, and, um, in the making of jaws documentary, he had said that he really wanted to have this old couple in jaws as well. He wanted to kind of be like, kind of a, if you know, you know, kind of funny call back to sugarland express, um, where the old couple pulls up and gets out of their car, uh, maybe even the same car. If, uh, that's what I would have done. Um, and, um, you know, walk on.

beach or whatever. Uh, so I'll thought that that didn't make it in jaws, but, um, that would have been, that kind of would have been funny, you know, uh, to see, um, but yeah, there's, there's other funny gags. I think, uh, just a lot of situational stuff. Like one of the things that came to mind was, uh, Lou gene and the inter in their car with these two guys just spraying on the hairspray and they start coughing. Um, pretty funny. Um,

her like looking through the gold stamp catalog, which I didn't know what that was. I looked it up. Apparently it was this, you could collect these gold stamps and redeem them for all sorts of stuff in these catalogs. Um, uh, really strange, strange and specific piece of American history or Texas history, probably, um, more specifically. Uh, but yeah, really.

There's some good gags in the stuff and in the movie, there's some funny like such relational things. Goldie Hawn is Lujen is really like very comically ditzy and naive in the movie. And a lot of that stuff works pretty well. But again, I really think the narrative gets gets bogged down, gets very laborious.

And on top of that, the tone shift that happens at the end is a little bit jarring, even with the changes that Spielberg made. I personally think this would have been a really, really good like 90, 95 minute movie, you know, cut about 20, 15 to 20 more minutes out of this. And I probably would have liked it more.

Eli Price (01:04:11.64)
You could have had a more like efficient, quicker pacing to it. But again, this is just it's his first feature film. He's his first like real budget to work with. I mean, it's not a lot, but it's a it's not four hundred and fifty thousand dollars that he made dual with. And so, yeah, you know, you want to try to do a bigger movie. And, you know, I get it. But also like.

It's one of those things where it's like, okay, you know, there's potential here, you know, there's, there's room to move upward in his career with this movie. Um, and then, so, you know, let's, let's jump back to this. Cause one of the things I do want to talk about is the, the, some of the areas that you do see potential in for Spielberg in this movie. And, um,

A lot of the potential that you see comes from just the way this movie is shot. The really intriguing imagery you get and the really like phenomenal camera work that you see. You know, we talked about that, that shot from inside of the car following, following Captain Tanner's patrol car around them to the front and back. Just a phenomenal feat of camera work.

knowing what to do with the camera. And yeah, you get a lot of this. You get a lot of rack focus with characters. Rack focus is basically where you have a character in the foreground and a character in the background, and you switch the focus back and forth. So you might switch where you've got the person in the foreground in focus.

to the person in the background being in focus. And this is a technique that Spielberg would use a lot through his career. And it's used really well because part of the reason is because Spielberg is really good at blocking scenes and his composition of how he fits his characters into the frame and makes them. The way he composes his frames,

Eli Price (01:06:34.232)
which just means basically like where he puts the characters within the set, within the setting. It's just it looks good. It's intriguing. It's it's dynamic. He has characters move around a lot. And even like within the car, he found ways to like have the characters move around within the composition of the scene. And a lot of his composition.

is just like primed for character and relationship building. So building the character and also building connections between characters, showing the dynamics between these characters relationally. He's just very good at that. And also another thing you see is his...

Um, it's his use of camera movement. Um, and he, he doesn't just move the camera just with ease and with, um, with precision, but he, he does interesting things with it. Um, he, there's this shot where like the camera is, uh, kind of moving up, uh, some it's, it's, I'm.

It's been actually a couple of weeks since I watched this, so I'm going off of memory. But I believe it's like moving up a car and it uses this kind of something with the car, like getting close to the camera to like transition. Or now you're looking through the windshield, which you were kind of moving up towards anyway. But now you're in a different sequence. And so it's this use of camera movement to transition to the next scene. And it's smooth and it's just it's just smart. And it's not like.

It's not like a obvious thing. It's not like, ooh, look what he just did with the camera. You know, I was like that because I was looking for it. But but it is it's it's this smooth, seamless camera movement and transitions, and he's doing interesting, intriguing things with it. And I just love it. Yeah, I already talked about the.

Eli Price (01:08:58.776)
the framing of that early car stealing chase. It's excitingly shot. It's comical. It's comically shot. You get some kind of slap stickiness even with the way the cars, the way he shoots the cars chasing. And it's almost Looney Tune like, you know, you kind of get, it makes me think of like if you're looking down a hallway in a cartoon and there's, you know, a character chasing another character.

And they kind of go in and outdoors and they end up coming like out of doors different ways and they'll come out. They'll, they might come out with the wrong person, chasing the person that was, uh, the person that was being pursued, chasing the person that was chasing them. Um, and so, uh, you know, think about those sorts of, uh, gags and, um, and cartoons and, uh, you get a little bit of that sense with the way this car.

Um, this car chase is kind of like framed and shot. Um, and so, and you know, Spielberg was a big fan of like cartoons like that. And so, you know, it's, it only makes sense that he would decide to shoot, um, a car chase in this way. Um, yeah. Uh, one of, um, there's, there's two really, really cool shots to that. I wanted to point out one is earlier on in the movie.

There's, um, we, I talked about how, um, Ben Johnson was cast to be this kind of quasi paternal figure and fairly, I don't remember at what point in the movie this happens. Maybe, maybe it's earlier, maybe it's around the halfway point, but basically you have this shot where you see, um, you're looking through the windshield of Tanner's.

Captain Tanner's patrol car and Lou Jean is looking out of the back windshield of the there the Officer Slide's patrol car where they have him hostage driving. They're driving down the road Captain Tanner following them. So you look out the windshield and You see Lou Jean looking back at him And then in the top of the frame

Eli Price (01:11:18.57)
is his rear view mirror and you see his eyes in the rear view mirror. And so it almost gives this like split screen kind of effect without actually being split screen. So for one, like phenomenal, like composition for that, the framing of that shot, just so, so cool and interesting. And then on top of that, it's like I said, it's not just there to be cool.

What you get in that scene is the look in Captain Tanner's eyes and the way that Goldie Hawn looks back at him. It's you, you get this feel that there's this kind of father, daughter kind of quasi father, daughter empathy happening. You know, it's like she, the way she's looking at him is like, I know you want to help me, but I am, I'm, I'm rebellious.

And that's just the way it's going to be. And I know that you want to help me and I appreciate that, but I've got to do what I've got to do. Like you get that from the way she's looking back at him and you get, you get there. It does cut to him, you know, through his front windshield, looking at back at her at one point, but even before it does that with just his eyes in the rear view mirror.

You get the sense that he's responding in turn to the way she's looking at him. Uh, this kind of understanding of, I know why you're doing what you're doing. I understand. I've got, I've got to try to stop you because what's going to be best for you is for me to stop you. It's this like, there's a lot happening in that shot. And that's one of those shots. That's like, okay.

It's probably one of the shots that made Pauline Kael say, OK, this guy knows what he's doing. And I really appreciated that shot. It just stunned me. I was like, man, that's an amazing shot. The other one is more just kind of like it works narratively. I'll say that, but it is like more along the lines of a cool shot. It's the classic vertigo shot that.

Eli Price (01:13:38.616)
That's what I call it anyway. It's the shot from the beginning of Vertigo, where James Stewart's character, I don't remember his name, is hanging from the rooftop and he's looking down the alley and you get this weird like stretching effect where it makes the alley look like it's stretching to kind of like indicate his fear of heights. And, um, uh,

The way that that shot is done is that you, the camera's on a dolly and you get this reverse tracking shot. That just means the camera's moving away from the subject that it's shooting on a dolly backwards, a reverse tracking shot. It's on a track going in reverse, the camera, but at the same time you're zooming, you're zooming the lens while you're moving the camera backwards. And so it,

creates this kind of stretching effect on screen. And Spielberg uses this more towards the end of the movie in the final act. They're going to the house where they think that their son is with these foster parents. And you have a sniper sitting in the window waiting for them.

It's just these officers that are there just waiting and you get this kind of, um, uh, it basically like this, the snipers in the foreground, you're looking through the window in the car, uh, that they're in is approaching the house from the road and the, in the distance. And Spielberg uses that vertigo shot, the reverse tracking zoom simultaneous simultaneous.

reverse tracking and zoom on the sniper through the window. And you get that stretching effect. And the way that works on screen, like the effect that it has on the viewer, I guess is the better way to say it is, it is kind of like a.

Eli Price (01:15:55.256)
It kind of indicates something like that's wrong. Something is, uh, cause it's kind of disorienting. It looks strange that, uh, and it's kind of like, okay, something's, something's wrong here. Something is about to happen. There's this kind of impending doom about to happen to this impending, like terrible thing. Um, and that that's something that effects really does because it's.

It's showing, okay, the sniper's here waiting. The car is approaching. You get that, that stretch effect from that kind of vertigo shot. And yeah, it's, it's, it is communicating something. It's not just a cool shot. It's communicating something narratively. It's communicating something strange. Something bad is about to happen. Um, uh, and one thing I noticed too, I kind of rewatched this little shot. Um,

someone had posted just this like few second shot on YouTube and I was rewatching it earlier, um, so that I could talk better about it. But, um, one of the things I noticed is not only is he doing this reverse tracking zoom shot, he also does a rack focus where, um, you start off, um, with, uh, the, with the officer that has the sniper rifle in focus and the,

the shot through the window with the car approaching kind of a little out of focus. And as he, as he pulls the camera back and zooms in, he also changes the focus to where the officer in the foreground is now a little out of focus in the car approaching out the window is in focus. So not only is he doing this cool shot, he's also like doing this rack focus at the same time. It's just really, really impressive. It's a great shot.

And it lasts just, it only lasts like, you know, 15 seconds, but it's just, it communicates so much and it's such a good shot. Really, really shows early on just the knack Spielberg had for what to do with the camera, not just to create like impressive and intriguing shots, but to do something for a character, for the narrative with it. But yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:17.016)
As far as character goes, I think he really does a good job of him and the writers, I guess, with the script really do a pretty decent job early on of showing Lou Jean and setting her up as a pretty complicated character. You know, you start off with that tracking shot, following her onto the prison ground from the bus where she's in tears.

And the closer she gets off the bus, she's composed, but then she kind of breaks down as in tears. Um, and the closer she gets to the, um, to the prison where she's going to meet her husband, who's, uh, approaching being released, but hasn't been, and you know, ends up breaking them out. She starts to compose herself more. So they set her up early on as a, um, as a pretty complicated character, you know, a character that.

is experiencing a whole range of emotion and a whole range of just feelings and motivations. And on top of that, Goldie Hawn really, like, I think does a lot of good for this part. She, you know, you really needed someone like Goldie Hawn to pull this off. Otherwise, the movie just wouldn't have worked. And you kind of see this naivete.

in her character that comes from the kind of comedic tone that Han can portray in this character. Like I said, she kind of has this like ditzy comedic, you know, thing that she's doing with this character that works really well and really portrays her naivete. And yeah, it's.

One of the things I think that, um, that you see, um, is this. All right. So in Molly Hatskell's book, uh, Steven Spielberg, a life in films, um, she kind of like, intuited that this movie was kind of in the phase of Spielberg's life where he was resenting his mother a little bit more. Um, you know, if you go back and listen to the Spielberg overview episode,

Eli Price (01:20:41.304)
I'll talk kind of talk about his life and his his background but for more detail on all this go back and listen to that but at this point in his life he's kind of coming to terms with the fact that oh my father was I had a lot of issues with his father with being absent he also had a lot of issues with his mother being not quite

So not quite motherly, more like an older caretaker sister that just wants to have fun with you and your siblings instead of being your mother, um, is kind of something that he, um, was coming to terms with, but also like coming to terms with the fact that, Oh, my, my mother left my father and had, you know, was in love with his best friend. And so, um, Haskell kind of, um,

I guess she's, she's kind of like guessing that maybe during this phase of Spielberg's life, he was dealing with some resentment of his mother for that. And a lot of that comes out in this character of Lou Jean and just the way that she's not the best mother. She kind of is too naive. She's naive, but she's also like, she wants to be a good mother, but she doesn't know how to be a good mother.

And so you do see some of that and also, you know, of course, a weak father who's who's not there exactly when he's supposed to be, but is is trying, but it's still like weak and yeah, you definitely get the you. It almost makes you wonder like, is this one of Spielberg's most personal films because of the way that the parents are portrayed in this? Maybe. But yeah, you definitely get that.

One of the, uh, and you get the naivete and the weakness and clive too, as the husband, um, you know, kind of going off of what I was just saying about the weak father. Um, you know, it's, it's like this thing where, um, at the end, you know, he's, he's just like, um, he just bends to her will all through the movie. And then at the end, he,

Eli Price (01:23:07.032)
He's like, he bends to his will, her will again. And it's like this self sacrifice thing. Like I love her so much. I know it's coming. I know I might die or get badly injured, but I'm going to do it for her. And you almost want to be like, well, dude, like how naive is that? Like the best way for you to love her is to say no and be alive so that you can be there for her.

not to go and get yourself killed. But it's like this, I guess, like naive young love that that is present between these two characters. And yeah, so I don't know, it's it's it's this weird there's definitely this like broken family aspect going on. There's this that spill out.

You know, this is something that Spielberg would do all throughout his career. A lot of the families in his movies are these broken families and you're dealing with the difficulty of like, how do you how do you exist within this broken family? How do you mend the things that are broken, broken about it? What what are you willing to sacrifice? Let's examine these characters to figure out why this family might be broken.

You know, a lot of, you know, Spielberg, I kind of quoted in that overview episode that Spielberg said that filmmaking is kind of his therapy. And so, you know, you kind of have to wonder like, okay, you know, what are you dealing with in this movie? These broken family issues. Why are these characters? Why is this family broken? Well, let's look at these characters and see why. And then, you know,

You also, in the midst of all of that, you still have this like very apparent love between Clovis and Lou Jean. They do love each other and it's recognizable and you can see it. And so even in the midst of this, there's like this mix of a cynical look at this naive young couple that have messed up this family that they could have had.

Eli Price (01:25:31.064)
But at the same time, there's still this recognition that even in the midst of all the messiness, there's still some love there. Um, and that's a bit of the, um, the hopeful optimist that Spielberg still was, you know, even with all of the brokenness that he was trying to work through. And so I do appreciate that. Um,

Eli Price (01:25:57.912)
I will say this, I think, I guess just as a final thought, just talking about all this, what we see in this movie, I think Patrolman's slide, Officer's slide, kind of works a bit as like an audience surrogate where, you know, he's in the car with this couple, he's...

He starts off like really annoyed with them. He's, he doesn't know what to do with them. And as the movie goes on, he slowly and slowly builds more empathy with them as more comfortable with them almost even becomes kind of like a part of their little family joking with them. Um, you know, kind of like trying to his best to help them and they're trying his best to keep Clovis safe so he doesn't get killed. Um, at the end, um,

And it's almost like he works as like an audience surrogate where as he's building more and more empathy for these characters. So are you? And That's that's something that I think Works pretty well in this movie. You do build sympathy for these characters you do you do hope for the best for them, even though it is a bit of a

a tragic, more tragic movie. It's definitely one of his more tragic films for sure, along with Duel, one that doesn't necessarily end with a super hopeful tone. But what it does do is it builds the sympathy for the quote unquote other. This is a theme that we'll see throughout Spielberg's career is that he

He has a heart for people that are ostracized for people that are seen as an quote unquote other. Um, and yeah, officer slide really works as a, in the moment on the scene, a surrogate for us as the audience, um, to help us build empathy for these, these kids. You know, um, I think even one of the, somebody at some point in the movie says like,

Eli Price (01:28:20.952)
Uh, they're just a couple of, um, they're just a couple of kids or something like that. You know, they're in other words, like they're young, they don't know what they're doing. Um, and yeah, he, he's, you know, these, this, these people are objectively not easy to like people Clovis and Lou Jean. They're not, they're not super easy to like. They're annoying. They're naive. They're rash. They're, um, they just keep making dumb.

choices objectively not that easy to like but Spielberg Constantly with the way he uses the camera we talked about that that shot with Captain Tanner and and Lou Jean The way he moves the camera the way he sets up his composition the way he builds character with his characters and With his storytelling It all is in the service

Uh, with the camera and the narrative of building sympathy for these, this couple. Um, and that's something that I really, really appreciate about Spilberg. Um, uh, you know, working off of his experience as feeling like an other, like he was ostracized sometimes with his family, sometimes at school, sometimes even once he was in a studio, you know, at Universal.

Um, and really has a heart for building sympathy for, for other people, helping you, um, to start off like maybe not liking a character or thinking they've just made dumb decisions or thinking they're too different and helping you to over time come to understand their motivations, understand why they are the way they are. Uh, and even like,

Want the best for them by the end of the movie, uh, which you kind of do for this couple. You do want things to work out for them. And it's because of, uh, the narrative that Spielberg has worked out with, with, um, uh, his, his fellow writers and the way he moves the camera, um, the way he sets up shots. Um, yeah, it, it, it does really good work of that. Uh, and so.

Eli Price (01:30:46.456)
I really appreciate that about Spielberg. But I think that's going to do it on my thoughts on this movie. I personally gave this a three star for my rating. It's it's not going to be my favorite Spielberg. But man, it really is a a good introduction, a good. A good show of what.

Tremendous potential that he had as as a young director Three stars are usually for me movies that are right there on the cusp where I'm like I Like some things about it, but there's enough things about it where I can't like put a full like Yeah, you should see this behind it

And that's kind of where this movie sits. Like I said, I did like it less than dual. I'll try to kind of build as we work through this series, kind of like where I would put Spielberg's movies for my own personal rankings. And maybe I should add in the episode notes kind of my my own ranking list on letterbox. I have all of his films that I've seen on this rank on this ranking list.

But as I go through, I'll try to break it down without all the other extra movies that we haven't covered yet. So yeah, as of now, it would be Duel and then Sugarland Express. I think I gave Duel three and a half stars. And yeah, this is a three star for me. Right there on the cusp of being a movie that I'm like, yeah, you should see this. It's really enjoyable.

But yeah, I've already talked about my quibbles with it. Really, I did like the movie. I think it's a great, really good debut. And yeah, that really is it. I am excited. So like I said, next week, I'm gonna be covering a movie. I'm trying to debate right here as I'm talking. Should I?

Eli Price (01:33:08.214)
Should I say what the movie is going to be or just let it be a surprise? I'll go ahead and say I'm going to be talking about a movie that was chosen from some supporters of the podcast part of the establishing shot family of people that support the show. It's actually my two of my aunts chose the movie about time for me to review. I have not seen this movie, but.

I've heard good things about it. It seems to be pretty well regarded. So I do appreciate them picking a movie that seems like it's going to be a good one to watch. And I mean, just looking, even looking at the cast, you've got Domal Gleason, who I think is a pretty good actor, Rachel McAdams, who I really like as an actress. If you listen to my personal

best actress nominations last week. You'll remember that Rachel McAdams was my number one or number two. It's hard for me to remember off the top of my head for her role in Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret. Yeah, I like Rachel McAdams a lot. Bill Nighy, great actor. Margot Robbie is in this? I didn't realize that.

And yeah, so I'm excited to watch this and do a little supporter nominated film review on About Time next week. And hopefully I'll also, I'm hoping I'm able to get my aunt on who is a media specialist slash librarian. I don't know what all kinds of terms they use.

Get her on and maybe talk about like the importance of storytelling for kids That might be fun You know quick discussion on that so yeah, we'll see if I'll definitely be at the least reviewing about time next week So look forward to that after that we will be covering jaws so Man, I am really excited. I've actually already recorded that episode

Eli Price (01:35:31.416)
Um, and I'm really excited for everyone to hear that. I thought it was a great discussion. Um, so yeah, looking forward to releasing that jaws episode. Um, uh, yeah. So that's what's, what's next. Um, yeah. Um, just a quick reminder to rate and review the show where, um, on Apple, uh, leave a rating and review really helps with the visibility and on Spotify, you know, you can leave the star rating.

for the podcast. It would be helpful even if you don't necessarily listen on those platforms to hop on there, leave the rating and review. Apple, you can just leave it. I think Spotify, you can scrub through one episode so it knows you've actually listened to it and leave that star rating. It just helps a ton. And yeah, if you want to give any feedback on this episode or any other episodes,

You can email me at establishing shop pod at gmail .com or you can leave a voicemail by clicking send a voicemail on the right side of your screen at establishing shop pod .com. That is it for this week. Be looking forward to next week's review. And that is it for this episode. I have been Eli Price and you have been listening to the establishing shop.

See you next time.