THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS
US, 1974, 110 minutes, Colour.
Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, William Atherton, Gregory Walcott.
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
The Sugarland Express is a true story which looks far-fetched, this is a strange chase film, a naively innocent couple of petty criminals who want their baby and who get the whole of the Texas police force chasing, then trailing them and finally forming an escort procession. Director Steven Spielberg made Duel and here scores with his eye for local detail and colour which gives social and human conviction to his story. Naturally, he is also good on car and road sequences. Goldie Hawn and William Atherton endow their roles with a good blend of charm and stupidity. Michael Saks as the young police officer they kidnap interacts excellently with them. Worth seeing.
1. Why was this film so enjoyable? How much truth about people was there in it? How interesting a view of America did it give? What was its basic message? Did this all contribute to the enjoyment?
2. What was the final impact of the film? The emotional response to the story of two young people and the police? Is this the intention of the film, to get an emotional impact? What insight into America and the people did the film give? Was this part of the impact - of American society and its styles?
3. How effective was the title for this particular chase and procession? Comment on the use of colour and location photography, the atmosphere of the film, the cars, the guns, the prison backgrounds for the opening of the film and the implications of this.
4. How central was the character of Lou Jean? How attractive a girl was she? The personality and performance of Goldie Hawn? Our first impressions of her, her going to the prison, the fact of her prison record, her background and limited abilities, her lack of intelligence, yet her genuine sincerity, the effect of motherhood on her? Her ingenuity in the escape of Clovis? The fact that she was continually urging him on? How reckless a person was she? Reckless of other people's lives? How innocent was she? How ingenious? A calculated innocence? The parallels of Bonnie and Clyde and the model for Lou Jean and Clovis? Her relationship to the couple whose car was taken? Her attitude towards Maxwell Slide and how this grew into affection? Which sequences illustrated her character best - her love for Clovis, anxiety for the baby, her behaviour towards Slide, having a quest for stamps at the garage, sharing food, the night in the caravan, her reaction to the violence? why did she urge Clovis to get the baby even though it meant his death? How disillusioned was she by the end of the film, about the baby, American society, Clovis's death, Tanner and his keeping his word? Did the support of the people along the way help her?
5. The story is based on fact. Did you think it was credible? The escape and the hijacking of the car and the policeman? The police cars and the enormous number of police involved in the chase? The violence that ensued, the snipers and Tanner having to break his word about violence? The ordinary people along the way supporting, cheering, giving presents to Lou Jean etc.? What did this say about people and American society?
6. How interesting a person was Clovis? As a petty criminal, married to Lou Jean young, his sense of fatherhood compared with her motherhood? The nature of his escape and exhilaration? His recklessness about cars and people's lives? His being pushed by Lou Jean? How much initiative did he have or was he entirely pushed by Lou Jean? Did the audience get to like him during the film? Which sequences illustrated this best? The emotional impact of his being killed? Its uselessness?
7. Maxwell Slide: as an ordinary young policeman, as a typical American citizen, doing his duty, his involvement in the police chase and the crash, his being taken, being scared, were his reactions to Lou Jean and Clovis credible? His abiding by the book? The new situation shifting his values and decisions? His growing sympathy for them? Sharing the danger and experience? Being a victim of the violence? His sharing food, songs, the caravan? How happy and sad an experience was it for him? How disillusioning at the end?
8. Tanner: typical policeman? Was it necessary to call out the Texas police in force? (The Louisiana police and their souped-up car giving chase?), the violence that ensured, his reluctance for violence, his way of communicating via the radio in the car with Lou Jean and Clovis? The changing values in their communication by radio? The fact that he arrested the violent gunman? The fact that he was unable to keep his word? (Could he have kept his word without violence?)
9. What was the general impression of people in this film? The men in prison, the couple whose car was taken, the Texas police, the Louisiana police, the people in the shops, the snipers with their telescopic guns and their eagerness to shoot, the two who shot in the saleyard and were arrested, the ordinary people who watched?
10. Did you have any sympathy for the family who had adopted the baby? The danger for the alliance? Their anguish in giving up the baby? was it fair to make the adopted father so violent in his reactions? why?
11. What did the film have to say about good and evil, society and individuals, risks and chances, malice, the value of human life, families, the individual crushed by the state?
12. How well did the film utilise the cinematic techniques especially in the use of cars and the use of the highway, the sense of motion and movement, modern cars and communication? The contrast of the lay-by sequences with the moving sequences?
13. How impressive a film was this? Critics were high in praise. Audiences generally stayed away. Why?
