I marvel at Steven
Spielberg’s debut theatrical film: “The Sugarland Express,” a
fictionalized take on an outlaw
Texas couple (William Atherton and Goldie Hawn) on the run from hundreds of
Texas cops as they seek their stolen toddler, now in state custody to an old
couple out of GOP Weekly. Dad (Atherton) is just in early release from prison
when Mom (Hawn) breaks him out comedy-like to get their boy, high-jacking an
elderly couple’s car. She knows she’ll hold her baby. He knows they’ll die
first, but he’s too in love to say “No.”
Even the cop they take hostage feels bad for the duo. Forty years on,
Spielberg’s film vibes with wonders – dig the scenes where we follow a tense
screaming match via radio from inside a car, the camera roving about like a
passenger, and the way he mixes in equal parts America’s outlaw romance and
right-wing NRA types who shoot first and keep shooting. This is still timely.
Hawn is so fantastically in the moment, and Atherton -– he found fame playing
assholes in “Die Hard” and “Ghostbusters” –- is pure American Guy, stuck between
choosing life and his blonde, and, well, there is no choice. Wife. A
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