1941 (1979): Directors Cut

The black sheep of the Spielberg cannon, '1941' is often thought of as the directors first big flop. But it wasn't really, made for $35 million it brought in $95 at the world wide box office (perhaps surprisingly most of it from overseas). However compared to the $306 million 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' made from it's $19.4 million dollar budget, or the $472 million 'Jaws' got off a $9 million budget, '1941' was a disappointment. 

Not just finically but critically '1941' underwhelmed, it rates 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. That of course is principally based on the original theatrical cut, I saw the directors cut so this is more of what Spielberg apparently wanted on the screen, but even then.... This movie feels overlong, so maybe the shorter cut works better? This is a big budget screwball comedy, with a massive cast, including many up and comers, as well as a few in major parts who I don't think I've ever seen in anything else. 

Built around a war time scare regarding a possible Japanese attack on the California coast the week after Pearl Harbor, the scale of the thing really surprised me. Now a good deal of the effects were done by  miniature work, but this movie is all about large scale destruction. The film takes a long while to get going, I think much of the the first hour would be safe on the cutting room floor, but the last hour is just manic. It reminded me some of Billy Wilder's 'One, Two, Three'. It also reminded me of later films by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, who wrote the screenplay, which even contains a sort of proto- Biff Tannen character played by Treat Williams. 

Very uneven, and fascinating for being so. Going in you might note that this picture contains some racial humor that Steven Spielberg would not do if the movie were made today. An interesting failure, I think I do get what it was going for, and the good film in their occasionally gets out. I certainly admire the risk taken with the whole endeavor, Spielberg seemed desperate to try his hand at something different. I suspect I'd have really liked this film if I'd seen it when I was eight. I'm gonna be a little generous, **1/2.