Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg made a movie that quickly solidified him as one of the preeminent directors in all of Hollywood, Jaws.
While that movie is undoubtedly Spielberg’s breakthrough picture, it was not his first time that audiences got to see a Spielberg movie on the big screen. That distinction goes to 1974’s The Sugarland Express, which is a new addition to Netflix as of May 1, and one of my picks for new movies to stream in May.
The Sugarland Express stars Goldie Hawn as a woman who attempts to reunite her family, but to do so involves breaking her husband out of jail and then kidnapping their young son from the foster family looking after him. However, things quickly go awry, including kidnapping a police officer, and they are soon pursued across the state. William Atherton, Ben Johnson and Michael Sacks star in the movie, which was written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, based on a true story.
Often overlooked in Spielberg’s filmography, The Sugarland Express is a fascinating entry from the director who would become known for some of the biggest movies in Hollywood history.
Incredibly, Spielberg was just 26-years-old at the time the movie was released and still he earned praise, particularly from one of the most notable critics of the time, Pauline Kael, who called the movie “one of the most phenomenal debut films in the history of movies” in The New Yorker; even detractors at the time called Spielberg a “skillful” technician.
Personally, The Sugarland Express reminds me of the Hollywood B-movies of the 1960s and early 1970s, often made by Roger Corman; particularly the fact that it is a road picture crime movie with plenty of car crashes. It’s an entertaining movie, but I won’t go so far to say we need to reevaluate it as a forgotten Spielberg masterpiece. But any fans of Spielberg should watch it to check off his complete filmography.
Another reason that The Sugarland Express is a notable movie is that it actually is the first time that Spielberg and composer John Williams worked together. While Spielberg was an upstart at the time, Williams was already an Oscar-winning composer coming off a recent string of movies that included Fiddler on the Roof (his first Oscar win) and The Poseidon Adventure. But it didn’t take long for Williams to recognize the talent and passion that Spielberg brought to the table.
In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert back in 2022, Williams detailed the lunch meeting that was arranged for him and Spielberg ahead of The Sugarland Express, where Williams said after overcoming the initial surprise of Spielberg’s youth he “I realized this was somebody very, very special.” Though Williams’ blues-tinged score for The Sugarland Express would not be nominated for an Oscar, it was the start of a collaboration that has yielded some of the greatest movie scores of all time (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and more).
Netflix subscribers can now watch The Sugarland Express on the streaming service; if you’re not a Netflix subscriber the movie is available via digital on-demand.
Watch the trailer for The Sugarland Express right here:
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