1941 (1979)
Genre: Comedy / War
Duration: 118 minuten / 146 minuten (director's cut)
Country:
United States
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Ned Beatty
IMDb score:
5,8 (37.485)
Releasedate: 14 December 1979
1941 plot
"Paranoia meets pandemonium."
It is six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Panic breaks out in California, when it is likely that the next target of the Japanese will be next. There turns out to be a submarine targeting Hollywood. Meanwhile, everyone panics when they should be defending their country.
Actors and actresses
Sgt. Frank Tree
Ward Douglas
Capt. Wild Bill Kelso
Joan Douglas
Claude Crumn
Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt
Capt. Loomis Birkhead
Cmdr. Akiro Mitamura
Col. 'Madman' Maddox
Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell
Reviews & comments
james_cameron
-
- 6544 messages
- 9466 votes
Heavily underrated comedy, chaotic and totally over the top but visually overwhelming and often very funny. Large-scale, with a huge cast and dozens of memorable set-pieces. You've come to the wrong place for subtleties and not all jokes work properly, but director Spielberg's energy and daring are infectious. I finally got to watch the director's cut on DVD (on sale for next to nothing on Amazon UK). This one is another half hour longer, so even more chaos and bizarre finds. That is of course way too long for a comedy, but strangely enough the film still works fine after all these years. He also doesn't look dated at all. Spielberg's only major flop indeed, but at least he goes down triumphantly here, head held high.
scorsese
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- 12595 messages
- 10667 votes
Nice film in which panic breaks out on the west coast of America after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Largely set up with an abundance of characters. There are quite a few funny moments here and there and there is certainly no shortage of spectacle. But the film goes on for too long and it is sometimes a bit too much of a good thing (I did see the longer director's cut though).
Shadowed
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- 10157 messages
- 6079 votes
Two face Spielberg.
I say that mainly because on the one hand I recognize Spielberg very much in this film, but on the other hand I don't recognize him at all. Especially the big sets, and even bigger stunts are the things I do recognize about Spielberg.
I can't even rate the acting in all the chaos. Everything is so loud, noisy and chaotic that no one really notices. Everyone is shouting at each other so much that you often don't even know who exactly is speaking.
The film has almost no story. It mainly feels like an excuse to be allowed to do as many stunts as possible, one of which is even more bizarre and stupid than the other. Some are very cool, just think of the Ferris wheel and the falling house. But the big riot could have gone on for longer.
But I'm really glad I chose the 118 minute version. Sitting in noise, explosions and chaos for 2 hours is more than enough, the 141 minutes would have been harder for me. 2 hours is actually too long, for a film that has very little to tell.
It is mainly the bizarre amounts of large slapstick that make it fun. The sets are impressive, the stunts are often impressive too. Everything is nice and big and entertaining, but eventually so much slapstick starts to get a bit boring. At some point you have to make it bigger and bigger and that doesn't always work.
For the rest recognizable for a Spielberg, but since Spielberg's other film stories had much more to say, this is a bit of a shame. There is a lot of fun to be recognized, but in the end this is a film that feels very useless in a way and sometimes feels like it was made by a group of teenage friends with way too much budget.
Despite this, thanks to the cool stunts, sets and sometimes fun entertainment, it's only a sufficient.
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