1941 poster & wallpaper

Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Tim Matheson

Watching this director's cut, it's finally possible to see why the studio made Spielberg mercilessly hack up this comedy: it's a screaming movie (everyone screams a lot), and screaming movies do not n...( read more  read more... )eed character development. So all those character-development scenes hit the cutting-room floor and, surprise, they were all critical to Spielberg's pace for the humor in this film. The screaming wasn't that funny then--and it still isn't--but what is funny are the reinserted development scenes, showcasing the now-evident sense of hysteria in the Los Angeles community, post-Pearl Harbor. A bunch of certified nitwits, and a few certified lunatics, act as if Tojo Hideki's entire Imperial force is just off the mainland. Actually, one Japanese submarine is, and it helps fuel the frenzy. John Belushi is Wild Bill Kelso, an insane fighter pilot, and Dan Aykroyd plays a conciliatory tank commander. Robert Stack's performance as General Stilwell, one of the best of the film, finally makes sense. Also fun for the numerous cameos, Spielberg's inside jokes, and John Williams's great score. --Keith Simanton

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51% liked it

5,323 ratings

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30% liked it

20 critics

PG, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Release Date: December 14, 1979

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DVD Release Date: March 23, 1999

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the ferris wheel rolls off the pier Stirkarski ready to punch out... General Stilwell enjoys Dumbo Robert Stack as Dan Aykroyd as Sgt. Frank Tree in 1941 (1979) The ferris wheel go awry John Williams Donna imagining Stikarski has enough of Wally "Hey boy, watch that knife." Donna in admiration of a... poster John Belushi as madness outside Stilwell meets Wild Bill the main title of the... Wild Bill is about to jump Wild Bill faints away
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Flixster Reviews (726)

  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    Epic comedy?. It?s an epic something! It wanted to be up there with Dr. Strangelove but it?s not, instead it?s a wonderful mess of unintentional genius. Don't get me wrong, it?s not a very good film and it?s easy to see why it bombed, it just has that certain something, I cant pu...( read more)t my finger on it but this is an unmissable romp that is in a world of its own. See it once!
  • FangsFirst
    January 8, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Hmm. I've talked a number of times about the near venomous response Spielberg receives in many circles I run in, and my disagreement with it, but this is a slightly different situation. This film was pretty widely panned but just about everyone on release, sandwiched between C...( read more)lose Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders of the Lost Ark its actual box office success, though minor, was dwarfed between such giants (nevermind Jaws!) and has left everyone believing that the film was actually a flop (only a comparative one!).

    However, I was kind of in agreement here. The plot is all around the idea of a town wound up to hysterical panic after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with a small Japanese submarine attempting to incompetently attack the California coast. However, a lot of it deals with Wally Stephens (Bobby Di Cicco) trying to romance Betty Douglas (Dianne Kay) which is kind of a lame subplot, as he tries to keep her away from Cpl. Chuck 'Stretch' Sitarski (Treat Williams, as always excellent as a self-centered dick), who was pursued by her friend Maxine (Wendie Jo Sperber). There's Capt. Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi, in a very Belushi performance, often called irritating or obnoxious, but I will say I disagree there) as an out of control fighter pilot flying around and shooting pretty randomly, some ground forces led by Sgt. Frank Tree (Dan Aykroyd) and Pvt. Foley (John Candy) who are setting up an anti-aircraft gun in the frontyard of the Douglas family (Ned Beatty and Lorraine Gary with kids), various folk around town also on the lookout for Japanese forces, and then even the Japanese sub itself, commanded by Akiro Mitamura (the great Toshiro Mifune) and Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt (the also great Christopher Lee).

    The script was the work of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis (aka "the two Bobs") with work from John Milius (best associated with, say, Red Dawn). Gale and Zemeckis have done great work--Used Cars is a fun little comedy, and of course the eminently entertaining Back to the Future trilogy, though I think some credit goes to the always-watchable Michael J. Fox there, but the films definitely hold together fantastically well. This one, however, does not. It's a huge bloody bloated mess, just like everyone says. A lot of the humour is telegraphed, a lot of the jokes fall flat, a lot of the gags take too long or go on too long, the characters are only interesting if the actor behind them is, and the whole thing is just too damn long.

    There are tons of fun actors, most named above, but with other smaller roles for people like old Eddie Deezen, who you probably don't know by name, but whose voice you would almost definitely recognize within two or three syllables. Warren Oates is a poor shadow of George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove. Slim Pickens brings some humour to a role that also recalls that Kubrick classic, Robert Stack is Gen. Joseph Stilwell and has a great scene watching Wild Disney's Dumbo, and even appearances from a shockingly clean-shaven (though ridiculously dusty) John Landis, the mighty Dick Miller (a character actor you SHOULD know, because he appears in almost everything--especially genre work), director Sam Fuller, Don Calfa (who I know from Return of the Living Dead), Nancy Allen as a woman with a plane fetish (you heard me), Michael McKean, Mickey Rourke--and quite happily, Joe Flaherty (more Canadian comedic talent, if you didn't know, fellow SCTV alumnus of John Candy).

    But, as many have said--there's a lot of greatness here, in the writers, directors, actors, some set pieces, some great costuming, production and set design...but it never, ever gels. And I was a little miffed by the lighthearted approach to the "Zoot Suit Riots" after seeing the little bit of them depicted in American Me (which led me to researching the actual events, which were a little more toward that end, of course).

    Disappointing, but I sort of expected it would be.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    March 3, 2007
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    I thought it was funny though way overlong.
  • RossCollinsUK
    January 14, 2007
    RossCollinsUK
    Not-so-funny comic account of Californian hysteria following the Pearl Harbour attack.
  • garyX
    January 10, 2007
    garyX
    Steven Spielberg was on the crest of a wave when he made this movie; he thought he could do no wrong and went absolutely insane with over indulgence. Having said that, he still knows how to entertain and so there are some enjoyable moments in amongst the excess. Which is more tha...( read more)n I can say about a certain series of prequels. Mentioning no names...
  • ScrabbleMaster
    August 6, 2009
    ScrabbleMaster
    I know that I should watch this one, but I really don't think that is ever going to happen.
  • latinorick71
    July 4, 2009
    latinorick71
    I actually enjoyed this disaster. the story behind the making of is much better the the actual movie, but watch and judge it for urself.
  • helwigs
    June 9, 2009
    helwigs
    It's funny but what else would you expect from that cast?
  • RuthieGreenGirl
    April 12, 2009
    RuthieGreenGirl
    Kinda crazy, off the wall, all over the place kind of movie. I did like the spoof of Spielberg's own Jaws in the opening and it did have its moments of very funny hilarity. But on the whole, this movie was just kinda blah. But I've yet to HATE a Spielberg movie, and this movie is...( read more) NOT that bad, just different.
  • nubcat
    April 11, 2009
    nubcat
    A movie that is too long and too loud but not as bad as it's rep would have you believe. Most critics were aiming to take Spielberg down after his last two movie any way. The plot is really just a contrivance to lock up all the little stories into one. Belushi, Aykroyd, Candy and...( read more) a real star studded cast look like they are having a blast.

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Comments

  • MilkshakeDan
    July 12, 2007
    MilkshakeDan
    They should seriously put this on IMAX 3D, yeah the noise will be unbearable but it would be neat to see a ferris wheel rolling down the pier on a mega screen
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