All right, it’s time to get controversial, because the movie we’re recommending here is widely regarded as a flop, a failure, unfunny, and on and on; moreover, it’s by Steven Spielberg, which makes it almost personally offensive to many people. Yet I have to say, I saw it when it first came out in 1979, and have watched it frequently ever since, and I have never seen the slightest justification of these views. Star Wars did not hold up half as well for me as the years wore on, but this one does. To a very large extent, far too many people are influenced by what critics say, and I’m convinced that a large amount of the ill-will this movie engenders is exactly because of this, repeated ad nauseum, and I’d be fine if I could see any of the points that the nay-sayers try to make, but I can’t.

The movie is 1941, a comedy starring a ridiculously large cast of notable actors; top billing is held by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd of course, fresh from their Saturday Night Live days but before The Blues Brothers came out, though included within the cast are Robert Stack, Ned Beatty, Nancy Allen, Treat Williams, Dianne Kay, Warren Oates, Frank McRae, John Candy, Eddie Deezen, and many more… and then we have Slim Pickens, Toshirô Mifune, and Christopher Lee in there! And I can’t say that any one of them gave a bad performance – granted, it’s comedy, so believable characters aren’t the byword here. The style is just this side of slapstick, yet there is no mugging, no playing to the camera/audience, no tongue-in-cheek asides – the situations and dialogue are definitely warped, but the delivery is perfectly serious and deadpan.

The movie is set in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area just a few days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as war tensions were quickly giving way to paranoia. The residents are split between preparing for war, possibly an attack on the US mainland, and going on about their lives as before – some more than others. But a series of events begins to escalate the tension, and imaginations start running wilder, and this all builds towards a culmination where no one within really has any idea what’s actually happening. And here, writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale demonstrate a lot of effort, because many of the factors within the film are historical; they are based on true events, though these were spaced out much more than the film portrays. Racial bias was very distinct in those days, and the riots between servicemen and Latin ‘zoot suiters’ were actual events, while anti-aircraft emplacements were strewn along the California coastline… and Hollywood really was originally named, “Hollywoodland.” Most notable, however, were two actual events from February 1942, on successive nights even: a Japanese sub shelling an oil refinery on the coastal town of Ellwood, California, and the following night, the infamous “Battle of Los Angeles;” it is quite clear that Zemeckis and Gale modeled much of the movie, and the entire third act, on these two bits of history (right down to the reports of a plane crashing on the streets of Hollywood.) Unfortunately, neither event is very well known and thus the comparison, and the fact that the movie is far less fictional than it first appears, often goes unnoticed.

This is an aspect of the movie that deserves some attention: almost none of the actions by most of the characters are out of the realm of human behavior – impulsive or compulsive, certainly, but it’s more the consequences that get out of hand rather than anyone directly producing the wayward results. It’s only Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) and General Maddox (Warren Oates) that are truly unhinged, and Maddox only has an effect when he comes in trivial contact with Kelso. Everyone else merely suffers from bad judgment or bad timing – it’s the confluence of events that causes the denouement to be so chaotic, while the individual factors therein can easily happen – and often have (see the link for the Battle of Los Angeles again.)

Despite being based on actual events, more or less, there is only one character that is named and based on a real person: General Joseph Stillwell, played by Robert Stack. And despite his out-of-character delight at the movie Dumbo, he is the lone rational player in the entire ensemble, repeatedly steering the others within his influence back on track almost effortlessly. This is exemplified when speaking to an officer over the phone regarding the air raid that was taking place:

Stillwell: Has anyone in your command seen these Zeros?

Officer: No sir – but we’re shooting at them.

Stillwell: Now I want you to think about something: Bombs! I don’t hear any bombs! If they’re up there, if they came all the way from Asia, don’t you think they’d bring a few bombs along?

Officer: I don’t know, sir, but…

Stillwell: But nothing! You can’t have an air raid without bombs!

This minor exchange is the epitome of critical thinking – not even intended as amusing, but still a favorite of mine just for that.

[The actual Stillwell, it must be noted, had nothing to do with units in or around southern California.]

As mentioned earlier, this film also possesses what is likely my favorite soundtrack of any movie, adeptly composed by none other than John Williams, and yes, it’s even better than the Star Wars films, because those stood alone. Here, Williams had to incorporate the feel and sounds of the era, from the tensions of post-Pearl-Harbor California past the triumphant military themes to the Big Band dance competition, and the choreography of the dance/chase/fight scene is exemplary. At the same time, numerous shots and framings are intentionally reminiscent of the popular films from that time period; as the hero and ingenue kiss atop the tank, the turret spins them around as the camera crane pulls up for the long shot.

The film was intended as a spectacle, as the movie poster implies, yet this was well before CGI, so the effects are all practical, large sets and models for much of it, and well done overall. Sure, the sharp-eyed IMDB fanatic will pick out small issues here and there, but there is little to take one out of the moment, and wherever possible, real vehicles and life-size sets are used – and, destroyed (it’s a war movie, after all.) And yet for all that, Spielberg, Zemeckis, and Gale included a specific, small detail: despite lots of destruction, no one dies or is even injured, save for perhaps The Dummy. At the very end, two of the characters that were ‘lost at sea’ can be found at the edge of the scene.

There are additional small easter eggs. Not only is the opening sequence a satire of Jaws (which Spielberg needed no permission to do,) it uses the same actress; the same can be said for the gas station and the proprietor, both originally appearing in one of Spielberg’s first films, Duel. Wally (Bobby DiCicco) is ‘beckoned’ to take command of the tank crew by Sgt Tree (Dan Aykroyd) in a direct homage to the 1956 version of Moby Dick. I was even suspicious that the line from Herbie (Eddie Deezen,) “Safety bar? We don’t need no safety bar!” was intended to refer to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and contacted Eddie Deezen about this, who graciously replied and admitted that he didn’t know, and that I should ask Bob Gale; I could find no way to do so and determine this for sure.

Admittedly, some of the humor is contrived, such as when the tank turns too early and crashes through two factories in appropriate succession, but even then, the effort that went into the throwaway gag is enormous, entertaining to watch just because of the staging. I also find myself hard-pressed to find a comedy movie from any era that is not contrived; bear in mind that Airplane! came out only a year later. But in comparison to offerings like American Pie and even Dumb and Dumber? Neither of those can hold a candle to this film, and both had multiple sequels. What gives?

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of the movie is that there is no character for the viewer to identify with, no real hero or island in the sea of chaos, though Stillwell comes closest – he does little, but avoids getting roped into the morass through sound judgment at least. And at the same time, there are no real villains; the two prime candidates aren’t actually dangerous enough to count. So the emotional involvement of the viewer is only to be entertained by the events and satirical aspects – which the film has in abundance. It is better written and better produced, many times over, than the vast majority of comedies from the past two decades, but… one of the things that it lacks is strong, repeatable quotes, which perhaps prevents it from entering into the meme consciousness like other films.

All that said, if you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. And if you have, re-watch it with a fresh perspective. I will refund you your wasted time if you still find it lackluster. But if you consider it a bomb, well, that issue’s all your own.