1941

DarkHelmet

DarkHelmet

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
How in the world can anyone say it was a flop? It's one of Spielberg's best. The March is a great song and it's got a great cast, which included Toshiro Mifune, great humor and it's WWII!
 
I was just thinking of this movie the other week and found a lil clip online to relive some of it. It was packed full of great scenes IMO and while I'm just assuming otherwise- IMHO it should have a much larger cult following.:cool
 
I've always loved it. John Belushi at his best.

It was lost in the fury that was the release of Star Trek the Motion Picture, which was released only a week before.
 
the_batdemon said:
Was it a flop at the box office?
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By comparison to Spielberg's previous films like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it was considered a flop; in reality, it did moderately well at the box office.

I really like 1941 these days, but that wasn't always the case; when I first saw it in the theater in 1979, I didn't like it at all. I recall discussing the film with quite a few people at the time and, after seeing the trailer, for whatever reason we had all assumed it was going to be an Aykroyd/Belushi buddy film and were disappointed when it wasn't.

Fast forward several years (to sometime in the late 90s, I think). I was channel surfing in an attempt to find something--anything--worth watching, and I came across 1941 so I thought I'd give it another try. It was somewhere in the middle, and for whatever reason I was only able to watch about 30-45 minutes, but I really enjoyed it and wanted to see it from the beginning.

Edit 12/25/10: Not that it matters much, but I just realized I left out the main reason my interest in the film was renewed. Not long after I'd seen the aforementioned 30-45 minutes on tv, a good friend told me 1941 was playing on a special double-bill with Jaws at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood (California), so we went. Seeing Jaws and 1941 on the big screen again, back-to-back, was great! And now, back to my previously posted rubbish.

Around this time the "Collector's Edition" dvd had been released with the Director's Cut version of the film, so I picked up a copy. I don't know if it was simply the passage of time affecting my taste in film, lowered expectations, the added 27 minutes making it a better film, or all of the above, but it immediately became one of my favorite films.

"Cult following", as DarthDuck stated above, seems to be an appropriate term for the appreciation of this film--people either really like it, or really hate it, with very few in that "gray area" between the two; different strokes for different folks.
 
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If you watch the last helicopter fly away closely, every character from the movie is there except the sub crew. Even Hollis Wood (Slim Pickens) and the German Officer (Chris Lee).
 
I used to fly in and out of Tegucigalpa Airport in Honduras in the Army and an old Army friend sent me this video to remind me of it.

I used to always carry a walkman with me and one of my favorite cassettes was the soundtrack to 1941 and when we were in our approach, I would listen to the 1941 March and imagine Wild Bill Kelso flying our bird and landing it.....just to keep me from crapping my pants...

YouTube - The Ground isnt that close.....

YouTube - Wild Bill and his P40
 
The Dir Cut is over all a better flowing and more complete movie experience that has that Spielberg flair the theatrical cut utterly lacks for some reason, but it's still a ridiculous satire and I had to sit through both versions to review it. Not one of Spielberg's best.
 
It's just not as funny as it should be. There's really only one joke in the whole movie that really stands out. It's when the Japanese Sub crew member is trying and failing to get the radio to fit through the sub hatch. He sets it down and says "There's got to be a way to make these things smaller". That's the only time I actually laughed out loud.
 
Lightning said:
It's just not as funny as it should be. There's really only one joke in the whole movie that really stands out. It's when the Japanese Sub crew member is trying and failing to get the radio to fit through the sub hatch. He sets it down and says "There's got to be a way to make these things smaller". That's the only time I actually laughed out loud.
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And that was the one scene that I always recalled from my one and only full viewing of the original all those years ago. But taken in context with those times and my age it was a funny movie. Afterall my friends and I used to laugh hysterically at Animal House while under the influence of the alcohol and "such" as late teens too.:angel
 
Anyone else see Lee doing the same thing as Toht's did with the Coat Hanger in Indiana jones. I seem to remember that Steven wanted to incorporate that gag in many more of his movies.
 
love this movie.....

3 of funniest moment in it for me

1. when those 2 look outs are on top of the ferris wheel and the old guy says "don... say.... another.... word"

looks round to see the dummy and drops his cigarette in his top pocket


2. when max from heart to heart (dont know his name) is moving the car in the garage and he is told to "just kiss it" for the accelerator pedal and then the car takes off at mach 5.

3. i forgot

-z
 
contec said:
Anyone else see Lee doing the same thing as Toht's did with the Coat Hanger in Indiana jones. I seem to remember that Steven wanted to incorporate that gag in many more of his movies.
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He wanted to incorporate it until it worked and it worked in Indy so he didn't need to do it again. And the reason it worked in Indy is because that movie and that particular scene was played a lot more serious than that of '41 where the whole movie worked against the idea of it being some form of torturing device... as well as how the scene depicted it... you barely saw what happened before it was a coat hanger... barely played for drama.

Honestly, Chris Lee's character was the only one who was really funny... because he wasn't trying to be.
 
I saw this film a few years back and it's one of my favorite Spielberg movies. John Belushi is just absolutely hilarious, the cast is fantastic, and I love the zany, slapstick humor. Sure, there's a couple of moments where the movie falls flat on its face, but when it's funny, it's really funny...well, to me anyway, lol.

I read somewhere that the "1941 March" is one of Spielberg's favorite John Williams pieces.
 
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