1941 [Blu-ray]

Director: Steven Spielberg

Overview

It's December of 1941, and the people of California are in varying states of unease, ranging from a sincere desire to defend the country to virtual blind panic in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus begin several story threads that comprise the "plot" of this strange period comedy, a sort of satirical disaster movie, from Steven Spielberg. The stories and story threads involve lusty young men, officers (Tim Matheson) and civilians (Bobby Di Cicco) alike, eager to bed the young ladies of their dreams; Wild Bill Kelso, a nutty fighter pilot (John Belushi) following what he thinks is a squadron of Japanese fighters along the California coast; a well-meaning but clumsy tank crew (including John Candy) led by straight-arrow, by-the-book Sgt. Tree (Dan Aykroyd), who doesn't recognize the thug (Treat Williams) in his command; and homeowner Ward Douglas (Ned Beatty), who is eager to do his part for the nation's defense and, despite the misgivings of his wife (Lorraine Gary), doesn't mind his front yard overlooking the ocean being chosen to house a 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. There is also a pair of grotesquely inept airplane spotters (Murray Hamilton, Eddie Deezen) who are doing their job from atop a ferris wheel at a beachfront amusement park; a paranoid army colonel (Warren Oates) positive that the Japanese are infiltrating from the hills; a big dance being held on behalf of servicemen, being attended by a lusty young woman of size (Wendie Jo Sperber) eager to land a man in uniform; and General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell (Robert Stack), in charge of the defense of the West Coast, who can't seem to get anyone to listen to him when he says to keep calm. And, oh yes, there's also a real Japanese submarine that has gotten all the way to the California coast under the command of its captain (Toshiro Mifune) and a German officer observer (Christopher Lee), only to find itself without a working compass or usable maps. Its captain won't leave until the sub has attacked a militarily significant, honorable target, and the only one that anyone aboard ship knows of in California is Hollywood. By New Year's Eve, all of these characters are going to cross paths, directly or once-removed, in a comedy of errors and destruction strongly reminiscent of the finale to National Lampoon's Animal House (as well as several disaster movies from the same studio), but on a much larger and more impressive scale.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/05/2015
UPC:	0025192235078
Original Release:	1979
Rating:	PG
Source:	UNIVERSAL
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English

Special Features

The making of 1941: feature length documentary including interviews with Steven Spielberg, Bob Gale, John Milius, Robert Zemeckis and more; Deleted scenes; Production photographs; Theatrical trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Dan Aykroyd	Actor
Ned Beatty	Actor
John Belushi	Actor
Lorraine Gary	Actor
Murray Hamilton	Claude
Christopher Lee	Von Kleinschmidt
Tim Matheson	Birkhead
Warren Oates	Maddox
Robert Stack	Gen. Stilwell
Treat Williams	Sitarski,USO Girl,USO Girl,Composer
Nancy Allen	Donna
Lucille Benson	Gas Mama,USO Girl
Jordan Brian	Macey
Diane Kay	Betty,Betty
John Candy	Foley
Elisha Cook Jr.	Patron
Patti LuPone	Lydia Hedberg
Penny Marshall	Miss Fitzroy
Slim Pickens	Hollis Wood
Lionel Stander	Scioli
Dub Taylor	Malcomb
Iggie Wolfington	Meyer Mishkin
Joe Flaherty	USO M.C.
Eddie Deezen	Herbie
Bobby Di Cicco	Wally
Perry Lang	Dennis
J. Patrick McNamara	DuBois
Frank McRae	Ogden Johnson Jones
Steven Mond	Gus
Wendie Jo Sperber	Maxine
Christian Zika	Stevie
Lucinda Dooling	Lucinda
Gray Frederickson	Lt. Bressler
Brian Frishman	USO Goon
Jerry Hardin	Map Man
Bob Houston	Maddox's Soldier
John Landis	Mizerany
Ronnie MacMillan	Winowski
Richard Miller	Officer Miller
Akio Mitamura	Ashimoto
Antoinette Molinari	Mrs. Scioli
Walter Olkewicz	Hinshaw
Mickey Rourke	Reese
Whitney Rydbeck	Daffy
Donovan Scott	Kid Sailor
Hiroshi Shimizu	Ito
Geno Silva	Martinez
David L. Lander	Joe
Michael McKean	Willy
Susan Backlinie	Polar Bear Woman
E. Hampton Beagle	Phone Man
Don Calfa	Telephone Operator
Vito Carenzo	Vito, Shore Patrol
Andy Tennant	Babyface
Brad Gorman	USO Nerd
Frank Verroca	USO Nerd
John Voldstad	USO Nerd
Kerry Sherman	USO Girl
Audrey Landers	USO Girl
Maureen Teefy	USO Girl
Elmer	Himself
Carol Beery	USO Girl
Dave Cameron	Reporter
John McKee	Reporter,Actor
Mark Carlton	Actor
Galen Thompson	Actor
Jack Thibeau	Actor
Paul Cloud	Actor
Toshir? Mifune	Cmdr. Mitamura
Gary Cervantes	Actor
Luis Contreras	Actor
Carol Culver	Actor
Marjorie Gaines	Actor
Trish Garland	Actor
Dian Gallup	Actor,Actor
Samuel Fuller	Actor
Diane Hill	Actor
Barbara Gannen	Actor
Dan McNally	Actor
David Cameron	Actor
Rita Taggart	Actor

Technical Credits

Robert Zemeckis

Bob Gale

Buzz Feitshans	Producer
A.D. Flowers	Special Effects
Terry Leonard	Stunts
John Milius	Executive Producer
Don MacDougall	Sound/Sound Designer
Gene S. Cantamessa	Sound/Sound Designer
Robert J. Glass	Sound/Sound Designer
Robert Knudson	Sound/Sound Designer
Janet Healy	Producer
Robert Zemeckis	Screenwriter
Bob Gale	Screenwriter
Sally Dennison	Casting

Editorial Reviews

One can look at 1941 today and justifiably wonder, "What was Steven Spielberg thinking?" Or was he really thinking clearly at all? Long before the events of September 11, 2001 made sneak attacks on the United States a serious matter for modern audiences, 1941 seemed a grotesque misfire of a comedy; most of the material that's supposed to be funny seems silly, and most of the actors seem to be straining to be funny, and going so far over the top as to be ridiculous. Not that there aren't some good moments and scenes, as well as portrayals that, in a more careful and subtle production, would have worked -- Ned Beatty and Lorraine Gary are funny, John Belushi, Slim Pickens, and John Candy have their moments, and Wendie Jo Sperber steals every scene in which she appears. Even Dan Aykroyd (doing what amounts to a dry run for his portrayal of Joe Friday in Dragnet) and Robert Stack do well in straight, nicely understated performances. But the rest -- and there's a lot of "the rest" in a cast of over 50 and a running time of 146 minutes -- is so over-the-top, between the multi-layered stunt work, the bathroom humor, and the compound (and ultimately repetitive) slapstick comedy, and so off-balance and off-putting as to render the movie never more than moderately amusing. All of that makes this picture a chore to enjoy, albeit an interesting one. What makes 1941 so odd is that Spielberg and company did succeed in creating several more subtle layers of humor, though these mostly take the form of in-jokes that only movie professionals, critics, and pop-culture fanatics could appreciate: Dan Aykroyd's first scene is a brilliant parody of Cliff Robertson's opening scene from Midway (another Universal production), and the opening credits and the time and date references covering the scene changes also parody the style of Universal's large-scale disaster movies, most notably The Hindenburg and Earthquake. Even John Williams got into the act with his score, which is a good parody of his own epic style and displays one element of extraordinary subtlety (for Williams) -- the music associated with John Belushi's crazy pilot utilizes a chord structure heard in the patriotic song "Reuben James," in a way that would be reverential in any other context but here comes off as totally loopy. The movie was released at 118 minutes; however, in keeping with Universal's approach to network showings of its major films, 28 minutes of material was restored for the network presentation of 1941, and was fully reintegrated, in full Panavision aspect ratio, for the mid-'90s laserdisc and the subsequent DVD edition.