1941 - Collector's Edition

Rating:
Summary: Better in this longer version than the 1979 release
Review: More is explained in the DVD version (didn't see the laser disc one) than the 1979 release. In the original cut the characters and storylines were left looking unfinished. The film would have done better at the box office if they'd released this longer, epic version. My favorite scene is when Loomis Birkhead (Tim Matheson), while trying to impress his comely new girlfriend (Nancy Allen) is mistaken for a Jap and to prove he isn't one on stilts he gets a hard kick in the leg.

Rating:
Summary: The Auteur Theory and 1941
Review: If the book EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS is to be believed (a fun book to read about Hollywood in the 1970's), Steven Spielberg, despite making the colossal blockbusters JAWS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, envied the success John Landis found with NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE.
So much so that he made 1941.

I was in high school when it came out and I can't tell you how much I looked forward to seeing it: Belushi, Aykroyd, John Candy, Spielberg and huge budget of special effects. How could it NOT work?
But it didn't. I even went back to see it again, wondering if I'd just MISSED all the laughs.
The first thing I noticed was that the timing was completely off. The camera doesn't let go of anyone who screams. The characters are all buffoons. Like CADDYSHACK, the main characters are uninteresting but, unlike CADDYSHACK, the real comedians don't break out in their scenes.
Maybe Rodney Dangerfield should have been General Stillwell.

1941 has its moments. Belushi has a great entrance. Uber-dork Eddie Deezen's ventriloquist dummy spotting the Jap sub is funny. Aykroyd donning pany hose and two oranges to declare, "I'm a bug!"
Unfortunately, those moments are too few. Most of the time, I wouldn't think, "That was funny." I thought, "Wow, that looked expensive."

But I have to agree with my college roommate from years ago: "A movie can't be all bad that ends with a house falling over a cliff."

Rating:
Summary: What was the point of making this movie?
Review: This movie just seemed like Speilberg shooting anything he thought would look good on film, Like a tank going through a paint factory. The movie was suppose to be funny, but I didn't even crack a smile the whole time I was watching it. I just saw alot of people yelling tojo and jap and John Belushi acting like an idiot.

Rating:
Summary: Spielberg's Folly
Review: I saw "1941" as a teenager during it's original theatrical run. At that time I thought it was loud and chaotic and only sporadically funny. Before you had a chance to laugh something else was getting blown-up or destroyed. If I didn't particularly like this movie in the first place why would I purchase it on DVD? Because, I've come to believe that Spielberg has become possibly our greatest American director and I thought maybe I had missed something in this early work. Guess what? I didn't. The movie has a number of great actors in it's cast but there is so much mayhem and screaming going on that they get lost in the shuffle. The movie's nominal star, John Belushi, plays what is essentially a pale shadow of his "Bluto" role in Animal House. The movie's obvious inspiration is "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World" but "1941" makes that film look like a drawing-room comedy. However, do I recommend this movie? Well, there are a few laughs amid the chaos and if you are interested in the development of Spielberg's career(this is not his worst movie;that honor goes to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom").
Also, if you are interested in the career of Robert Zemeckis, he co-scripted this film.

Rating:
Summary: The LOUDEST Movie I've Ever Seen...
Review: But I think that's what works in this film! Although a lot of critics have given this film thumbs down remarks and bad reviews, I for one enjoy it. When reading a biography on Stephen Spielberg, I discovered that he had planned on turning the second world war into HIS version of my all-time favorite film, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The poster art done for the film is pure "Mad World". It depicts every single character from the film be it major, minor, or extra, and it shows action shots of things you can see in the movie; Murray Hamilton and Eddie Deezen on the ferris wheel with the Dummy, a theater marquee announcing Walt Disney's Dumbo playing, and of course Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) flying his airplane directly towards the audience.

In my opinion, Spielberg stood true to his word and did in fact give audiences "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World...War". Originally, he was going to call the film "The Night The Japs Attacked" but of course, that title wouldn't be accepted by most companies. 1941 contains exactly the kind of material that was seen in "Mad World"; a cavalcade cast that included (In Alphabetical Order) Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, Lorraine Garay, Murray Hamilton, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshirô Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Treat Williams and classic minor roles performed by Lucille Benson, John Candy, Elisha Cook Jr., Eddie Deezen, Patti LuPone, Penny Marshall, Frank McRae, Slim Pickens, Wendie Jo Sperber, Lionel Stander, Dub Taylor, Iggie Wolfington, Joe Flaherty, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Susan Backlinie, Mickey Rourke, and Donovan Scott.

Most people forget that there's a big love triangle in the story involving Bobby DiCicco and Dianne Kay and how they must deal with Treat Williams' harshness and rudeness. That's probably because Spielberg had filmed so much that the audience couldn't decide which characters were more important to focus on! Hence why when the film was first released on video, it only ran 2 hours long and was billed as a "HOME VIDEO VERSION".

When the DVD was re-released in 2003, there were a few minor changes. The DVD disc itself remained 100% the same as it did when it arrived on shelves in 1998, however the re-release changed the cover art and replaced the expansive collectible booklet that was placed inside the cover with a smaller "Chapters & Bonus Features" insert instead.

The Director's Cut of the film really adds more depth to the plot lines. The DVD was essentially put together in the same format as the "Universal Signature Collection" Laserdisc of 1941. It includes the newly restored 2.35:1 Scope Widescreen presentation of the film with all 26 minutes of cut footage intact and in widescreen as well, a restored Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound audio track, 2 teaser trailers (the 1st one allows audiences to discover that Belushi's name was originally going to be Wild WAYNE Kelso) and 1 theatrical trailer, an extra collection of unrestored deleted scenes (some of which are missing audio) and outtakes, a documentary featuring interviews with Stephen Spielberg, Bob Gale, Robert Zemeckis, John Milius, and John Williams, within the documentary are on-set home movies done by Spielberg and alternate takes not included in the deleted scenes section, a photo gallery, and advertising campaign gallery. Among the "Text Only" bonus features are production notes and reviews of the film from 1978-1979.

As I said earlier, most people hated this film because of the millions of characters and plot lines but to me I consider it almost a cult classic. Like Dr. Strangelove, it took on a serious American issue and made it into a farce, giving people something to smile and laugh at. Therefore, 1941 in my opinion deserves 5 stars.

"So long mama, I'm off to Yokohama!"-Wild Bill Kelso.

Rating:
Summary: Dumb Cridicts
Review: The reverential tone Steven Spielberg has taken lately with World War II as evident in "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" (in addition to the 1987 boys' adventure "Empire Of The Sun") is nowhere to be found in this largely panned yet outrageously entertaining screwball comedy that would have done Blake Edwards proud.

Based loosely on events that actually occurred stateside during World War II (specifically the sighting of a Japanese submarine off the coast of California and the infamous "zoot suit riots" among day-glo dressed street hoods and servicemen), this movie pays tribute to the paranoia that gripped the West Coast in the days following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Notoriously overbudget, this film was considered the "Waterworld" of its day, with the obvious difference being that it took itself not the least bit seriously. It was Spielberg's much-expected flop in the wake of "Jaws" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind"...but did it deserve to be?

An able cast of comedic talent headlined by the incomparable John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd with up-and-coming SCTV alumnus John Candy and recent "Animal House" veteran Tim Matheson supported ably by character actors Ned Beatty, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, and Lorraine Gary and all-time good ol' boy Slim Pickens on one side...and veteran Hammer Films horror star Christopher Lee slumming with Akira Kurosawa's number-one samurai Toshiro Mifune and the crew of a Japanese submarine with faulty navigational equipment on the other.

It is an all-star cast performing well up to its own high standard in what would be the most unusual twist on war since "Hogan's Heroes"...mainly the notion that this tragedy which brought so much pain and sorrow to the entire world could in fact be something that, in the right hands, could be uproariously funny. Spielberg's fingerprints are of course ubiquitous; the use of children, the collaboration with John Williams, breakaway stuntwork, special effects and well-designed set pieces...but it is the actors that make this movie work, particularly John Belushi who, like Brad Pitt in movies like "Thelma & Louise", "True Romance", and "Snatch" manages to steal completely a movie in which he actually has very little face time. All the actors are encouraged to play to their strengths, and the ability to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" (i.e., remember than none of this ever happened and that this is a comedy, not a documentary...Michael Moore, are you listening?) will enable the viewer some deep bellylaughs and some time well-spent viewing the bonus features which attempt to explain just WHY this is one of Spielberg's least understood or appreciated films.