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1941 (1979)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
14 December 1979 (USA) moreTagline:
A Comedy Spectacular!Plot:
Hysterical Californians prepare for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 3 Oscars. moreUser Comments:
It's gonna be a long war.... moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Dan Aykroyd | ... | Sgt. Frank Tree | |
| Ned Beatty | ... | Ward Douglas | |
| John Belushi | ... | Capt. Wild Bill Kelso | |
| Lorraine Gary | ... | Joan Douglas | |
| Bobby Di Cicco | ... | Wally Stephens | |
| Murray Hamilton | ... | Claude Crumn | |
| Christopher Lee | ... | Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt | |
| Tim Matheson | ... | Capt. Loomis Birkhead | |
| Toshirô Mifune | ... | Cmdr. Akiro Mitamura | |
| Warren Oates | ... | Col. 'Madman' Maddox | |
| Robert Stack | ... | Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell | |
| Treat Williams | ... | Cpl. Chuck 'Stretch' Sitarski | |
| Nancy Allen | ... | Donna Stratton | |
| Lucille Benson | ... | Gas Mama (Eloise) (as Lucille Bensen) | |
| Jordan Brian | ... | Macey Douglas |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
118 min | USA:146 min (director's cut) | West Germany:111 minCountry:
USAColor:
Color (Metrocolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 moreCertification:
Brazil:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | Norway:12 (original rating) | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG (certificate #25726) | West Germany:12Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Reese and Foley are the names used by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale for any police officers or government agents in films they have written. moreGoofs:
Continuity: Claude and Herbie switch places with one another in the Ferris wheel when attacked by Wild Bill's P40. moreQuotes:
General Joseph W. Stilwell: [to Birkhead, ignoring the dirt-covered corporal who pulls up in front of them at the movie theater] Come on. I don't want to miss Dumbo. moreSoundtrack:
In the Mood moreFAQ
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You can't have lofty aspirations all the time.
Even the director of such powerful films as "Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "ET" and "Schindler's List" has to take a break from all the serious issues in his films and play dumb at least once.
Just look at "1941".
With a plotline straight out of The Three Stooges and special effects befitting a WWII epic, "1941" abandons all pretense by parodying the opening of "Jaws" right off the bat and hitting every slapstick point from there on in. Spielberg knew that even if this turned out be a flop, it would be a good-natured one.
Just look at this cast! Not only are Aykroyd and Belushi at the helm, but there's talent like Matheson, Allen, Oates, Williams, Beatty, Gary (Roy Scheider's wife from the "Jaws" films), Candy, Flaherty, Stack (in his first comedic turn before "Airplane!"), Lee, Pickens, Deezen (a comic genius if ever there was one), Sperber and a whole herd of other I probably missed. All of them in the midst of the hugest battlefield of comic carnage ever seen.
And no wonder. "1941" was co-written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, Spielberg protogees who went on to further success with the "Back to the Future" films, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Used Cars", (all with climaxes as wild as the entire running time of "1941") and the vastly under-appreciated "Death Becomes Her". Even John Milius (director/co-writer of "Conan the Barbarian") lends his pen hand.
In the end, you'll be dazzled, breathless, stunned and amazed, but by no means bored. And, with any luck, amused.
"1941" - it was a very good year.
Nine stars. And don't worry: it's all for the good of the war effort.