The Sugarland Express

No.

He'd made two before this, Sugarland Express and Duel, I think.

Uh, both good movies.

Uh, Duel better than Sugarland Express, but this was, like, his first.

This was the first movie where he had, I mean, he was still, it was still kind of like-

As a director, you mean, right?

Yeah, exactly.

But yes, technically his first movie, his first TV movie then I guess was Duel, then Something Evil-

Gen Xers may point to Reality Bites or Jason's Lyric, as we talked about before, as quintessential Houston movies.

Boomers might point to Brewster McLeod or Sugarland Express.

Are there any films set or shot in Houston that you'd point to and say would appeal to Houstonians of any generation clearly?

Well, I think Apollo 13 would.

And you know, there's an interesting aspect of empathy that you, you know...

You look at Spielberg, Sugarland Express.

Not that this is the same thing, but you have characters who are breaking the-

It's exactly the same

... my goal with, with all the characters.

Yeah.

I mean, it's fascinating to me because I, like I brought up Sugarland Express, I brought True Romance to you.

Mm.

Yeah.

So right now in 1974 he's, uh, practically nobody with exactly one theatrical feature to his name, a 1974 film called The Sugarland Express that had just flopped at the box office, and he's been handed a huge studio production based on that best-selling shark novel.

The plan is a tidy 55-day shoot.

Steven Spielberg was my age when he first became a director?

that's right.

Sugarland.

Sugarland.

Yeah.

But Sugarland,

you were a first AC.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, he directed, so he, he writes a bunch, and then he directs a bunch, and he tends not to direct things he writes, which is really interesting.

Um, so he wrote Sugarland Express.

Um, he did write and direct his first two movies, Corvette Summer, which is Mark Hamill's first on-screen experience, um, af- uh, uh, appearance after, um, Star Wars apparently.

Right.

He won the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Thalberg Award from the Academy, many more films, television shows, and music videos as director and producer.

Best Screenplay at Cannes for The Sugarland Express, which is the only time he was ever in competition, which is also his feature film debut.

But he had his major breakthrough in Hollywood the following year with a little fish movie called Jaws, followed by the titanic successes of Close Encounters, Indiana Jones, E.T. and Jurassic Park later on.

You know, what can I say about Steven Spielberg? He defines my childhood as a film watcher.

She feels like she is them, and she's able to tell them what they need to hear about the things that they're hiding.

I think there is a bit of purposeful casting with Wyatt Russell here, being the son of Goldie Hawn from the Sugarland Express.

Yeah, being his first real theatrical film.

Even though it came out after Duel, but Duel was a TV movie.

Susan told police that around 6:30 PM that the four of them went to the 71 Drive-In in Springdale, Arkansas.

She said they only caught the last 20 minutes of the first movie and then watched a movie called Sugarland Express.

She said they didn't stay for the last feature.

They were just hanging out and drinking beers, and then Jim, Debbie, and Susan split a joint.