Watched 1941 for a Memorial Day movie, what a great movie! Wild Bill Kelso, as always Belushi is great, Slim Pickins as Hollis Wood, what a hoot! HorryWood!

Jim

One of my all-time favorites. The Ferris Wheel going off the Pier... :D

An insane film, so many plot lines running over each other, so many GREAT actors, Directed by Spielberg, written by Zemeckis, nominated for 3 Oscars...

Dan Aykroyd
Ned Beatty
John Belushi
Christopher Lee
Warren Oates
Michael McKean
John Candy
Eddie Deezen
Wendie Jo Sperber
and many many more...

John Landis also appears in the film as Cpl. Mizerany.
James Caan is one of the sailors in the fight scene, no credit and no lines (IIRC).
Penny Marshall also appears without credit.

I wish I had the money spent on coke during the filming of that!

I watched it again on one of the Hi-Def channels a few weeks ago.

One of the many humorous things about this movie was the widespread dysfuntionality across nearly every character. There's so much going on in this movie, and so quickly, that you've really got to be all eyes and all ears for every second of the show.

Nothing was sacred or safe from getting a satirical twist to create laughs. Racism, family, lust, love, the armed forces, wartime exploits, puppets, and even 'Jaws'. If it was considered 'gone-too-far' funny, it made it into the final version.

The director's cut is even more outrageous than the original release version.

And, from what I understand, the vast majority of footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Spielberg shot over a million feet of film!

For a movie that was considered a huge failure for Spielberg in the US, I really enjoyed it.

. . Falcon

1941 is a very funny film!
You can't go wrong with this guy making a chicken dance:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k223/savingfacebucket/71945973.jpg

One of my all-time favorites. The Ferris Wheel going off the Pier... :D

An insane film, so many plot lines running over each other, so many GREAT actors, Directed by Spielberg, written by Zemeckis, nominated for 3 Oscars...

Dan Aykroyd
Ned Beatty
John Belushi
Christopher Lee
Warren Oates
Michael McKean
John Candy
Eddie Deezen
Wendie Jo Sperber
and many many more...

John Landis also appears in the film as Cpl. Mizerany.
James Caan is one of the sailors in the fight scene, no credit and no lines (IIRC).
Penny Marshall also appears without credit.

The ferris wheel going off the end of the pier with all of the lights still lit! Ya got to love it. Did you notice that every time they should them dittin in the ferris wheel they had changed side they where sitting on? Very much like Young Frankenstein and Marty Feldman moving his hump aroun to a different place on his back for every scene.

In the directors cut the cut scenes show a completely different version of Hollis Wood and the Japanese capturing him. But I still like the first tree just falling over when Slim swings back with the ax. HorryWoood!

Jim

One of the best underrated comedies of all time.... Loved Slim Pickens on the Japanese submarine....

I like when they fire the cannon and it backs through the house.

I find that film quite the example of too much money and not enough script. The model work (the meticulous reconstruction of the city and such) was wonderfully executed, but the film was as bloated and pointless as the "Blues Brothers" film became.

The Slim Pickens scenes I found particularly demeaning for him. He may never have been Olivier, but was there a need to humiliate him like that? I prefer to remember him from "Dr. Strangelove."

But the ultimate insult is Toshiro Mifune. I can only hope he agreed to do this because he wanted to have some fun, and that he got paid extremely well for this.

Best,
C.

Oh well....

I find that film quite the example of too much money and not enough script. The model work (the meticulous reconstruction of the city and such) was wonderfully executed, but the film was as bloated and pointless as the "Blues Brothers" film became.

The Slim Pickens scenes I found particularly demeaning for him. He may never have been Olivier, but was there a need to humiliate him like that? I prefer to remember him from "Dr. Strangelove."

But the ultimate insult is Toshiro Mifune. I can only hope he agreed to do this because he wanted to have some fun, and that he got paid extremely well for this.

Best,
C.

The movie was massively re-written after casting, to accommodate the talents and characters of the individual actors.

As far as Toshiro Mifune is concerned, he was the only professional Japanese actor in the cast, and eventually took over "schooling" the other Japanese - keeping discipline in the ranks, so to speak, and directly managing them on the set.

I can't imagine any of these actors remaining with the project if they found it demeaning. It is after all a comedy... and one made long before anyone had coined the phrase "Politically Correct".

I find that film quite the example of too much money and not enough script. The model work (the meticulous reconstruction of the city and such) was wonderfully executed, but the film was as bloated and pointless as the "Blues Brothers" film became.

The Slim Pickens scenes I found particularly demeaning for him. He may never have been Olivier, but was there a need to humiliate him like that? I prefer to remember him from "Dr. Strangelove."

But the ultimate insult is Toshiro Mifune. I can only hope he agreed to do this because he wanted to have some fun, and that he got paid extremely well for this.

Best,
C.

Sometimes you just have to watch a pie fight & laugh.

...And I do. Laurel and Hardy did those better than anyone. I love good slapstick; I just found, again, that
"1941" reminded me of "The Blues Brothers", which started small and funny and just sank under its own production values.

Lest you think I am a complete stick-in-the-mud when it comes to "1941":D I do have the soundtrack album and that thing is great fun, including Louie Bellson's workout on "Swing Swing Swing." Good dance scene too.

Best,
Cosmic.

Picked up the DVD version at a yard sale. Laughed just as hard now, as I did when I first watched it. Hollis P. Wood (Slim Pickens) faking a bowel movement after drinking prune juice, and escaping the Japanese sub crew had me nearly soiling my shorts--again. My wife almost called 911 because she thought I was having a seizure. Very entertaining!

Sorry but I've always found the movie way too busy and tiresome. There are far too many gags that aren't funny and, like COSMIC sez, they've all been done better elsewhere. It's a movie too big for it's miniscule script and proof that tons of money and all the talent in Hollywood does not guarantee a good movie. To say I was not entertained is understatement.

I do think it's a better film than "The Blues Brothers." That too fell very flat for me. Except for the music, which is usually outstanding, TBB is just headache inducing and proved what I've always thought about John Landis - that he is just a hack director - and that John Belushi was a great sketch comic but a poor actor. He's terrible in "The Blues Bros." but just merely bad in "1941."

I'm with danj and cosmic here. I only saw it once and a long time ago I'll admit, but I recall being severely unentertained and actually glad it was over. I guess I should give it another chance but frankly, I'm not too optimistic about my liking it any more now than I did the first time I saw it.

I'm with danj and cosmic on this one. I"ll admit I only saw it once and that was quite a number of years ago and I still recall being severely unentertained by the film and actually glad it was over. I guess I should give it another chance but frankly, I'm not too optimistic about my liking it any more now than I did (not) 25 years ago.

Loved it!

I agree with Danj and Cosmic on this one.I remember reading an interview in Sight and Sound before release,and Speilberg was saying he was inspired by Its A Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World,and I was like,"Uh Oh".And it turned out just as bloated and forced as that movie did.But I DID love the Ferris Wheel going off the pier,too.You cant do things like that on a small budget picture.
Jimmy

I saw it years ago, but my favorite scene was the Japanese sailor trying to get the tabletop radio down the hatch and says "We have to figure out a way to make these smaller."

Also Robert Stack crying as he watched "Dumbo" in the movie theater.

Sometimes you just have to watch a pie fight & laugh.

I stand by my comments of June 2007.

:D