An air raid without bombs

Rating: 4/10 (11 June 2009)

1941 is often considered to be Steven Spielberg's weakest film, and it is simple to see why. Critics had been looking for an opportunity to bash Spielberg since Jaws became a phenomenon, and they finally got their chance with 1941. It was savagely attacked and has earned the reputation of a box-office disaster (although it did gain some money). It is actually slightly better than its reputation would suggest, but not by much.
Steven Spielberg opens the film with a reference to Jaws, which is a treat. The film, unfortunately, quickly degenerates into a ridiculous slapstick routine, where so much goes on, it's hard to laugh at any of it. Too many different subplots circle around each other constantly. The result is that we are left with a comedy about strangers. The extremely limited character development transforms certain characters into mere sketches, and others into shadows.
1941 is one instance where the director's cut of the film is far better than the original theatrical release. For instance, the Japanese crew of a submarine plan to attack Hollywood. To do this, they kidnap a man named Hollis Wood and try forcing him to tell them Hollywood's location. In the original release, he appears at random, his scene awkwardly placed. In the director's cut, the audience is first treated to an excellent scene where some of the crew go to the mainland disguised as Christmas trees, taking photos of themselves. Hollis Wood, who is in the Christmas tree business, attempts to cut what he thinks are trees down, and is kidnapped in the process.
Visually and comically, the film's best scene is the jitterbug scene, where Wally tries dancing with his girlfriend at the USO (where he isn't supposed to be, as he is a civilian), trying to win the jitterbug contest, all while avoiding getting pummelled by the furiously jealous Sitarski. The complicated camera movement in this scene are a visual miracle, and, in addition, this is the film's strongest scene. Although Sitarski is successfully avoided several times, he eventually throws a punch, which soon evolves into a full-out brawl. The (presumably) club owner begins commenting on the fight into a microphone, reminiscent of a sports broadcast. It briefly seems that the film may become hilarious: the frantic, wild pace that infects the rest of the movie is not seen here. The scene finds its own pace somehow, and it's really effective. But soon after the fighting goes out into the streets, the comedy rapidly declines.
The film "scores" comically in its most subtle, small touches: patriotic, very American music plays as a couple is told their house is strategically advantageous for an anti-aircraft gun; a general sheds tears as mother and son are separated in Dumbo; an airplane lands at a gas station (one Spielberg used in Duel), and the pilots expects the service to fill it up; a ventriloquist's dummy spots a Japanese sub from atop a Ferris Wheel before its human counterparts do; Wynowski kicking Birkhead in the shins to make sure he's not a Japanese infiltrator on stilts
Although the list of comedic touches is considerably long, someone has to take the blame for the overblown, frenetic, overdone scenes that assume they will turn out to be funny: for some unexplained reason, Hollis Wood is forced to poop at gunpoint, escaping the Japanese sub by pretending he's constipated; an overblown special-effects driven scene as aircraft battle over Los Angeles; a homeowner shoots his anti-aircraft gun at a Japanese sub— through his house; the Japanese attack an amusement park, mistaking it for an industrial centre, causing the Ferris wheel to roll into the water; Loomis Birkhead constantly attempts to have sex with a plane-crazy secretary, Donna Stratton, by getting up in a plane with her (finally achieving this goal in a plane that barely seats the two of them); a woman, thinking she hears an air raid siren, shrieks "Japs!" over and over again, but it is really the hero's plot to steal a zoot suit. The crude, poor excuse for comedy permeates practically the entire film, and is not funny at all.
However, John Williams deserves a lot of credit for his music, which embodies the spirit of the comedy 1941 was intended to be. True, it is not his most brilliant score (it doesn't even make the Top 15 list), but it's one of the film's highlights. In particular, the music that accompanies the jitterbug riot makes the entire scene purely amusing. The music was a valiant effort to save the film from disaster, but it wasn't enough: the disaster still happened.
The Verdict: In short, Steven Spielberg's 1941 is actually funnier than its reputation suggests, but not by that much. Critics lashed out at 1941 simply because it is a Steven Spielberg film, whereas other movies with less than half of 1941's imagination were not nearly as ridiculed. In the end, however, 1941 feels like it is a beached whale struggling to get back to the water. It has its moments, but is not a strong film in general.
Overall Rating: 4/10