A great send-up by a true American master

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2002)

This is Spielberg's big homage to the golden days of Hollywood and big comedies. Set in a little-known period of US history, it utilizes the backdrop of hometown America caught up in the turbulent and frightening days when Americans living on the West Coast expected to be invaded at any moment by hordes of crazed attackers, as a canvas on which to craft a glorious ode to his favorite movies.
He proceeds with tongue in cheek to lovingly skewer countless cliches and conventions, such as Hollywood's sappy WW2 heroic quasi-propaganda films, the myth of an invincible US military, and our-country-right-or-wrong patriotism. You can see how he blends his worship of the movie genre with a desire to make the ultimate over-the-top parody.
While he falls a little short on character development and other fine points, this is overshadowed by his enthusiasm and his gleeful weaving of many unabashedly wild character spoofs and in-jokes into otherwise pompously serious situations. Misunderstandings, mis-communications, overreactions, overenthusiasm, and just plain recklessness are skillfully blended to create a nearly complete hysteria that is scarily almost believable. This movie is meant to be enjoyed first on a surface level for the physical comedy, and secondly as a non-stop parody.
The result is a wacky, frenetic, slapstick spoof of Spielberg's boomer upbringing in front of the tube, spent doting on late-night and Saturday afternoon movies. Having breathed and dreamed the best that Hollywood had to offer from the 20's through the 60's, Spielberg stirs it all together and splashes it on to film with a giant brush. This movie must be seen more than once to appreciate the comedic timing and the uproarious references to the American movie legacy.
It is the obvious precursor to the big, yet subtler and more carefully crafted homage to movie serials, Raiders of the Lost Ark, yet another movie in which Spielberg re-lives and repays his love of Hollywood creations and the movie genre.
1941 has thus far been misunderstood and under-appreciated. The public has been cowed and misled by critics into shunning this film and feeling guilty about enjoying it. It is sure to become a true classic, secretly admired by movie buffs and envied by movie makers for many decades to come.