Released: December 1979

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Dan Ackroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, John Candy, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, Nancy Allen, Eddie Deezen, Bobby Di Cicco, Dianne Kay, Slim Pickens, Wendie Jo Sperber, Lionel Stander.

When I went to see Steven Spielberg’s 1941 when it was first released in 1979, I knew I was going to like it. What I didn’t know was how much. It turned out that I loved it, and I still do.

1941 is a joyous celebration of wartime paranoia in a world gone mad, and none more so than Southern California one week after the attack on Pearl Harbor, where all roads lead to Hollywood.

Telling multiple stories, the main driving force of 1941 is a Japanese sub lurking off the coast of Southern California, hopelessly lost with a broken compass, looking for something honorable to attack. Trying to get their bearings, Commander Mitamura (Toshiro Mifune) decides to seek out and attack Hollywood. Meanwhile, Wally (Bobby Di Cicco) is eagerly anticipating the Jitterbug contest with his best gal Betty (Dianne Kay), Motor Sergent Frank Tree (Dan Aykroyd) and his crew are placing an anti-aircraft gun on the property of Betty’s father Ward (Ned Beatty), Gen. Joseph Stilwell (Robert Stack) wants to enjoy a screening of Dumbo in downtown Los Angeles, Sgt. ‘Stretch’ Sitarski (Treat Williams) wants to steal Betty away from Wally in the worst way, the General’s Aide, Capt. Loomis Birkhead (Tim Matheson) is determined to get Donna Stratton (Nancy Allen), who has an obsession with airplanes, into the cockpit for some ‘aerial maneuvers’, and Captain ‘Wild Bill’ Kelso of the United States Army Air Corp (John Belushi) has been tracking a phantom squadron of Japanese fighters for a day and a half and is obsessed bring down the Zero fighters. Things then get complicated.

In a beautiful mix of slapstick, sight gags, comedic word play, and screwball humor, 1941 harkens back to the comedy of The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, by way of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World, jams it into a blender to make a symphony of comedy that only comes around, well, not very often.

Huge dance numbers and fight scenes are beautifully choreographed and edited, as are the action scenes that play like live action cartoons.

Of course, my fondness for 1941 comes in part from my fascination with the time period, when film comedies themselves were quite frantic. Inspired by some actual home front events that took place in the early months of the United States’ involvement in the Second World War. The aesthetics of the time period, attention to detail, and of course the beautiful design of Wild Bill Kelso’s P-40 fighter.

The cast is once in a lifetime. Everyone is terrific, a mix of then young comedians and comic actors, many making their first big screen appearance, with more seasoned character actors and familiar faces. There are many cameos in 1941 that just make the film that much more fun.

John Williams’ score is one of his best and seemingly most unappreciated. Williams’ music is magnificent and perfect. Every time I watch 1941, the music, like the film itself, stays with me for days afterward. Not like an earworm, but as a rousing feel-good kind of thing that is most welcome when you return to it for the next viewing. It’s fun getting lost in the world of 1941.

The teaming of Toshiro Mifune and Christopher Lee is inspired. Lee’s Capt. Kleinschmidt speaking German and Mifune’s Comm. Mitamura speaking Japanese and both understanding one another yet never explaining it to the audience is smart comedy. Not to mention the opening scene that spoofs one of Spielberg’s and cinema’s most iconic scenes, and does so brilliantly, that establishes the Mitamura/Kleinschmidt relationship and launches the film.

Wild Bill Kelso is arguably the strangest and most unhinged character in 1941, but General Stilwell, the one true historical figure, to whom Robert Stack bears an uncanny resemblance, is the island of sanity. Stilwell is the movie’s straight man to everyone else’s lunatic. The General wants nothing more than to enjoy a quiet evening at the movies watching Dumbo. Robert Stack’s performance is brilliant as he watches the movie, moved by the emotional moments, and mouthing the words to ‘When I See an Elephant Fly’ are priceless.

Stilwell wants the audience to enjoy the movie as much as he is, and that’s how I feel about 1941. I want to share my love for the film and would like you to enjoy it as much as I do. I know that’s a big and unrealistic ask. 1941 is not to everyone’s taste, it is loud, frantic, occasionally obnoxious and long. The superior Director’s Cut is 26 minutes longer than the original 2-hour theatrical runtime. Which for me is 26 more reasons to enjoy 1941.

This is a film that has taken a lot of crap over the years and to some nothing less than rubbish. To me it is a near masterpiece of brilliantly executed screen comedy of clever gags and situations that all pay off in the end. Fortunately, there are some who are seeing 1941 in a new light. It has never played to me as an unholy mess, but as a hugely satisfying tribute to old Hollywood comedy insanity.

1941 is a hilarious celebration of our triumphs and failings as a species. In the immortal words of Captain ‘Wild Bill’ Kelso, United States Army Air Corp: “Sayonara, suckers!”

1941 is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Universal Home Video.