1941
Short description
Set in Los Angeles in December 1941, the film follows the wave of panic that sweeps California after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. With a Japanese submarine reported off the coast and an invasion feared, ordinary residents, soldiers and self-appointed patriots try to defend the city. Their efforts are chaotic and often destructive, and the story mixes wartime jitters with broad comedy.
Steven Spielberg directed the film, the seventh of the forty features he has made in chronological order, following Close Encounters of the Third Kind and preceding Raiders of the Lost Ark. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wrote the screenplay, and Buzz Feitshans produced. The large cast includes Dan Aykroyd as Sergeant Frank Tree, John Belushi as Captain Wild Bill Kelso, Ned Beatty as Ward Douglas, Lorraine Gary as Joan Douglas, Murray Hamilton as Claude Crumn and Christopher Lee as Captain Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt, with 89 credited cast members and 70 credited crew members.
Made for a budget of 35 million US dollars, the film took about 95 million dollars worldwide and runs 118 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.8 from roughly 39,000 votes, while on TMDB it also stands at 5.8, based on 736 votes. A film critics' rating of 5 out of 10 from 28 reviews places it close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Most of the film was shot by cinematographer William A. Fraker, but he was fired due to disagreements with Steven Spielberg and John Milius. Frank Stanley completed the filming.
- It was planned that admission would be charged after the screening, as was practiced in the 1940s.
- The working title of the film was “The Night the Japs Attacked.”
- Both screenwriters, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, attended the University of Southern California's film school, whose president was named Rufus von Kleinschmidt. They used this unusual surname in the film for the German captain Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt (Christopher Lee).
- The role of General Sitwell was offered to actors John Wayne and Charlton Heston by Steven Spielberg. Both declined the offer due to the director's perceived lack of patriotism towards World War II veterans.
- The film's climactic scene with Douglas Ward's collapsing house required lengthy and thorough preparation, and its filming was postponed so many times that the crew even made bets on the date and time of the episode's start. Dan Aykroyd won the bet.
- The film was shot in Los Angeles, Malibu, the Mojave Desert, Santa Monica (all in California), and on the 'Golden Shore' in Oregon (the opening scene with the submarine surfacing).
- Filming dates: October 23, 1978 – May 16, 1979.
- The story shown in the film is based on a real event.
- The director's cut of the film has a runtime of 146 minutes.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
