Six days after Pearl Harbor, Los Angeles panics when a Japanese submarine turns up off the California coast. A big cast of soldiers, pilots and ordinary people overreact in comic ways. It was a disappointment at first and is now a cult favorite. Watch for how many storylines Spielberg keeps in the air.
At a glance
1941 is a 1979 comedy and war film directed by Steven Spielberg. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative, 1 psychology and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Hudsucker Proxy uses several of the same techniques.
Imitating a known genre, author or famous scene with affection or mockery, so the audience's familiarity with the original drives the humor and the commentary.
How this film uses it
The film opens with a nod to Jaws. Susan Backlinie, the first victim in that film, has a cameo. Spielberg pokes fun at his own hit and tells you right away that this is a comedy.
Where to see it
The opening scene. It plays like a send-up of the famous opening of Jaws, and Backlinie appears again.
Running several separate storylines side by side, sometimes leading them to collide, so each thread comments on the others and the whole becomes a larger picture.
How this film uses it
The film follows many small stories at once, from a tank crew at a cafe to pilots, a family in Santa Monica and spotters on a Ferris wheel. They all pile into the same chaos. You enjoy watching them collide.
Where to see it
The finale. The submarine fires on the pier, and the Ferris wheel falls into the ocean.
Placing people in a pressured situation where politeness and rules fall apart. The film watches panic or fear turn ordinary people into something cruder, sometimes for laughs.
How this film uses it
Everyone in Los Angeles expects an attack. Soldiers put an anti-aircraft gun in a family's front yard, and amateur spotters watch the sky from a Ferris wheel. A reading is that the film makes fun of how fear turns a crowd foolish.
Where to see it
The Santa Monica scenes. Sgt. Tree and his tank crew install an anti-aircraft gun in the Douglas family's front yard.
Building highly detailed scale models of places too big or impossible to build full size, sometimes called bigatures. They are filmed with real cameras and blended with full-size footage.
How this film uses it
Modelmaker Greg Jein built detailed models for the film and earned an Oscar nomination. The film earned three nominations in all, for cinematography, sound and visual effects. The scale models let Spielberg stage the crashes and explosions for real.
Where to see it
The destruction at the amusement park pier. The Ferris wheel falls into the ocean in a big practical spectacle.
Questions
Keep watching
Same director
Same era
