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A girl with a great following. Every cop in the state was after her. Everybody else was behind her.

The Sugarland Express (1974)

March 31, 19741h 50mEN
6.6

451 votes

Overview

Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.

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Top Billed Cast

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

$3.0M

Revenue

$12.8M

Production Companies

Universal PicturesThe Zanuck/Brown Company

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User Reviews

DanDare

DanDare

6.0

Steven Spielberg's first proper cinema movie has some great photography from Vilmos Zsigmond. The tone is uncertain. A road movie, a tragic comedy with car pile ups that is based on true facts. Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn) takes her husband Clovis (William Atherton) out of a minimum security prison just weeks before his eventual release. All to save their child who has been taken away and ready to put up for adoption. They kidnap a police officer which leads to them being pursued by the police and the media. Goldie Hawn is spiky as Lou Jean but she is also stupidly impulsi…

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CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

6.0

When "Clovis" (William Atherton) is incarcerated, his wife "Lou Jean" (Goldie Hawn) is facing losing their son to adoption. She's having none of this so decides to spring her husband from jail so they can go collect their bairn and head for Mexico. Things do not go to plan, though, and pretty quickly they are in an hijacked police-car being driven by "Officer Slide" (Michael Sacks). Needless to say, the police - under the shrewd "Capt. Tanner" (Ben Johnson) now up the ante and we are now looking at a chase that involves just about every police vehicle in the country! They are gradually digging…

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r96sk

r96sk

9.0

Quality! <em>'The Sugarland Express'</em> is Steven Spielberg's first theatrical release as director, which is quite something given the movie seems like it was made by a seasoned vet. On a similar note, the look and feel of the film is absolutely outstanding; it has aged remarkably well visually, almost hard to believe it came out in 1974! I also really enjoyed the score, particularly Toots Thielemans on the harmonica, but that's no surprise - John Williams, duh! As for plot, it is very entertaining. I like how silly everything plays out for the first chunk and the film knows it, but ev…

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