DJ: For this extra special “Spoiler Warning,” Leigh and I will be going on and on about Steven Spielberg's first flop: 1941!

Leigh: Yea! 1941, a grand year, but I'm still reserving judgment on the film. Believe it or not, I have some issues thereupon.

DJ: You'd seen it before we were tapped to do this “Spoiler,” though, right?

Leigh: Yep. And during the first screening I was utterly enthralled, mainly by the dialogue.

DJ: How long ago was this?

Leigh: Maybe a year or so. In the intervening time, I like to think I have honed my tastes and realized that speed and gall cannot outweigh the extreme flaunting of a budget.

DJ: Oh! See, when I mentioned to people that I was watching this, many would go, "Yay! I love that movie!" But they'd seen it when they were young 'uns, which clouds things... kind of like how The Dukes of Hazzard used to be my favorite TV show.

Leigh: Right. Daisy has a lot in common with Slim Pickens when you really think about it.

DJ: They both show a lot of skin. Say, do you feel like doing a little synopsenthetical (new word I just made up) run down of this flick for the readers who are thinking, "WTF is 1941 about?"

Leigh: Sure. I like to think of it a bit like this: California has gone crazy in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. All are convinced that a place like Hollywood is next on the Japanese list... and they're right. The problem is that only the most inept of soldiers and citizens are in charge of the defense of Santa Monica.

DJ: Okay, that was on the money and concise -- maybe a first for a "Spoiler Warning" synopsis. Yes, that's indeed what 1941 is about. It's a fun idea, but the follow through is a mess. That's the way I'd describe this flick: "a mess"! Am I being too harsh here?

Leigh: No, no, “a mess” is a good start. But it's starts out to be so promising. I actually guffaw as the chick from Jaws shows her derriere to the sub crew.

DJ: Really? See, that made me groan. I can handle the Jaws parody in Airplane!, but here it just didn't work for me. Of course, the fact that Spielberg's riffing on his own movie is humorous, but I feel like, even a simple joke like that, it goes on for too long and gets way too complicated to the point that it's not funny anymore. Which is kind of how I feel about the whole movie. (Man, I'm a negative bastard.)

Leigh: Yea. For once, I'm being conciliatory. Odd. Anyway, there are still some pretty good lines, and I can't imagine that the ninja Christmas trees slipped past without your approval.

DJ: That was kind of funny, but I think I'd just been exhausted by that point (and there's still a lot of film to go). I'm all for tons of characters and madcap hijinks -- when it's got plenty of chuckles. This movie only made me laugh at it and a couple of times out of shock.

Leigh: You hit on something very important there -- this film is what I refer to as “long-ass.” You can, it turns out, overdo the talent.

DJ: Yeah -- it's not like it has a talentless cast, and Spielberg is no hack. It's just overly indulgent and not funny. Are there any bits, aside from Christmas tree ninjas, that you really liked or laughed at (for the "right" reasons)?

Leigh: I can point to two lines that I recall as being dead on the money and that I will laugh at for eternity. 1) "I lost 'em somewhere over Fresno." AND 2) "Directly in front of me I see a flying blonde floozy." They lighten the mood just as your starting to nod off.

DJ: The word "floozy" is always good for a laugh, so you got me there. But there are so many groaners: the guy on the ferris wheel looking for enemy planes (a funny idea) pulls out his ventriloquist dummy (hell on earth), pretty much the entire Tim Matheson trying to have sex with Nancy Allen by getting her on a plane... I don't know. I just don't find much of it funny. In fact, like Jay Leno, I find much of it ANTI-funny. 1941 actually stole laughs from the universe.

Leigh: Oh, totally agree on Tim Matheson -- he could go away. Another thing though I think that Spielberg got right was -- and you can correct me if I'm wrong -- that Californians tend to go a bit nuts.

DJ: Well, not just Californians -- we Americans in general. We're all very high strung! Although, California is really filled with the crazies...

Leigh: Ha. I think we could actually translate this to now, if I may be serious-ish for a second. Shouldn't we all calm down and leave the war to the Army?

DJ: But in 1941 the entire Army is inept!

Leigh: True. And, God, and what was Christopher Lee thinking?

DJ: Oh, man, yeah… Lee plays a German soldier on a submarine with the cartoonishly stereotypical Japanese soldiers. And I might be way too bleeding heart PC, all of that is really offensive. Maybe they were trying to be keeping with the era it takes place.

Leigh: Lee could have done so much with that, and so could all of the Japanese actors, but apparently the cliché gods had to be appeased. Now that I think about it, that could be part of the problem with the whole movie - too many clichés…

DJ: Obviously, the clichés/stereotypes were meant to be funny, but surely some audiences were offended! In fact, the original title of this was "The Night the Japs Attacked." Japs? Seriously? And that word's said multiple times, most notably when Matheson, while trying to get "some" in a plane, notices they're being shot at by the US and says, "They think we're JAAAAPS!!!"

Leigh: What year was this made?

DJ: 1979.

Leigh: Ah, yes, explains a lot. And, well, I can't help but think that the late 70s were actually an upswing for a bit of jingoism, no?
DJ: Maybe... I don't know. This just seems really almost shocking sometimes. A fairly wasted (like the rest of the cast) John Belushi, actually mutters the immortal line, "Eat lead, slant." Now, again, I guess that fits the times, but damn! Do you think it's meant as a satire? Or where the filmmakers that clueless?

Leigh: I am tempted to point to clueless -- or just underestimating posterity's ability to look beyond the mega-cast.

DJ: They also have the whole blackface/whiteface gag with John Candy and... the only black guy in the movie. I don't know. Maybe I'm too sensitive. Maybe it's all in good fun. Maybe I should take a look at myself, though, due to the fact that I don't know the black guy's name and just referred to him as "the black guy."

Leigh: Oh, you suck --

DJ: Frank McRae!

Leigh: -- You and your Californian self taking things too deeply. I would say that your umbrage is just more at having wasted two and a half hours of your existence watching this flick instead of, oh, I don't know, trimming your toenails, than at the inhumane reliance on racial slur for laughs.

DJ: Maybe a bit of both. I really do need to trim those toenails -- gross. Oh, there's also the hilarity of Treat Williams' character basically, especially as it goes on, wanting to rape that USO dancer. Again, maybe they were trying for a fun, cartoony, old timey style, but I was like, "What the hell are they doing???"

Leigh: Sigh. I definitely asked, "What the hell?" regularly during this, though it was most often with Ned Beatty and his family with the anti-aircraft gun.

DJ: Ha ha -- Ned Beatty. Yeah... I could go on and on with my overly PC complaints. If any of it had been funny to me, though, I wouldn't be offended, honestly. However, I do have to say thank goodness for Robert Stack. For some reason, he amused me. Maybe the only actor in this to do so for most of his screen time. I think it's the voice.

Leigh: Good summation, I suppose -- when Stack as the general spends the better part of the movie watching Dumbo, and that's the bright spot of the feature.

DJ: Ha ha -- yes. So... 1941. Uh. Yep. Any last words on the flick?

Leigh: Mm, nope. Over here I suppose.

DJ: Well, in closing, it's a movie. It was shot on film and came out in theatres.

Leigh: And should have been left there...