1941 war movie

1941 (1979, United States)

Categories: aircraft movies military base movies submarine movies

1941

Director: Steven Spielberg

Czas: 112 minut

Laguages: English

war movies infoAdam 'Frey' Barczynski
2024-04-07 / 1970-01-01

Soon after attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese submarine surfaces near the coast of California. They are here to attack Hollywood... if they can find it.

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor the preparations for defence of West Coast of United States has begun, the regular army and National Guard were put on alert to be prepared for any kind of attack. Japanese submarine surfaces near the coast of California with plan to attack where it will hurt Americans the most - Hollywood. The problem is the Japanese sailors have no idea how to find Hollywood or how far it is from the coast. When they spot the lights of nearby city they are convinced that they have reached their target. But the rumours about the Japanese submarine quickly circles the area and more evidence of upcoming invasion start the chain of events that put the army, airforce and half of the nearby population into alarm.

American comedy directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (the duo of creators that later came up with Back to the Future movies) and with cast of actors known from Saturday Night Live - sounds like a recipe for a hit. But unfortunately the final effect of their work is comedy of mistakes way below average - cheap slapstick and 1940s nostalgia were not enough to make a decent movie. Plenty of characters, some of them too cartoonish to keep the movie real. As for war movies elements it presents the spirit of 1941 in United States, when the war was starting, but still no one was sure what will happen next and just like during Cold War tiny rumour could start a full scale panic.

The story was partly inspired by what is known as Battle of Los Angeles - the event from February 1942, when the air defence in California started to fire to enemy airplanes even though after the war it was determined that there were no Japanese airplanes nowhere near the area. In some theories it was started by UFOs, in others it was just a chain reaction started by a human error, but whatever it was it is fact that in February 1942 something kept the air defence in California in full alert for over 2 hours.

Our rating

3.6

Film value

4 / 10

Realism factor

2 / 5

Adventure factor

2 / 5

Historical accuracy

1 / 5

2024-04-07

1941 full movie

---

1941 videos

---

1941