STACK #121 Nov 2015

DVD&BD

FEATURE

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Screenwriter Bob Gale is best known as the creative force behind the Back to the Future trilogy, along with Robert Zemeckis. He also co-wrote Steven Spielberg’s 1979 comedy spectacular 1941 , which is now available on Blu-ray in an Extended Edition as part of the Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection box set. Gale spoke with Scott Hocking about Spielberg’s most atypical film, and why it’s best experienced in its longer version.

B ob Gale was attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts with classmate Robert Zemeckis in 1974 when he first encountered a young filmmaker named Steven Spielberg, who was screening his movie The Sugarland Express . “This kid comes in who has just directed this huge feature with all these police cars, and it’s got Goldie Hawn – a big movie star – and all this production value.We were amazed that somebody who didn’t seem to be much older than we were had pulled this off,” Gale recalls. “That was the first time we became aware of him, although I may have seen one of his Night Gallery episodes when I was in high school.” The next time the Bobs crossed paths with this talented young director was after they’d snuck into an exhibitors’ screening of Jaws (1976), several months prior to the release of the film. “We were absolutely enthralled, blown away, terrified, etc.We were so excited, we burst into Steven’s office the very next day and told him how great we thought it was,” Gale explains. “He was playing back an audiotape of the audience’s reaction at the time – just to hear if they gasped and jumped at all the right moments – because he would still have time to make some changes in the editing. One of the things that we told him was that we thought that when the shark devoured Robert Shaw, it was so great that we laughed out loud. And Steven said, ‘so it was you guys. I heard

directorial debut, the Beatlemania comedy IWanna HoldYour Hand (1978) – which he’d co-written with Gale – and ultimately the pair’s Back to the Future trilogy. But prior to conceiving the adventures of Marty McFly, Gale and Zemeckis would collaborate on the screenplay for Spielberg’s fourth theatrical feature, theWorldWar II comedy 1941 (1979). Set during the titular year, the film follows a group of paranoid Californians who fear that the Japanese will attack Los Angeles following their assault on Pearl Harbor.The film begins with a spoof of Jaws ’ opening scene (featuring original victim Susan Backlinie), setting the tone for the slapstick lunacy that follows, which includes ninjas disguised as Christmas trees, a ventriloquist dummy sentry, and fighter planes screaming down Hollywood Blvd. A screwball spectacular that plays more like something Joe Dante would deliver, 1941 is Spielberg’s sole venture into the

We were so excited, we burst into Steven’s office the very next day and told him how great we thought [ Jaws ] was. to various producers and directors. Impressed by Zemeckis’s work, Spielberg suggested that they stay in touch, leading to a longtime association that began with Spielberg executive producing Zemeckis’s

somebody laughing on the audiotape – that was you!’” Following graduation, Zemeckis encountered Spielberg again whilst screening his student film

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