A journey back to the early days of Spielberg

Watching Steven Spielberg's feature debut, "The Sugarland Express" (1974), it's curious to think about how much blame Spielberg has shouldered (along with pal George Lucas) for the spectacle-over-substance state of moviemaking today. Goldie Hawn certainly has plenty of character material to chew on as Texan true crime sweetheart Lou Jean Poplin, a convict's wife who helps her husband (William Atherton) kidnap a state trooper (Michael Sacks) in their dubious bid to reclaim their toddler from foster care. Ben Johnson has some nice moments as the veteran lawman semireluctantly heading up the pursuit, as does the beleaguered Atherton, who pensively sees his own hopeless circumstance in a cartoon clip of Wile E. Coyote plunging off a cliff. True, "Sugarland" also indulges freely, and at times amusingly, in a brand of chase-scene excess that seems to anticipate "The Blues Brothers." But at the same time, Spielberg's depiction of the Poplins' low-speed, cross-state "flight," complete with gawkers, well-wishers, and media lining the way, is vividly surreal, and might as well have provided the script for O.J.'s infamous freeway cruise a full two decades later.