While virtually everything Spielberg has ever directed, produced or even offhandedly sneezed at has been released on DVD, there’s been one movie that’s been notable by its absence in the UK, his infamous directorial flop, 1941. However Spielberg completists will be pleased to hear that it looks like a DVD edition of the movie is now in the works.
It’s the film that almost killed Spielberg’s career. After going massively overbudget and over-schedule, 1941 opened in 1979 to bad reviews and limited box office. You would have thought everyone could have smelled trouble the moment the first person said, “It’s a slapstick comedy about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor”, but hey, maybe they were all stoned and it seemed a good idea at the time. It is true though that with a cast including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty and many more, you can understand why they thought they might get away with it, and 1941 does has some very funny moments and a couple of truly massive setpieces. And hey, some people must have liked it as it got three Oscar nominations.
While there’s no news on a release date yet, the BBFC has just passed some 1941 bonus features, including some deleted scenes and almost two hours of interviews with the cast and crew. This would suggest we might be getting the Collector’s Edition that came out in the States, which also featured a longer cut of the movie and plenty of other bits and pieces. We’ll keep you up to date on when and if this lost bit of Spielberg-ania might be arriving on digital disc.