The Sugarland Express turned a small profit. Made for an estimated $3 million, it grossed $12.8 million worldwide.

"Steven Spielberg could be that rarity among directors, a born entertainer -- perhaps a new generation's Howard Hawks. In terms of the pleasure that technical assurance gives an audience, this film is one of the most phenomenal debut films in the history of movies." -- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker.

"The movie has a casual craziness that seems especially native. From the drum majorettes who greet the fugitives to the press corps interviewing the gurgling baby, the narrative is studded with national lunacies, including the wife's passion for gold trading stamps....Steven Spielberg, the twenty-six-year-old director, has built up Texas as a major character in his movie. As the herd of cars races and heaves and crashes through the landscape, the state's personality surfaces like a sperm whale. Mr. Spielberg has also made marvelous use of many Texans, some of whom haven't acted before. And he has choreographed his cars in a way that almost makes me want to learn to drive." -- Nora Sayre, The New York Times.

"If the movie finally doesn't succeed, that's because Spielberg has paid too much attention to all those police cars (and all the crashes they get into), and not enough to the personalities of his characters. We get to know these three people just enough to want to know them better. We're burdened instead with countless telephoto shots of squad cars. But the movie has its moments, and when the fugitives parade down Main Street and are presented with gifts by their newly made fans, we admit: Yes, that's the way celebrity works in America -- no matter what you're known for." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

AWARDS & HONORS

The film won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, and Steven Spielberg was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

The Writers Guild nominated the Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins screenplay for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen

By Frank Miller