Like Duel, I have meant to watch this movie so many times it’s ridiculous. I stand there with the disc in my hand – I go online and read reviews which never really contain any info that makes me desperate to watch it – finally this time I just found myself saying to myself, “What the f*ck are you doing? It’s Spielberg, you’re a film nerd, and you’ve not seen it yet!” LOL. Well, that worked – and putting it in a double bill with Duel didn’t hurt either, it’s certainly recommended.

And Spielberg it really is. On the technical side of things, this film is nothing short of flawless. Though Billy Goldenberg did a fine job with the score for Duel, it’s here finally that the John Williams relationship began, and boy, it’s there if anywhere, when those strings come in over the main title, that you hear an artist who started as brilliant as he has continued. The film is also lovingly, beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond.

But while I really wanted to love this movie, in the end I felt it dragged far too much. It’s very scattered in what it’s trying to say – the public adulation of the couple, Hawn in particular, resembling Bonnie and Clyde among many others, the fleeting digs at the media done better in Natural Born Killers (public adulation of the criminals there too of course), the baby storyline and other things resembling the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona. In other words, it’s all very much been done better elsewhere before and since. You can’t deny the perfect blending of skill and fun though, and it is a large enough part of any understanding of Spielberg to again make me ashamed I didn’t see it sooner.