The late, great film critic, Pauline Kael, saw a modest film from Universal Pictures in 1974. Although most critics were interested in the star, Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower), who was then a recent Oscar winner, Kael took particular notice of the young director who made the film. She wrote that the director "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."I quote this line for the sheer force of its truth-it is the most startlingly dead-on accurate movie industry prediction I have ever seen. That director, of course, is Steven Spielberg, whose oeuvre includes three decades worth of groundbreaking, blockbusting films. The film, his first theatrical feature, The Sugarland Express, is newly available on DVD.

The Sugarland Express begins with Lou Jean Poplin (Hawn), a Texan, an ex-con and a new mother, breaking her husband Clovis (William Atherton, The Last Samurai) out of a pre-release detention center. Their child, Baby Langston, had been taken to a foster family in Sugarland, Tex., and Lou Jean is determined to get him back. When the escape goes awry, a cross-Texas chase ensues in which the Poplins race toward Sugarland, the police race after the Poplins, and the press races after the police.

For those who read last week's review, you may be noting a trend of sorts-Spielberg's first telefilm, Duel, also involved a feature-length, state-crossing chase. The Sugarland Express marks a certain maturation that must have occurred with Spielberg's continued television work-the plot is more elaborate, and the characters on both sides of the chase are fleshed out more intricately. The almost compassionate, troubled police captain (Ben Johnson, The Wild Bunch) stands in stark contrast to the faceless, nearly inhuman trucker in Duel.

The Sugarland Express can hardly be considered among Spielberg's best or most important films, but it deserves more scrutiny than it has seen. It is a good film, not a great film. It is well-acted, well-paced, and caries its viewer through a straightforward plot expertly and unflinchingly. It leaves an impression at the end of bittersweet satisfaction, though the ending is surprisingly un-Spielbergian.

It's a sweet film, and gentle, which feels odd to say about a police-chase film, but isn't that a sign of the Spielberg-to-be? There are elements of expertly crafted sweetness and gentleness in Jaws, too.

The DVD itself, aside from the film it contains, is uninspiring. There are no special features to speak of. The few bits of material on the Duel DVD were remarkably insightful, so it is a mystery to me why they did not collect interviews for The Sugarland Express as well. Both disks were released simultaneously as a thematically and historically linked unit.

There was another person involved in the creation of The Sugarland Express who warrants a mention. To composer John Williams, this was just another film to score. Spielberg asked for him specifically, recalling his score to the John Wayne film, The Cowboys. Those of us who know Williams from his Indiana Jones and Star Wars themes may be surprised when we hear the jazzy, harmonica riffs of the Sugarland soundtrack Although it sounds very different from most of Williams' current scores, it is actually rather like a lot of his earlier work-his earliest training was as a jazz pianist, and many of his early scores were jazzy, and not classical, in tone. Williams continued to work with Spielberg after their successful collaboration on The Sugarland Express. Since that film, they have worked together on every single one of Spielberg's films except The Color Purple. Their collaboration is perhaps the single most valuable thing to come out of the Sugarland history.