1941 (film) - Production

Production

According to Steven Spielberg's appearance in the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Kubrick suggested that 1941 should have been marketed as a drama rather than a comedy. The chaos of the events following Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 is summarized by Dan Aykroyd's character, Sgt. Tree, who states "he cannot stand Americans fighting Americans."

1941 is also notable as one of the few American films featuring Toshirō Mifune, a popular Japanese actor. It is also the only American film in which Mifune used his own voice in speaking Japanese and English. In his previous movies, Mifune's lines were dubbed by Paul Frees.

Both John Wayne and Charlton Heston were originally offered the role of Major General Stilwell with Wayne still considered for a cameo in the film. After reading the script, he decided not to participate, due to ill health, but also urged Spielberg to not pursue the project. Both Wayne and Heston felt the film was unpatriotic. Spielberg recalled, "He was really curious and so I sent him the script. He called me the next day and said he felt it was a very un-American movie, and I shouldn't waste my time making it. He said, 'You know, that was an important war, and you're making fun of a war that cost thousands of lives at Pearl Harbor. Don't joke about World War II'."

Despite John Wayne's opposition to the film, the use of the Irish folk tune The Rakes of Mallow as background music during the riot scenes was something of an homage to his film The Quiet Man, in which the same tune was used during the protracted fistfight between Wayne's character and Victor McLaglen's.

Susan Backlinie reprised her role as the first victim in Spielberg's Jaws by playing the young woman seen at the beginning of the film. The gas station that Wild Bill Kelso accidentally blows up early in the film is the same one seen in Spielberg's 1971 TV film, Duel, with Lucille Benson appearing as the proprietor in both films. Inadvertent comedic effects ensued when John Belushi in character as Captain Wild Bill Kelso slipped off the wing of his aircraft after being lifted by two soldiers. It was a real accident and Belushi had to be hospitalized, but the shot was left in the movie as it fit his eccentric character. During the USO riot scene, when the naked MP is tossed into the window of the restaurant from the fire truck, John Belushi plays the patron eating spaghetti. He is in makeup to look like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, which he famously parodied on the sketch comedy TV series Saturday Night Live. Belushi told Spielberg he wanted to appear in another part of the movie and the idea struck Spielberg as very humorous. At the beginning of the USO riot scene, one of the "extras" dressed as sailors, is actor James Caan; the film also featured the acting debut of Mickey Rourke as Private First Class Reese of Sgt. Tree's tank group.

The M3 tank Lulu Belle (named after a race horse) and fashioned from a mocked-up tractor, paid homage to its forebear in Humphrey Bogart's 1943 movie Sahara where an authentic M3 named Lulubelle was prominently featured.

Renowned modelmaker Greg Jein worked on the film, and would later use the hull number "NCC-1941" for the starship USS Bozeman in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

1941 is dedicated to the memory of Charlotte "Charlsie" Bryant, a longtime script supervisor at Universal Studios. She had served in that capacity on both Jaws and Close Encounters, and would have reprised those duties with this film had she not unexpectedly died.