Arguably Steven Spielberg’s least-seen film, 1974’s The Sugarland Express merits memory mainly due to one distinction. After he worked on TV, it became his first big-screen affair.

Once we get past that trivia answer, does Express offer much of note? Not tremendously, for while it provides a decent flick, it doesn’t match up with Spielberg’s subsequent successes.

Based on a true story, Sugarland comes set in Texas during 1969. We meet Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) as she goes to visit her husband Clovis (William Atherton) at a Texas correctional facility.

Lou Jean tells Clovis she’s leaving him, as she just got out of a women’s facility and couldn’t retrieve two-year-old son Langston (Harrison Zanuck) from foster care. Clovis agrees to help get him back, and she wants the three of them to head to Los Angeles.

Lou Jean busts Clovis out of the minimum security facility and they hitch a ride with the elderly parents of another inmate, but they get pulled over when the man drives too slowly and creates a nuisance. As Officer Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks) approaches, they panic and steal the car.

Eventually they crash on the side of the road, but they steal Slide’s gun when he tries to help. They take him prisoner and make him drive them toward Sugarland, where they plan to reacquire baby Langston – an endeavor that creates a long chase while law enforcement pursues the outlaws.

Given Spielberg’s reputation as a sentimental, heavy-handed filmmaker, Express maintains a surprisingly even-handed take on matters. By that I mean that he doesn’t go for easy emotion, because other elements attempt specific concepts.

The flick clearly sympathizes with the Poplins, who become cultural icons as the film progresses. The massive manhunt earns them fans, and Spielberg often also depicts the police in a negative light.

Actually, the film treats all of the participants as fairly negative, for the Poplins don’t seem particularly competent either. Nonetheless, the cops get most of the heat.

Given the dim intellect of the Poplins, the police come across as especially dull since they constantly fall victim to the outlaws’ machinations. As it sides with the rebels, Express clearly adopts the anti-establishment tone of the era.

Some exceptions occur, particularly through the depiction of head cop Tanner (Ben Johnson), as he seems like the only rational and thoughtful person in the flick. Most of the law enforcement characters appear dopey, and the Poplins feel impulsive and irrational as well.

Tanner demonstrates the most reasoned personality in the movie, as he shows the two sides of his dilemma. He needs to stop the Poplins but he dreads the extremes to which he may need to resort.

Actually, I question some of those elements, as the cops go to tremendous extremes to stop two non-violent kidnappers. Sure, the fact they abducted a fellow officer exacerbates things.

Nonetheless, it seems illogical that the authorities send so many cars after them and also attempt to use lethal force. Given that the film comes based on a true story, I don’t know how much of this really happened, but it comes across as a stretch.

Much of Express offers a moderately comedic take on things, but Spielberg demonstrates a surprising level of darkness at times. We don’t expect that from the usually light-handed director, but the story’s harsher elements receive appropriate exploration.

In general, Spielberg lends the flick a subdued tone. He favors humor at times but doesn’t go for the broad emphasis that might make it a farce.

Does The Sugarland Express succeed wholly? No, for although it explores its topic more than competently, it never truly engages the viewer.

The movie presents few overt flaws but it lacks the spark or dynamic tone that made Spielberg’s better efforts so good. It fails to become as distinctive either and seems more like the work of a young director than a fully-formed auteur.

That’s appropriate given that it was the work of a young director, though he’d soon emerge as a massive talent with 1975’s Jaws. Express remains a historical curiosity, one that sporadically entertains.

The Sugarland Express appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD disc. Despite the age and low budget of the production, the Dolby Vision picture looked good,

Sharpness was solid, as I noticed only a smidgen of softness in a couple of wider shots. Otherwise, the movie remained largely crisp and well-defined.

No instances of moiré effects or jaggies materialized, and I also noticed no edge haloes. Print flaws failed to mar the proceedings.

Despite the movie’s arid setting, Express tended toward blue overtones. As depicted, these seemed fine, and the film exhibited a good array of other hues as well, all of which got a nice boost from HDR.

Black levels were similarly deep and concise, while the smattering of low-light shots came across as clean and appropriately distinctive. HDR added kick to whites and contrast. Overall, the image of Express satisfied.

The 4K UHD for Express brought a new Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix that supplanted the original monaural audio. In a perplexing choice, Universal chose to drop the existing DTS-HD MA mono track found on the 2014 Blu-ray.

Though not a bad remix, I found the soundfield to seem less than natural. I do appreciate that the new track didn’t go nuts with sonic ambition, as it kept things reasonably subdued.

Still, the soundscape just never quite “fit”. Various elements felt too “speaker specific” and they didn’t blend or move in an especially natural manner.

This created a setting that became moderately active but not particularly convincing. To be sure, I’ve heard multi-channel remixes that seemed less natural, but this one still remained somewhat awkward.

Audio quality worked fine, at least. Speech occasionally felt a bit reedy, but the lines remained intelligible and largely concise.

Music showed reasonable range, while effects appeared generally accurate, without much distortion. Though the track sounded fairly good, the less than natural soundscape left it as a “C+” for me.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2014 Blu-ray? As noted, the 4K UHD dropped the original monaural and replaced it with a new 5.1 mix.

Like I mentioned above, the reworked soundfield didn’t satisfy. I’d prefer to listen to the 1974 monaural but the UHD didn’t include it.

As for the UHD’s Dolby Vision image, it offered better delineation, blacks and colors than its Blu-ray predecessor. As often happens, this meant the higher-resolution format accentuated some minor softness in the source, but I still thought the UHD offered the superior visual experience overall.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get a featurette entitled From Vault to Screen. It runs 13 minutes, 24 seconds and includes notes from Universal VP, Mastering and Archive Cassandra Moore, NBC Universal Studio Group CFO Adam Moysey, restoration and preservation manager Jen Hashida, Universal Physical Archive OPS Chase Schulte, supervising sound editor John Edell, Operations Studio Post VP Casey Keltner, mastering supervisors Seanine Bird and Peter Schade, VFX artist Don Lee, post re-recording mixer Frank A. Montano, lead re-recording mixer Leon Smith, audio restoration editor Brian San Marco and colorists Jason Fabbro and Scott Gregory.

“Vault” looks at Universal’s efforts to restore their film catalog, with an emphasis on 4K UHD discs. A few minor insights emerge but most of this feels self-congratulatory.

A second disc offers a Blu-ray copy of Express. It includes the trailer but lacks the featurette.

Steven Spielberg’s cinematic debut, The Sugarland Express merits a place in history. The movie works moderately well when viewed outside of Spielberg’s legacy but it doesn’t match up with his better flicks.

The 4K UHD offers very good picture along with an inconsistent sound remix and insubstantialsupplements. This is a decent film that looks good on 4K UHD, though the absence of the movie’s original monaural audio makes it a flawed release.