I just watched The Sugarland Express and I still have the same problem with it. While it's undoubtedly an amazing piece of filmmaking -- film critic Pauline Kael called it one of the most spectacular debuts of any director-- it's still an extended, massive car chase, and as a non-driver, I'm especially bored by car chases. The number of cars and car crashes increases as the movie continues, and my attention flagged as well. Spielberg's previous film was the TV movie Duel, which was one long chase of a car by an evil-looking truck. Spielberg topped himself with his first feature film, adding more cars, more crashes, more cups, and virtuoso camera work but since I never really cared about the two main characters, it seemed like much ado about nothing. Still, The film is evidence that the director is a highly talented man capable of orchestrating big set pieces with lots of people and vehicles (helicopters too). So in his first few films, Spielberg demonstrated his dexterity with cars trucks, sharks, and aliens. It seemed fair to assume he was uncomfortable with people, but his later work proved he was capable of filming people and human emotions well as well.
