'' is a
1974 Feature Film starring
Goldie Hawn and
William Atherton . The movie partially takes place and was partially filmed in
Sugar Land ,
Texas . It is the second feature length film directed by
Steven Spielberg . It is about a husband and wife trying to outrun the law and was based on a true story.
In
1969 , Ila Fae Dent helped her husband Robert escape from a Texas pre-release prison facility (the same one where the movie was filmed), because she feared losing
Custody of their child to Ila Fae's mother. During their flight, they overpowered and
Kidnapped Texas Department Of Public Safety trooper Kenneth Crone, holding him
Hostage during a slow-moving caravan of up to 150 DPS vehicles, along with media in cars and helicopters and hundreds of curious bystanders, that passed through
Port Arthur ,
Houston ,
Navasota , and finally Wheelock, near
Bryan . Unlike the film, the events took just several hours.
At Ila Fae's mother's house, they encountered numerous officers including an
FBI agent. The situation grew tense, with Crone held at gunpoint. The FBI agent and
County Sheriff shot and killed Robert. The trooper was uninjured. Ila Fae spent five months in
Prison . She died in
1992 . Crone was an advisor on the film and had a small role as a
Deputy Sheriff .
The promotors of the film played up the grassroots support that existed for a mother trying to claim custody of her child. Some posters used the tagline:
A girl with a great following
Every cop in the state was after her.
Everybody else was behind her.
For the DVD release, the first line was dropped.
- The pre-release facility is located in the Jester III Unit of the Texas Deparment of Criminal Justice - Institutional Division, in present-day northwestern part of Sugar Land, Texas .
- Every Spielberg film from this one on has been scored by John Williams , except The Color Purple .
