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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sugarland_Express

The first time I saw this crazy movie on TV years ago, my dad and I (who both live in Houston not far from Sugerland) we said "This must be VERY loosely based on a 'true story'" A lot of "yahoo!" goofy Hollywood "Texas" in it. AND the absurdity of having a jillion police cars chasing one car across half the state. Apparently about the only thing the movie stretched was the lenght. There was no stopping and starting over a few day periods, it took place in a few hours.

BUT, 150 policecars!!!!!!! Good lord, it was one armed man and a crazy woman holding a DPS officer hostage...not Santa Anna's army from Mexico. Why in the world would they do this, seems like it would hinder their efforts to have that many vehicles lined up down the road.

Anybody else from Texas or otherwise know anything about this story beyond the nutty movie?

I don't know much about the story or the movie, but there is an infamous SASS shooter that describes himself as Sugarland Express

Maybe he will stop by and shed some light on your interest.

Jason

A great movie for sure. While I lived about 300 yards from the Jester Unit pre-release center growing up, the actual car chase happened when I was too young to remember.
Every few years somebody would make a run for it though and we'd have Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputies all over the place, knocking on doors, driving down the street making PA announcements and we'd have troopers in the woods on horseback. Of course, the escapee was always caught hiding in somebody's bushes or trash can.
Why somebody would escape from a PRE RELEASE facility is a real mystery.

Sugarland Express varied from actual events in several ways:
The Trooper was taken hostage along I-10 near Winnie, Texas and ended up in the Bryan area as best as I can recall. I really don't think that the ensuing pursuit involved near the number of patrol cars as in the movie. The pursuit involved two different DPS Regions and 3 Highway Patrol Districts. Even in todays world, it would take almost every black and white in two districts to add up to 150 as each district has approximately 90 to 100 black and whites; back in 1969 DPS was a much smaller agency with around 1200-1500 troopers and far fewer cars than today. There might have been 150 black and whites involved totally, but at different times. DPS did make a good sum of money selling Speilburg a bunch of old turned in black and white patrol cars.

Gosh, 30 years ago, I'd remember more about it, but memory fades with time. A good friend of mine is the voice of the female dispatcher heard through out the movie. I might give her a call and see what she remembers about it. She actually worked during the real event.

My friend that actually worked during the "real" Sugarland Express incident tells me that at any one time there were about 12-15 DPS units and about the same number of other agency units involved in the "Pursuit". During the making of the movie, she said that Speilberg spent about two days working with her and another dispatcher recording the "radio calls" that would be inserted into the movie. Speilberg said her "Texas Twang" was not enough and had her hold her nose when she spoke. She said his philosophy was "bigger and more of everything". The dispatch center seen in the movie is one that Speilberg made up and not the real thing.

holywood They will never learn that most of the time, the way things really happened are better & more interesting than what they try to make it.