The Getaway (1972)
Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Film Review

After their successful collaboration on Junior Bonner (1972), director Sam Peckinpah and actor Steve McQueen immediately teamed up again to deliver one of the grittiest and most atmospheric action-crime movies of the 1970s.  The Getaway was an important departure for McQueen, allowing him to ditch his familiar nice guy screen persona that had stuck with him since his debut in The Blob (1958).  Here he portrays a more complex and ambivalent character, a flawed anti-hero of dubious morality.  Peckinpah is just as inspired by the film's subject matter and, skilfully avoiding the clichés to which the heist movie was particularly prone at the time, he crafts a film that is unremittingly tough and tensely unpredictable.  The Getaway makes few concessions to the faint-hearted; what it thrusts into our faces is the world of the hardened criminal as it should be shown, not as glamorous fantasy, but as something that is cold, ugly and brutal.

McQueen's solid performance (easily one of his best) is complemented by some sterling contributions from a fine supporting cast - Al Lettieri is particularly chilling as the main villain of the piece.  The one casting let down is Ali MacGraw who, lacking the rudiments of acting ability, fails to make her character remotely convincing and just looks like an unsightly sticking plaster on what might otherwise have been a faultless production.  Whilst the director's stylistic touches (notably his trademark slow-mo killings and jarring editing) are sometimes an irritating distraction, Peckinpah is as focussed and uncompromising as ever, igniting the film with his customary energy and panache, whilst taunting us with his characteristically cynical assessment of human nature.   However, the main reason to watch The Getaway is to savour McQueen's darkly introspective performance, which is without doubt one of his finest and most enigmatic.

Film Synopsis

Carter McCoy is serving a ten-year stretch in prison.  After he is refused parole, he sends his wife Carol to make a deal with crooked businessman Jack Benyon.  The latter springs McCoy's release on condition that he takes part in a bank robbery.  McCoy agrees to Benyon's terms and makes meticulous preparations for the hold-up.  Things soon go awry when McCoy's partners in crime - Benyon's hired thugs - turn treacherous.  Benyon repays McCoy by attempting to seduce his wife.  Although McCoy and Carol manage to make a swift getaway with the loot, their escape is far from certain.  Benyon is a formidable opponent and doesn't give up that easily...