Serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery, Carter 'Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) is paroled when his wife, Carol (Ali MacGraw), cuts a deal with a crooked/corrupt businessman, Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson). The parole comes at a price though, Doc having to take part in a bank robbery with two other crooks, Butler (Al Lettieri) and Jackson (Bo Hopkins). The robbery nets $500,000, but in the aftermath Jackson is killed, Butler tries to turn on Doc, and Beynon is looking to double cross them all. Now with Carol in tow, Doc is on the run, searching for a way out. With hired killers all around smelling the money, Doc and Carol -- dealing with some additional marriage issues -- must run the gauntlet to freedom, but where do they go?
Say what you want about Peckinpah as a director -- and he has his fair share of detractors -- but the man had style. By 1972, he was an established director and ended up with one of his career's biggest successes with 'Getaway.' His movies had style, but it was a gritty, realistic, no frills style. His trademark slow-motion violence is there (if somewhat subdued compared to other movies), and the characters are as tough as they come, everyone doing whatever it takes to survive on their own. It's a nasty little world Peckinpah presents as Doc makes his getaway across southern Texas along the Rio Grande. From his typically unique opening credit sequence through the final shootout, Peckinpah always keeps it interesting.
I love seeing teams of superstar directors and actors, especially when they're two of my favorites like here with Peckinpah and McQueen. The duo worked twice together in 1972, also making rodeo flick Junior Bonner. Their personal and individual styles just work together. McQueen's icy, business-like Doc McCoy is one of his darker characters. He's an incredible anti-hero, an ex-con who doesn't trust anybody, even his wife when he finds out what she's been up to. Where some actors made impressions with long stretches of dialogue, McQueen does a lot here -- as he often did -- with very little, using his face, a simple look, his physicality to get a message across. A man of few words to say the least. And because I mention it with every McQueen review....he's very cool. Black suit, shades and a 12-gauge shotgun blasting away at a police car? How isn't that cool?
Because of McQueen as the leading man and Peckinpah in the director's chair, I've always been able to look past some of the movie's more glaring problems. For one? There are surreal moments that just don't fit. Lettieri can and usually was an intimidating villain, but his Rudy Butler is bizarre, almost child-like. He ends up kidnapping a veterinarian, Harold (Jack Dodson), and his wife, Fran (Sally Struthers), to patch up his wounds. The scenes are so off-the-wall they're painful to watch, Rudy having sex with Fran in front of Harold. There's also a food fight, and Fran's utter dependence on Rudy with Struthers at her shrill best. I'm not for domestic abuse, but when McQueen punches a screaming, frantic, whining Struthers near the end it was like a release. Lettieri wasted, and Struthers at her annoying best.
Putting together a finished product, McQueen used his clout to get a new score for the movie, replacing Peckinpah collaborator Jerry Fielding with Quincy Jones. All in all, a bad choice. The score is awful and completely out of place. Not that kind of awful you can ignore either. Harmonica solos? Really, that's the best you've got? And God bless her, but MacGraw just was not a good actress. The future Mrs. Steve McQueen brings little personality to the part with McQueen salvaging what he can of their on-screen time together. Whatever chemistry they had in real-life rolled over to the movie at least a little bit, but that can't save 'Getaway' from her lack of acting ability.
Thankfully there's a ton of other small but well-done supporting parts. Johnson is underused, but his scene with McQueen on the Riverwalk in San Antonio is a great exchange. Hopkins too -- a Peckinpah favorite -- isn't around long, but it's always good seeing his brewing yet cool and laid back persona. Also look for Richard Bright as a conman, Dub Taylor as Laughlin, a hotel owner with connections everywhere, and Roy Jenson and John Bryson as two of Beynon's henchmen. The best part though is for Slim Pickens as an aging Cowboy who Doc and Carol meet in their getaway attempt. It's a small part -- maybe 5 minutes -- that I think should have earned Pickens a Best Supporting Actor nomination, it's that good. His dialogue is honest and refreshing, and his extended scene with McQueen and MacGraw is one of the most natural exchanges I've ever seen. Great part for one of the all-time great character actors.
For a Peckinpah movie, the action is pretty slim. If anything, 'Getaway' focuses more on the chase and the tension that gets built up. McQueen going to town on pursuing police with a shotgun is like a release for him as much as it is the viewer. The same goes for the showdown in Laughlin's hotel, an orgy of shotguns and machine guns. Peckinpah doesn't go overboard, tapping the brakes as necessary. He knows what works and what doesn't, what audiences want to see. It's a flawed movie in the end, but a good one. Since it has inspired a remake while also being sampled by countless other movies, especially impacting No Country for Old Men. Check this one out for Peckinpah behind the camera, and McQueen in front of it.
The Getaway <---trailer (1972): ***/****
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