The Getaway ***** (1972, Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, Sally Struthers, Jack Dodson, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins, Richard Bright) – Classic Movie Review 1355

Director Sam Peckinpah’s 1972 action crime thriller The Getaway is one of this great director’s greatest movies, and most successful. Peckinpah and screenwriter Walter Hill turn esteemed pulp-fiction writer Jim Thompson’s novel into a sweaty-palmed, edge-of-seat, blood-soaked chase movie.

Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw star as bank robber Carter ‘Doc’ McCoy, a convicted felon in Texas, who is granted parole and released from jail. But Sheriff Beynon (Ben Johnson) expects a return favour – robbing another bank. Beynon does not really plan to let McCoy walk away after the heist and neither does co-robber Rudy Butler (Al Lettieri). After the heist goes awry, ‘Doc’ and his loyal wife Carol set out on the run on an exhilarating  life-or-death journey across a hostile landscape battling the violent villains and ruthless cops.

The two charismatic stars are seen at their best in this original Seventies action favourite. McQueen steps up manfully to his archetype as a brooding anti-hero of few words and much action. Ex-model MacGraw is an intense and forceful presence as his co-star, though she struggled with the role through her inexperience as an actress. Also in the cast are Sally Struthers, Jack Dodson, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins and Richard Bright.

It was a huge box-office hit, earning more than $36 million in the United States alone, easily one of the most financially successful in Peckinpah’s and McQueen’s careers.

Jim Thompson was hired by McQueen and producer David Foster (his publicist) to adapt his own novel, working on the screenplay for four months and producing a treatment, with alternate scenes and episodes. But McQueen objected to Thompson’s depressing ending and he was replaced by Hill. Peter Bogdanovich was set to direct, wanting Hill to turn the material into a Hitchcock-type thriller, but then McQueen fired the director and Peckinpah (whom McQueen had liked on 1972’s Junior Bonner) came aboard.

However, they argued during filming. Peckinpah recalled: ‘Steve and I had been discussing some point on which we disagreed, so he picked up this bottle of champagne and threw it at me. I saw it coming and ducked. And Steve just laughed.’

McQueen’s continual interference including dumping the original score by Peckinpah’s long-time composer Jerry Fielding and hiring Quincy Jones to provide music with a jazzier edge and harmonica solos by Toots Thielemans. Peckinpah took out a full-page ad in Daily Variety thanking him for his work. McQueen also had final cut and an upset Peckinpah said: ‘He chose all these Playboy shots of himself. He’s playing it safe with these pretty-boy shots.’

McQueen and MacGraw began an affair during production, with MacGraw later leaving her producer husband Robert Evans and becoming McQueen’s second wife.

Hill says: ‘Of the films I wrote, I thought it was far and away the best one and the most interesting. Biggest hit Sam ever had.’

The Getaway was remade again as The Getaway in 1993 by director Roger Donaldson, with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.

Jim Thompson was born on September 27, 1906 in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He was also known for Paths of Glory (1957), The Killing (1956), The Grifters (1990), The Killer Inside Me (1976, 2010), Coup de torchon [novel Pop. 1280] (1981) and The Kill-Off (1989). He was a member of the American communist party for a time and was blacklisted during the McCarthy communist witch-hunt era. But eventually broke with the party. After a series of strokes, he starved himself to death on 7 April 1977 in Hollywood.

RIP veteran Hollywood publicist and producer David Foster, who died on 22 December 2019, aged 90. His career spanned 60 years and he produced McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Getaway, and The Thing.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1355

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