The Getaway (1972) - Review

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, Sally Struthers

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 122 min

Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Convoy) is one of the originators of bad ass cinema. He helped pioneer slow motion editing, excessive blood letting, morally ambiguous anti-heroes, and high body counts in American cinema all the way back in the 60s. Peckinpah was highly criticized for his odd filmmaking choices during his career, especially his extreme taste for montage editing and gory violence. However, Peckinpah finally got the credit he deserved once he died, thereby making him a posthumously respected filmmaker. Much like Stanley Kubrick, most of Peckinpah's films were misunderstood or deemed too extreme for their time period. Few of his films were ever financially or critically successful upon release either.

However, 1972's The Getaway was that rare film of Peckinpah's that was actually a box office hit upon its release, thereby making it one of his only mainstream successes. Starring both Steve McQueen (The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt) and Ali MacGraw (Love Story), The Getaway appealed to audiences because of its true to life celebrity couple pairing and stream lined action packed plot that worked as a solution for those in search of another Bonnie and Clyde type film. The Getaway is surely no Bonnie and Clyde, but it's infinitely more bad ass and far more entertaining as an action picture. Plus, every action fan will want to check out the film if only to see action maestro Peckinpah direct the king of cool, Steve McQueen, from a screenplay by bad ass extraordinaire, Walter Hill (Red Heat, Last Man Standing).

The Getaway couple, Doc and Carol.

Based upon the novel of the same name, The Getaway tells the story of outlaw couple Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) and Carol McCoy (Ali MacGraw). After spending years in prison, Doc tells his wife Carol to do whatever it takes to convince a corrupt businessman, Jack (Ben Johnson), to get him out of prison. Upon his release, Doc meets up with Jack only to learn that he must help him rob a bank for a half a million in cash. Although reluctant, Doc agrees, and he and his wife Carol team up with two of Jack's men, Rudy (Al Lettieri) and Frank (Bo Hopkins). When Frank snaps during the heist, Rudy attempts to double cross everybody and gets shot by Doc. Doc soon learns that it was all a set up and that Jack not only slept with his wife, but also told her to kill Doc herself. As Doc and Carol make their way across Texas to a safe hotel for criminals, a bloodied Rudy makes his way across the country as well with a hostage married couple in order to enact his vengeance on Doc and steal back the money.

The Getaway is a simple, yet classic caper picture. This type of genre picture is particularly nostalgic, as it combines the thrill of breaking the law and the charm of two people in love, all the while set in the desert-like surroundings of Texas. Coming off the heels of 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, it seems that the film's producers were hoping to churn up a similar product in order to cash in on the genre's success. However, The Getaway is no throw away caper picture. After all, the film was penned by Walter Hill and directed by Sam Peckinpah, two of action cinema's greatest auteurs. It also resembles the New Hollywood films that Bonnie and Clyde kicked off in that it blends morally ambiguous characters with harsh subject material. However, The Getaway ultimately buckles underneath its own simplicity, thereby preventing it from achieving greatness the way that the similar Bonnie and Clyde did.

The film's source material is ultimately a very simplistic and basic template for an action picture. Two down on their luck people join up with a corrupt businessman in order to rob a bank. When everything goes wrong, they go on the run and compete with vying criminals and wary cops for their freedom. That's it. Beyond that, the most interesting element of the film is the two's severely tested relationship, which runs the gauntlet to say the least. Unfortunately, there simply isn't enough substance here to suffice a two hour film. 

It's not wise to tell someone you are going to kill them before you shoot them.

While no masterpiece, The Getaway could have been an expertly directed genre picture that clocked in somewhere around an hour and a half. Unfortunately, the film drags on for two hours because of an immensely useless and unnecessary sub-plot concerning the revenge of Rudy, one of Jake's henchmen. After Doc guns down Rudy, it turns out that Rudy got the jump on him by wearing a bullet proof vest. Therefore, Rudy stumbles towards a married couple's home and forces them to heal him. Hill's script takes the time to juxtapose Doc and Carol's struggles to get to El Paso along with Rudy's bizarre relationship with the couple and their own adventures across the country.

However, none of the trios' scenes add anything to the film and bog down an otherwise subtle and slow paced action thriller. After all, this is Doc and Carol's film, not Rudy and the married couple's. Even though its clear that Rudy's sub-plot is meant to build up to a final showdown between him and Doc, their final face off could not be more disappointing. Rudy's recovery and cross country trip swallows up a solid one quarter of the film and severely damages it beyond repair.

Still, Peckinpah's cross country romance is a solid and commendable picture through and through, right down to its contemporary Western setting and plot, both a Peckinpah and Hill staple. It has all of the markings of a Peckinpah picture; right down to its montage editing, morally ambiguous characters, excessive violence, and previously mentioned silence and nuance. The most striking element of any Peckinpah film is the editing, here done by Robert L. Wolfe. One example of notable editing within The Getaway includes the overlapping sound of prison doors shutting repeatedly over the image of the daily ins and outs of Doc's time in prison. The excessive nature of both the noise and Doc's routine is meant to convey the repetition that prison dwellers experience. The screen image also predicts what a character will do sometimes, such as when McQueen looks at a rope swing, thereby followed by a scene of he and MacGraw's celebration in the water. Even though the editing in Peckinpah's films is mainly remembered for how striking it makes his action sequences, one should also take into account how the editing conveys his character's emotions.

There's nothing quite like a pump action shotgun in a 70s movie.

Peckinpah's Wikipedia page states that his films focus on lone characters, masculinity, and the conflict between ideals and values. Never are those themes more apparent than here in The Getaway, a film that pairs two loner characters together, thereby making them a loner couple (if that makes any sense at all). After all, the two rarely talk, nearly break up, and act far different than most married couples. But alas, this is what makes a pair of Peckinpah characters more interesting than your run of the mill married criminals. 

McQueen gives an amazing performance, surely bolstered by Peckinpah's direction, as a morally ambiguous criminal. McQueen exudes silence and grace as a man of few words who conveys his emotions and feelings through his actions more often than his mouth. Much like Mel Gibson's performance as Max Rockatansky in the Mad Max series or Tomisaburo Wakayama's performance as Itto Ogami in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, McQueen's turn as Doc is silent, simplistic, and very affective. His character is also likable even though he is a criminal. For example, Doc never kills cops and only shoots to kill corrupt lawmen or backstabbing thieves. He may threaten the lives of others or even beat them up, as he does the con man who steals his money, but he never kills them. And even though he robs banks and works with criminals, he clearly has no venomous intentions. Doc remains an admirable morally ambiguous character because he never crosses the line into murderous territory. Contemporary examples of characters like Doc include Ben Affleck's Doug MacRay from The Town or even Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto from the Fast and Furious series.

Of course, it's not a Sam Peckinpah film unless there is some excessive or notable violence. While hardly packed with wall to wall action, The Getaway is an extremely entertaining action film with several hard hitting shootouts and chase scenes. The first set piece of the film comes in the form of a tense bank heist in which Doc and Carol break into a bank and than try to outrun a series of explosions the two placed throughout a town in order to cause a distraction. There's an especially great slow motion shot of the two driving a car into a wooden porch and that causes it to shatter into smithereens. Once Doc gets his hands on a pump action shotgun, the film boldly steps into bad ass territory and rarely lets up. Besides laying waste to a police car in glorious slow motion fashion, Doc's shotgun skills are best exemplified by the blockbuster shootout that closes out the film in a hotel. Doc goes up against a handful of corrupt Texas lawmen in one of the greatest shootouts of both Peckinpah and McQueen's career, as well as the entirety of the 1970s. It's surely nowhere as good as The Wild Bunch's finale, but The Getaway's final shootout is great as far as short and small scaled action sequences come.

A poor law man meets the wrong end of McQueen's shotgun.

The Getaway could have been a run of the mill cross country action picture if it were not directed by Peckinpah. As stated before, The Getaway is based off a fairly simplistic novel that offers little more than basic thrills. Fortunately, Peckinpah bolsters the simplistic story with stupendous style to boot in the form of his mastery of nuance and eye for slow motion action. McQueen's involvement also adds major credibility and watchability to the film's romantic laden thievery. While far from great, and nowhere near as excellent as some of Peckinpah's superior efforts, The Getaway is still a damn good action thriller, and one that any filmmaker would be proud of. Minus the terrible sub-plot. 

Rating: 7/10 - One of Peckinpah's most simplistic yet immensely satisfying crime capers with several shotgun shootouts to entertain the action hounds.

Note: There is a 1994 remake of the film starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. While I have never seen the entire film, it appears to be a beat for beat remake, right down to scenes and lines being recreated exactly as they were in the original film. I personally find this to be the worst kind of remake, just like Simon West's The Mechanic.