The Getaway (1972)

The Getaway (PG) - Review

"Honor among heart sleeves"

A Texas prison, the men are gears in a machine that slowly grinds on, day after day.  A prisoner, unable to take it anymore tells his woman to let the authorities know he is willing to capitulate.  He is sprung, let out the gates and into the arms of his young wife but only on the condition that he do one last job at the risk of his life, and ultimately his marriage.

This is Sam Peckinpah's (The Wild Bunch) vision of modern life, an excitingly violent yet playful caper through the highways and byways of 1970s Texas.  Leading man Steve McQueen (Bullit) is at the top of his game, exuding confident cool and conman icyiness.  The byplay with his woman, the very raw actress Ali MacGraw (Love Story) is tender yet rough, their long seperation by the law and subsequent reuniting by the law has strained their relationship to the breaking point.

When the job goes bad and the couple makes a run for Mexico with the cash they are pursued by Al Lettieri (The Godfather's Sollozzo), an enigmatic villain named Rudy who is a crook diametrically opposite to McQueen's Doc.  Where Doc is a loving conflicted husband, cool customer and hesitant killer, Rudy is a backstabbing wife stealing maniacal hoodlum and the two conman lifestyles come to a head in a backwater Texas hotel room at the climaxing shootout of the film.  Peckinpah's well known thumbprint is very apparent here, the western motifs, the bloody violence, the action emphasized by slowing down the frame at certain points to give you a deliciously brutal yets omehow unglorified view of the carnage.  McGraw's acting is stiff, amateurish but her onscreen chemistry with McQueen is apparent and a driving force for the plot (the two were married in real life sometime afterward).  McQueen's chisled features is picture perfect for the role of Doc, but being scripted by Hollywood great Walter Hill there is more emotion and sensitivity in the role than you would expect, and McQueen handles it perfectly.

The guns, the cars, the grit and the humor all make for a stellar action movie.  There is no love lost between theives and the society they prey on, but what of a husband and wife on the fringes of both.

8.5 Triple Aught Buckshots out of 10 (GREAT)