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Sick and tired of new releases I couldn't get through 45 minutes of, I went back to a classic: Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway. What a breath of fresh air this 1972 heist/chase movie turned out to be. In addition to hyper realistic characterizations of the McCoys (played by Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw), everything else about this movie rings true. 35 years later, Peckinpah's signature slo-motion shoot outs stand up against anything in the theaters today. There's little to dislike about this movie and I can't help but wonder why movies aren't made like this anymore: no special FX, no over-the-top stunt sequences, no melodramatic dialogue, not fat, no filler. This is a movie made by real people, for real people. Plain and simple.

Technically, the stand-out aspect within The Getaway is the editing. Influenced by the French New Wave, Peckinpah defies convention by playing with time and space as he uses disjointed cuts to jump ahead in time before allowing the events within the movie to catch up to the present. The most interesting example of this occurs when Doc and Carol are at a busy park alongside a river. Doc has just been released from prison and he's soaking in the sights and sounds of freedom. Peckinpah cuts to a shot of Doc jumping into the river with his clothes on, followed by Carol. At first this feels like a fantasy in Doc's head since we abruptly cut back to the present where Doc is still standing and looking at the river. But soon he actually does run to and jump into the river. From there we cut directly to Carol's apartment where the two enter soaking wet and smiling. It is atypical and unexpected to see unconventional editing like this in mainstream American movies, but when it's done (and done right) there' something incredibly rewarding about having your brain (and expectations) teased in such a randomly disjointed (yet fluid) way.

Another example of unconventional yet incredibly effective montage happens in the opening thirty minutes. In this sequence Doc McCoy (McQueen) is locked up in prison and slowly losing his wits. Peckinpah portrays Doc's inner head space through a dizzying montage of shots of Doc in and around the prison, where synced sound cuts smash into one another in a relentlessly pounding and oppressive manner. You get the sense something has to break and before long you realize it's Doc's resolve.

Peckinpah proves with The Getaway that you don't need astounding source material to make a great movie. On the written page I'm sure this film seemed like a very standard heist/chase film. But by allowing the actors to bring realistic, idiosyncratic performances to the table and by utilizing unorthodox techniques, such as French New Wave inspired editing, Peckinpah elevates pulp into high art. I know I'm sounding like a broken record by saying this but: where are the artists in Hollywood today?

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The Getaway (1972)

A striking, very characteristic period piece that owes something (a lot) to "Bonnie and Clyde" from five years earlier. Steve McQueen is strong, in his silently brooding, intense way. And he rules the movie. His counterpart (his wife, actually), is played by Ali MacGraw (of "Love Story" fame) who is predictably a bit drab, though she fits the mold of the times.

So who makes the movie even slightly great? The photographer and editor, and therefore the director, Sam Pickinpaw, who had risen up with "The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs," both better films than this one. The combination of natural, smart visuals (thanks to Lucian Ballard) and amazingly back and forth editing that would make Christopher Nolan proud (thanks to Robert Wolfe, who would go on to do a number of interesting films), the movie has punch and fresh energy.

The plot is fairly straight up—Doc McCoy gets out of jail thanks to a "favor" by his wife with a crime king. The debt is paid with more crime, and so the movie follows the new heist. Parallel to this is the reunification of McCoy with his wife. And she is involved in the new job, so the interweaving continues.

So in a way, the plot does its job keeping the other elements in place. The movie is fast, and has a lot of changes and interesting aspects. The settings are great—Texas in the early 1970s— and the feeling of small crime in the big world makes a great backdrop. McQueen is smart and wily, and a lot of the small parts are strong, especially Slim Pickens at the end.

It also sums up the attempts in New Hollywood to be shocking and new. Worth seeing.

Was wondering why they don't make films like this anymore. Then it dawned on me. It has ambiguous morals and doesn't particularly ask for or seek redemption. The hero is a killer and bank robber, he says little and therefore you should have to work hard to empathize with him. But it comes easy because everyone else around Doc McCoy is ten times worse than he is. And Doc is played by Steve McQueen. A magnificent brooding presence who's character doesn't stop to question his actions, because if he did he'd die or get arrested. And this is where it is so much better than a contemporary film of the same vein. It's not made with actors who are scared that their image might be tarnished or misunderstood, it is not made by film-makers who are scared they might upset someone, it is not made by people who particularly need to be loved. So what you get is a story that rings true, a piece of fiction that at no time stops to apologize for itself. It grabs you, says this is what I am, and if you're hooked then great. If not go and watch Bambi or something.

A bona fide classic piece of storytelling.

The film centers about a robber named "Doc" McCoy (Steve McQueen) is paroled from a Texas state prison , somewhat to his surprise . His spouse , Carol (Ali McGraw) , has arranged for his freedom by sleeping with the corrupt but politically well connected Jack Benyon (Ben Johnson) . Ben Johnson assigns him a heist helped by Al Lettieri and Bo Hopkins but he's betrayed and the events burst .

In the motion picture there is suspense , drama , thriller, car pursuits and amount of violence reflected in slow-moving shots typical of Peckinpah . From the beginning to the end the action-packed is interminable . The final confrontation at hotel between the starring , Steve McQueen , Ali McGraw and the enemies is breathtaking and overwhelming . The picture has been classified ¨R¨ for crude murders and isn't apt for little boys , neither squeamish . However , it was rated PG by the MPAA in the United States. A few years later, in retrospect, this was considered a mistake and the board believed that the film should have been rated one step higher, an R . Steve McQeen and Ali McGraw's (marriage in real life) interpretation is top-notch . Sam Peckinpah direction is excellent though is better in Western films (Wild bunch , Pat Garret and Billy the Kid , Bring me the head Alfredo Garcia and Major Dundee).

The movie obtained success and originated a remake featured by Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger (marriage in real life, too) although failed at box office . The yarn will appeal to action buffs and Peckinpah fans . Rating : 7/10 .Well catching

I consider "The getaway" a true masterpiece, on the same level of Sam Peckinpah's major achievements (save "The wild bunch", of course). I learn from IMDb comments that the final cut of the movie was made by other people (McQueen ?!) than the director. Moreover the plot is much unfaithful to the original novel... Well... anyway the result is excellent.

Doc (Steve McQueen) is a tough, laconic guy, Carol (Ali McGraw) a tough, laconic woman. In some sense, they mostly speak just for technical reasons: "Take the money-bag", "Don't scratch your wound"... If they've nothing to say, they keep quiet. They seem shy to express their reciprocal feelings, even unable to say "I love you". Doc cannot accept what Carol has done, although just to help him out of jail. They both silently suffer for this, with some explosions of violence by Doc, and a ready gritty reply by Carol. But the audience well understand from their body-language how much they love each other. I think that McQueen and McGraw made a superb job in their difficult roles. Strangely enough, their performances, as well as their lines, received much criticism. I fear that people didn't like their job since they are too used to the current way of acting: hysterical, screaming, awfully clown-like. With lines that are just floods of stupid, pointless, annoying chats. A not welcome legacy of the style created by Tarantino, Oliver Stone and imitators. Nothing could be more far-away from Peckinpah's artistic taste.

The story of the movie is linear, but not trivial. The cinematography and montage are outstanding. The pace is somewhat slow, partially due to the great care paid to details. But when it's the time of action, nobody can compete with Peckinpah's grand style.

In every movie of his, Peckinpah shows his genius with some astonishing, stark new cinematic ideas. In "The getaway" we find the paramount representation of the "power of the shot-gun". Doc's shot-gun bullets destroy police-cars, devastate a whole hotel, demolish an elevator, knock down a door slaughtering the thug hidden behind... the recoil of the weapon lifts Doc's shoulder... Who remembers that this stuff, nowadays almost a cliche in action-movies, was introduced in "The getaway"? It's worth noting that an early imitator of Peckinpah's "shot-gun scenes" was Steven Spielberg in "Sugarland express".

Some words on the sub-plot concerned with the hateful Rudy (Al Lettieri) and the cretinous Fran (Sally Struthers). This part of the film is deliberately disagreeable, up to an almost unbearable point. As usual, Peckinpah doesn't miss his chance to be hated by the feminists, with his design of Fran. A damned idiot, nymphomaniac just for stupidity. At the end, when Doc hits her (a punch straight on her prating, whimpering mouth!) the director nearly provokes a standing ovation by the audience (men and women, as well). If that's not cinematic genius, what else is it? And, speaking of imitators, how much Tarantino's characters owe to Rudy and Fran?

Perhaps "The getaway" could have been even better without extraneous interference. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic film, a must-see.

The machine-pounding prologue/montage of Sam Peckinpah's THE GETAWAY embodies caged hopelessness of prison life better than most entirely-set-in-prison prison flicks... plus it's the only sequence centered solely on Steve McQueen as career criminal Doc McCoy sans the uninspired acting of ingenue/partner Ali MacGraw...

During a pivotal meeting -- what seems like her being tempted by Texas millionaire Ben Johnson after having sex to get Doc paroled and then tortured with envy -- she has a vacant expression as opposed to McQueen's sharpened countenance throughout...

Meanwhile, GODFATHER villain Al Letteri (initially partnered with Bo Hopkins) would have perfectly contrasted against McQueen, only he too gets burdened by an annoying actress role as a screeching Sally Struthers plays Letteri's traveling gun moll...

All the characters on a post bank-heist GETAWAY (including a posse of crooked Texas businessman) in a road movie that, despite the aforementioned flaws, is loaded with classic Peckinpah slow-motion gunfights, fistfights, slap-fights, car chases, cars exploding and a gritty aesthetic best described as classic 1950's Film Noir B&W soaked into 1970's brick-red, cash-green, burnt-brown, pallid-blue, dusk-yellow, faded-gray exploitation.

Steve McQueen was one of the most naturally talented actors to come along, and this movie, along with 'The Sand Pebbles', is one of my favorite McQueen movies. Ali McGraw is excellent (much better here, as compared to that sappy role she had in 'Love Story') as his on-screen wife, a team which is used to rob a bank but is double crossed by the insiders who stand to profit from the robbery. Sally Struthers even turns in a credible performance as someone exhibiting what will later be coined as the "Stockholm Syndrome", and the late Al Lettieri is great as one of their pursuers.

A far better movie than the 1994 remake.

For Ali MacGraw, love means never having to say you're sorry, even when you rob a bank, shoot bad guys, and sleep with a parole board member to spring your husband from jail.

That's some of what Carol McCoy (Ali) does for hubby Doc (Steve McQueen) in "The Getaway", Sam Peckinpah's version of the relationship drama complete with car chases, shoot-em-ups, and tearful reconciliations in junkyards. It's a surprisingly effective film that contrasts the McCoys' troubled union with a seedy, sordid world where life and love are to be had cheap, Texas is one big institutionalized prison, and the only freedom is to be found across the border in Mexico.

For people who don't know Peckinpah films, this is a good one to see either just before or after "The Wild Bunch", with which "Getaway" shares many qualities. Both start with a similar freeze-frame credit sequences, both feature bank jobs gone wrong (and preceded by town parades), both shift back and forth between pursuer and prey, and both have Mexico as a final destination. The difference is that "The Getaway," for all its gritty moments to assure us Sam hasn't gone soft, allows for a sense of hope and future missing from "The Wild Bunch".

Good things about this film include McQueen (along with "Bullitt" his most iconic part), Al Littieri as the psycho Rudy, Sally Struthers as Rudy's all-too-willing hostage Fran, real location shooting by "Wild Bunch" collaborator Lucien Ballard that sets up the film's desperate tone, and a score by Quincy Jones that isn't memorable in itself but effective in the way it sets up the picture. The harmonica work by Toots Theilemans feels in-between two of Q's better scores: "In The Heat Of The Night" and "Sanford And Son".

On the debit side is a script that feels cobbled together, Ben Johnson's too-short supporting work as the menacing shadow-figure Beynon, a plug-ugly supporting cast that makes Dub Taylor look like Rod Taylor, and some oddly flat action sequences. Others also knock MacGraw, but I won't. She adds oodles of sex appeal and plays well off McQueen in the central relationship, compensating for some lame line readings with the way her eyes light up when he punches the gas in their car.

What makes the film work best for me is that it is a Peckinpah movie that doesn't do what you expect from a Peckinpah movie. There's violence and boys-will-be-boys brutality, but the director also plays cagily against your expectations by allowing room for warmth and gentleness. McQueen's cool, but he cares. The real-life romance between McQueen and MacGraw attracted lots of filmgoers in 1972, but the film plays against the actors' hotitude by making them shy and awkward around one another, more worried about what's going on in each other's head than between the sheets.

Peckinpah even has some romantic dialogue, though not exactly Rick and Ilsa:

Him: "You don't like the way things are, I don't like the way things are. Maybe we should split up."

Her: "Well I don't want to."

Later...

Her: "I think if we ever get out of this dump, I'll just split."

Him: "We've made it together so far."

Not Hallmark Channel material, but it displays a deeper emotional investment from Peckinpah in the inner lives of his characters, one recognizable to anyone who has been through a relationship. Beyond the bullets and bloodshed, that's what "The Getaway" is about, and why it works. Love doesn't excuse you from apologizing, but it's nice to know it rewards you for trying.

Steve McQueen, the number one bad ass of his time (aside from Clint Eastwood of course). So what's wrong with rooting for the bad guy? This movie seems almost flawless with its excellently executed car chases, it's suspenseful and exciting shoot-outs, and its riveting emotional sequences. Both McGraw and McQueen make this movie well worth the experience. While it is a violent movie (especially for the year it was released!) its moments of comic relief and even serenity make this movie worthy of any moral person's eyes.

Without spoiling the movie, just imagine Bonnie and Clyde with the greatest action/adventure experience ever. And to think it was over a measley $500,000... Of course, they were being chased for $750,000.

9/10 for an adventure close to perfection.

Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah teamed to do two straight films, probably some of the best work in both of their careers. But the difference in a nice character study like Junior Bonner and a tough crime drama like The Getaway shows the versatility of both these remarkable men. The Getaway seems to take its inspiration from John Huston's classic, The Asphalt Jungle.

McQueen is a career criminal whose parole has once again been denied in the ten year stretch he's doing. Wife Ali McGraw submits to parole board chief Ben Johnson's sexual advances to spring McQueen.

But the corrupt Johnson isn't just about sexual harassment. He wants McQueen to rob a bank that his brother is a director, to cover a nice case of embezzlement. He even recruits another pair of criminals, Bo Hopkins and Al Lettieri as part of the gang.

Of course the plan goes wrong as a bank guard is killed and then Hopkins is killed in a double-cross by Lettieri who then fails to do the same to McQueen and McGraw. After that it's a three way race to the border between Johnson's men, Lettieri, and McQueen.

Al Lettieri is a talent that was lost to us way too soon. He played some of the best villains in the early seventies and this one is one of them. He kidnaps veterinarian Jack Dodson and his slut of a wife Sally Struthers. Soon she's more than willing to go and be his girl. Struthers has a great part, so far from being Gloria Bunker Stivic on All in the Family.

My favorite Sam Peckinpah moment in all of his films is that climax at Dub Taylor's flea bag hotel where all the forces meet and shoot up the place. It's Peckinpah's best violence ballet in all of his films, I never tire of seeing it.

The whole film was shot in Texas and I'm not sure how residents of Texas might like this picture of their state. It seems to be one very violent place and a very corrupt one as well.

But I like The Getaway very much, it's my favorite Sam Peckinpah film next to Ride the High Country.

Action-filled crime-drama, expertly assembled by director Sam Peckinpah and screenwriter Walter Hill, adapting Jim Thompson's novel, has Steve McQueen's incarcerated "Doc" McCoy asking his pretty wife to use her feminine wiles with a corrupt Texas parole board member in getting him released; it works, on the condition that Doc partner with two of the businessman's henchman in robbing a neighborhood bank--but things don't go as planned. After a brilliantly designed and edited prologue with McQueen doing time behind bars, this heist flick becomes more routine, with noisy gunfire and police sirens and cars smashing and crashing into everything. McQueen holds the screen with his charismatic, laconic presence, but Ali MacGraw is little more than window dressing (and when she is required to emote, she's open-mouthed and vacuous); taken together, they're not an overly exciting or interesting pair. Subplot with hostage Sally Struthers is mean and nasty, and Peckinpah's florid handling is undeniably potent and gripping. Quincy Jones' score (added at the 11th hour) and Lucien Ballard's cinematography are also first-rate. *** from ****

The Getaway has the very important "Three S's" which are so crucial to any film: Style, Substance, and Steve McQueen.

This film, right behind PAPILLON, is definitely my favorite McQueen vehicle -- it's a big, BIG film (which makes sense, it takes place in Texas), has an epic feel, yet at the same time is very gritty and very honest in its approach to storytelling. The simplistic yet larger-than-life style of THE GETAWAY makes this flick a great watch on a Saturday Night.

Oh, and you can't go wrong with Steve McQueen. At his side is *THE* girl-next-door type, the ultra-likable Ali MacGraw. Their chemistry is very obvious (which would make a lot of sense, the two had an on-set affair which was followed by a five year marriage), and it carries the film. The score, composed by Quincy Jones, hits all the right notes in all the right spots, and is definitely pivotal in giving THE GETAWAY its "feel." The supporting cast couldn't be better-suited to their roles. The bad guys are really bad, and quite despicable. Despite the sinister villains, this early 70s gem has a sense of humor. At times the more "innocent" characters are mocked by the situations they find themselves in, much to your amusement or disgust (I, for one, found laugh-out-loud moments all the way through). By the very nature of a McQueen film, the characters are all "approachable," and down to earth in their own strange way. In a nutshell, a simplistically epic film that finds the time to not take itself so seriously.

While THE GETAWAY may not be the best to bring out at a movie get-together due to its slightly slow pacing and early 70s narrative (which, unfortunately, due to the breakneck music-video pacing of most "modern" films, tends to turn off anyone with a less-than-sufficient attention span), it is definitely worth a purchase, and something that you will be proud to say that you've seen.

Long Live McQueen, and Have a RIB, Harold!

Sam Peckinpah does his own version of "Bonnie and Clyde," and the result is a cynical, unapologetic heist movie with repellent characters and not an ounce of humor.

I didn't enjoy "The Getaway" exactly; it's far too nihilistic to enjoy. But I did find it very interesting to compare it to "Bonnie and Clyde," one of the seminal films of the American counter culture. "Bonnie and Clyde" was bleak too, and crafted a building sense of impending doom, but it was also tragic. The characters created by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were victims of circumstance. They were young kids who got themselves in over their heads and couldn't see their way out. We liked them, even if we didn't like the things they did, and though we maybe wanted to see them brought to justice, we didn't want to see them destroyed.

At the other end of the spectrum is "The Getaway," a film in which everyone's a bad guy and we don't like anyone. The brutality toward women and the casual violence inflicted on everyone else is hard to stomach, especially in the absence of a hero to root for. This movie came out after the attitudes of the American counter culture had curdled into the stuff of nightmares (the Manson gang, anyone?) and it's like that disillusionment found its way into Peckinpah's vision and manifests itself on screen. The characters in this movie are who Bonnie and Clyde would have turned into if they had lived.

Steve McQueen brings his usual tough-guy coolness to his role, but he plays a vile character. Ali McGraw is simply terrible, wooden as a tree stump. And poor Sally Struthers exists for the sole purpose of being treated horribly.

"The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs," two other Peckinpah movies that I like a lot, are hard to watch as well, but they both feel like they have something to say about the violence they traffic in, which makes them worth sticking with. I'm not sure "The Getaway" has much of anything to say, and the whole thing feels uncomfortably exploitative, even as Peckinpah's irresistible style keeps it entertaining.

Grade: B

King of cool Steve McQueen teams with "Bloody Sam" Peckinpah for this thoroughly engaging story of a couple on the lam following a botched robbery.

Walter Hill adapts the novel by Jim Thompson in this story of Carter "Doc" McCoy (McQueen), a criminal currently doing time. His wife Carol (Ali MacGraw) manages to secure his release by playing up to crooked parole board chief Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson); Doc and Carol are then made to participate in a bank robbery which goes as wrong as movie lovers everywhere could expect it to. Doc and Carol have to make their way across Texas to Mexico and safety while being trailed by Rudy Butler (Al Lettieri), a vengeance minded member of the gang.

The cast simply couldn't be better in this sexy, slick, violent production; even MacGraw isn't bad as the wife with a loyalty to her man through thick and thin. McQueen once again has an undeniable presence on screen and the viewer can believe that he's going to keep going despite the odds. Johnson is enjoyably slimy, Lettieri scores as a truly rotten creep, and Richard Bright, Jack Dodson, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins, and Roy Jenson all do well in assorted memorable bits. The ever affable Slim Pickens doesn't appear until near the end of the picture, but he helps to close it on a very ingratiating final note.

Peckinpah is in very fine form here, creating a milieu where moral considerations often go out the window. Doc isn't necessarily a "good guy", yet we still can't help but root for him, especially when characters like Beynon and Butler are even worse. Just to give people an idea of how sleazy Butler is, he thinks nothing of dallying with vapid, sexpot blonde Fran (Sally Struthers) in front of her weakling husband Harold (Dodson). The many vignettes along the way keep you eagerly watching - Doc is forced to pursue another thief (Bright) to get his own ill gotten money back, for one - but the highlight is undeniably the incredibly tense sequence aboard the garbage truck. Peckinpah once again demonstrates a real flair for the kind of stylized violence he perfected in "The Wild Bunch", with blood spurting and many squibs exploding.

People can hardly fail to notice that again the director is not about to go the politically correct route, as a resentful Doc, still not happy about what Carol did with Beynon, slaps her around. Yet, when Doc punches Frans' lights out later, it actually provokes a reaction of relief from the audience because it puts an end to her shrill whining.

Overall the film makes for fine entertainment. Even at two hours and three minutes, it's remarkably well paced and tension filled, and it never falters, kicking into gear for a rousing final act. Highly recommended.

10 out of 10.

If you are going to watch it nowadays you will sadly see that it is a bit outdated. Some scene's are too slow or are taking too long, but it's still worth seeing to see a classic.

It's the way that the opening is done that made it back in the days worth seeing. A nervous montage of noise and freezed shots. It do takes a while, just over 20 minutes before that's over. Once you passed that it's just wxhat the title syas, trying to get away when a robbery goes wrong.

There's blood here and there when people get shot, and yes, it's the extremely red stuff as seen in the sixties. You can easily spot when stunt people are coming in but hey, it's almost 50 years old.

If ypy want to see McQueen in a typical role then this is it, and for the lovers of cars, made just before the heydays of the muscle cars. If you want to see McQuenn in a muscle go see Bullit, but watch this one first

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Before Action became routine and Bruce Willis there was the 1970´s Action-film, which often had a lot of mood. "The Getaway" is one of those films, showing what range the Action-film could have - there is more than violence and wannabe-cool dialog here. This was before the Action-films became exaggerated, instead of having just explosions and being over-explicit there is booth plot and suspense in "The Getaway". It let Peckinpah use his well known style, in the way of Boorman´s "Point Blank". The result is pure. Ali McGraw is said to be limited and stiff, but Peckinpah made her solid here. I guess that Steve McQueen never was better than here, even if some wouldn't agree. Some of Peckinpah´s regular starred (such as Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Bo Hopkins and Dub Taylor) which makes it even better today - the impact of Peckinpah is powerful.

Rating: 8 of 10.

Not one of S. Peckinpah's masterworks but one hell of a crime thriller. Steve McQueen is perfect as the cool, professional Doc and although Ali MacGraw (Steve's next wife) is breezily gorgeous she doesn't have the chops to make her character (Carol) too believable. Al Lettieri is creepier than he was in THE GODFATHER and Richard Bright (THE GODFATHER as well) has a nice bit as a small-timer. Ben Johnson has credibility as does Dub Taylor later. Throw in authentic Western icon Slim Pickens and you have a nice Southwest crime drama.

A 7 out of 10. Best performance = Steve McQueen. He's very good with weapons and cars as he earlier proved. THE WILD BUNCH and STRAW DOGS are Peckinpah's masterpieces, but this is well worth a trip to the movies! Junior Bonner (a totally different type of sensibility) is also a fine film.

After "Wild Bunch" and before "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" the outlaw Peckinpah filmed another one of his border stories, full of sweat, violence and desert dust. This time we got this couple (Steve McQueen and Alice McGraw) that are trying to escape from the police and from a group of gangsters after a hold-up in a bank. It's a kind of Texan version of "Bonnie & Clyde".

"The getaway" has the advantage of the amazing presence of Mr. MacQueen, and all those amoral and misogynist characters that look like they come from the most stinking sewer of deep America. The weak points are Ali McGraw (I never liked her, neither as an actress nor as a woman), the lack of rhythm (for a movie like this) and an ending that's not as explosive as "Wild Bunch" one.

It's not the best Sam Peckinpah's movie, but it's still a good film.

*My rate: 7/10

Before watching "The Getaway," I thought it would be a decent, entertaining, 70s-style action film - not a classic, but a solid, enjoyable movie. Steve McQueen was known as one of the first "cool" movie stars, and rightly so. Sam Peckinpah was known for directing movies that were violent, stylish, and fast-paced. With "The Getaway" he scored one out of three. What little violence there is isn't even entertaining, since it's not "action," per se, but rather criminals murdering other criminals.

For a story about bank robbers on the run from the police and other criminals, "The Getaway" is surprisingly lifeless and anemic. The plot has no drive or momentum. There are a couple of head-scratching segments that seem completely out of place, as if the screenwriter ran out of ideas and had to stop and think for fifteen minutes before writing the next scene. On top of all that, Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw both play unsympathetic characters, and the numerous scenes with Al Lettieri and the woman who becomes his hostage/lover just hurt your eyes.

"The Getaway" has no redeeming qualities: it's boring, it's unpleasant, it's sleazy, it's too long, and the plot makes little sense. In fact, if this movie had been made with an unknown director and unknown cast, it's unlikely that it would be known today at all. That's how bad "The Getaway" is.