The Getaway, a review by Jon
The Getaway ****
4 out of 5Political manoeuvring gets Doc (Steve McQueen) out of prison even when a parole board said no. Now he has a bank to rob for benefactor Benyon (Ben Johnson) with the help of his wife (Ali MacGraw) and Rudy (Al Lettieri). The job goes wrong and now Doc and his wife are on the run from Benyon's enforcers and Rudi, looking for the $500,000. Five years after Bonnie and Clyde re-wrote the rulebook and one year after the enigmatic Vanishing Point and Two-Lane Blacktop, we're well into America's New Wave cinema and Sam Peckinpah doesn't disappoint with a typical example of how to mix thriller and art-house. The first 10 minutes is like a European short film; Bonnie and Clyde ruffled a few feathers with abstract editing, against the Hollywood idea of invisible cuts, but Peckinpah goes one better to show Doc's frustration at prison. It's a powerful, almost wordless sequence and forever separates the director from modern pretenders.
Don't be put off by the prospect of contemplative arty stuff like that though. This is as tough a thriller as any and the King of Cool McQueen was never cooler, channelling Bogart to deliver one of his best characters as Doc. He is utterly fantastic. Just look at the scene where he calmly buys a shotgun to immediately use on the police car that's pulled up outside. Or his memorable one-liners (
"How ya doin', Slim?" 
) and the way he deals with MacGraw! I mean, she's not a great actress, but she does convince, so she hardly deserved getting slapped around!
There's another example of how Hollywood had changed, allowing women to be slapped. Peckinpah really out-does himself though with the injured Rudy, taking a vet and his wife hostage, they end up cuckolding "poor little Harold"! Al Lettieri is great as Rudy, always menacing even when he's playing games. He was supposed to star in Rabid Dogs for Bava two years later and that film does owe a lot to this in many ways. Interesting how that happens. That European cinema should influence a shift-change in America, a change that Europe itself picks up on.
Certainly The Getaway revels in violence enough to be honourary Giallo. Revels may be the wrong word though, because this is another intelligent and accountable commentary on a violent society (see how the kids wander over to look at a recent corpse, similar to how children tease the scorpion in The Wild Bunch). Peckinpah's set-pieces are incredible, reminding one of Leone's spaghetti westerns, especially with the bizarre Morricone influenced score. And he was the best at slow-motion photography since Kurosawa. Certainly John Woo could take a few lessons.
Walter Hill's (The Driver) screenplay is tough, but a lot of fun, with terse to-the-point dialogue. Scenes like Doc retrieving the lost bag of money was indulgent, but I wouldn't miss it for anything ("when you work a lock, don't leave scratches"). Overall, a very watchable, powerful action-thriller, the like of which is sorely missed and probably makes Michael Bay cry. All the CGI flashy shit that passes for action movies these days can't recreate a partnership like McQueen, Hill and Peckinpah.
(From Stop Thief! The Robbing Bastard Marathon on August 16th, 2009)
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May 18, 2024, 03:42:49 PM
