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The Getaway

Foster-Brower Productions

First Artists

Solar Productions

National General Pictures

Tatiana Films

United States of America

English

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Steve McQueen

Ali MacGraw

Ben Johnson

Sally Struthers

Al Lettieri

Slim Pickens

Richard Bright

Jack Dodson

Dub Taylor

Bo Hopkins

Roy Jenson

John Bryson

Bill Hart

Tom Runyon

Whitney Jones

Raymond King

Ivan Thomas

C.W. White

Brenda W. King

W. Dee Kutach

Brick Lowry

Martin Colley

O.S. Savage

Dick Crockett

A.L. Camp

Bob Veal

Bruce Bissonette

Maggie Gonzalez

Jim Kannon

Doug Dudley

Stacy Newton

Tommy Bush

Stephen Douglas Butler

R.C. Keene

Margaret Mazzola

Hal Smith

Tommy Splittgerber

Walter Hill

Jim Thompson

David Foster

Lucien Ballard

Robert L. Wolfe

Sam Peckinpah

Quincy Jones

Toots Thielemans

Donna Garrett

Gary Combs

Bob Terhune

Carey Loftin

Katherine Haber

Michael Preece

Angelo P. Graham

Ted Haworth

George R. Nelson

Josef von Stroheim

Whitey Hughes

Loren Janes

Bud Hulburd

Donald Guest

Newt Arnold

Gordon T. Dawson

Mitchell Brower

Gaylin P. Schultz

Patricia Mock

Ray Summers

Kent James

Barbara Seibert Bolticoff

Al Fleming

Jack Petty

Michael Colgan

Warren Skaaren

**_Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw and others chasing a bag of cash in Texas_**

A prisoner in Huntsville (McQueen) is released early due to his wife (MacGraw) making a deal with a corrupt official (Ben Johnson). The cost of his freedom is to head a bank heist in San Marcos with the officer’s questionable henchmen (Al Lettieri and Bo Hopkins). O, what a tangled web we weave.

“The Getaway” (1972) is a crime thriller written by Walter Hill based on Jim Thompson’s book and was director Sam Peckinpah’s second most successful film at the box office, after “Convoy” six years later. It was remade in 1994 with Alec Baldwin and influenced soon-to-come movies like “The Outfit,” "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" and “The Gauntlet,” as well as later ones like “No Country for Old Men.”

If you like those flicks, you’ll appreciate this one, although it ranks with the least of ’em IMHO. Why? Because the bank job is unnecessarily convoluted, not to mention expensive, with the myriad pre-caper photographs, a cliched last-minute briefing session in a basement, severing electrical cables in the sewer tunnels and even diversionary explosions. Why Sure! Then there’s the curious train station sequence with a convenient con man that’s inserted into the midsection, which I admit is entertaining in a Hitchcockian way.

Lastly, despite some amusing bits, the proceedings are shrouded by a pessimistic and ugly perspective. I get that the protagonists are antiheroes, but the film needed more glimmerings of nobility and love, and less murderous venality. “Pulp Fiction” is a good example.

Ali looks good on the feminine front and is, thankfully, way less annoying than her character in “Love Story.” Blonde Sally Struthers eventually appears and never looked better at 23 during shooting, but her character is a ditzy turnoff.

McQueen would marry costar MacGraw seven months after the movie’s release, but their marriage would only last five years.

It runs 2 hours, 2 minutes, and was shot entirely in Texas at Huntsville (prison), San Marcos (bank robbery), San Antonio (train station), Fabens (city street confrontation) and El Paso (Laughlin Hotel).

GRADE: B-/C+

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The Getaway

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Steve McQueen

Ali MacGraw

Ben Johnson

Sally Struthers

Al Lettieri

Slim Pickens

Richard Bright

Jack Dodson

Dub Taylor

Bo Hopkins

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