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

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Summary: A convict's wife gets him out of jail to undertake a robbery after doing a special deal. Music soundtrack by Quincy Jones.

After the rugged rodeo drama JUNIOR BONNER, the impetuous Sam Peckinpah reteamed with Steve McQueen for this down-and-dirty heist picture. McQueen stars with his soon-to-be real-life bride Ali McGraw (with whom he fell in love during the film's production) as the beautiful, but dangerous, married couple Doc and Carol McCoy. After being released from prison--for reasons Doc would rather not acknowledge--Doc shacks up in a hotel with Carol to plot a small-town bank robbery. Of course, the heist doesn't go as smoothly as planned, resulting in an action-packed journey that sends the lovers on a reckless romp through the beautiful Texas landscape. Peckinpah's big screen adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel features the trademark qualities that helped to make him such an alternately reviled and revered figure: namely, his vision of a world in which even the good guys are bad guys. Lucien Ballard's gorgeous cinematography contrasts wonderfully with the gritty subject matter, lifting the potentially standard picture to a more artistic plateau. The chemistry between the incomparably cool McQueen and the magnetic McGraw also confirms THE GETAWAY's status as a defining film of the genre.

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This original version of The Getawaybetter than the 1994 remake starring Kim Basinger and husband Alec Baldwin, but this 1972 thriller relies too heavily on the low-key star power of Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, and the stylish violence of director Sam Peckinpah, reduced here to a mechanical echo of his former glory. McQueen plays a bank robber whose wife (MacGraw) makes a deal with a Texas politician to have her husband released from prison in return for a percentage from their next big heist. But when the plan goes sour, the couple must flee to Mexico as fast as they can, with a variety of gun-wielding thugs on their trail. MacGraw was duly skewered at the time for her dubious acting ability, but the film still has a raw, unglamorous quality that lends a timeless spin to the familiar crooks-on-the-lam scenario. As always, Peckinpah rises to the occasion with some audacious scenes of action and suspense, including a memorable chase on a train that still grabs the viewer's attention. --Jeff Shannon

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1972
Release Date:	July 18, 2005
Runtime:	118 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 069387
Keywords:	Action, General, Edition, Getaway, Deluxe, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure