The Getaway DVD > Reviews > Texas in a Whiskey Bottle

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Unmemorable
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	Steve McQueen, Sam Peckinpah, Texas and big shotguns
Disadvantages:	Ali McGraw (although we gradually learn to like her), Texas and Sally Struthers

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Some Background

1972 was a good year for Steve McQueen. It needed to be. It had been four years since he'd enjoyed a box-office hit, and throughout 1970 and part of 71 he had been struggling with his very own pet obsession, Le Mans, a movie that had been a production nightmare from start to finish (although it is now regarded as something of a gem by motor-sport fans for its authentic race scenes). What got him back on track was his choice of two scripts that he would film back to back with the same director, maverick booze-meister Sam Peckinpah.

The first was Junior Bonner, a wistful and poignant story about a washed-up rodeo rider, shot throughout the summer of 1971 and released the following year (to a lukewarm response); the second was a more explicit tale, The Getaway, shot in a matter of weeks on location all over Texas in the late Spring of 1972 for a relatively small budget. It would secure two things for McQueen: his biggest box-office hit and a new wife.

The Getaway was an example of how things sometimes curiously come together no matter how rushed and chaotic the preparation. The pairing of star and director was a risky one. The two had worked reasonably well together on Junior Bonner but both were notoriously difficult characters, equally insistent on doing things their own way. On this occasion McQueen mostly got what he wanted: he got Walter Hill in to replace Jim Thompson, the original screenwriter and author of the original novel; he got Quincy Jones in to rewrite Jerry Fielding's original score; and he supported movie-mogul Robert Evans' attempts to secure the part of Carol McCoy for Mrs Evans, Ali McGraw, despite the latter only having two lightweight movies to her credit (Peckinpah had wanted Stella Stevens to play the part).

Yet it all came together regardless, helped no doubt by the breakneck speed of the shoot: there was just no time for major fallouts. McQueen prepared for his role meticulously by 'going to prison' for a few days and also by ensuring that every facet of his character was authentic: clothes, guns, cars, even glasses. McGraw went through a 'crash' course in driving (her instructor being McQueen) and Peckinpah, despite being only occasionally sober, planned his shoot step by step, scene by scene. (McQueen said later that he saw Peckinpah taking hits from a newly-opened bottle of tequila before breakfast one day on set and jokingly told the director that if he finished the bottle then his 'star' wouldn't question a single direction for the rest of the day. Peckinpah calmy raised the bottle to his lips, emptied it in a couple of minutes then coldly looked McQueen in the eye and said: "Okay Junior, time to earn your fee.")

The Basic Plot

Carter 'Doc' McCoy (McQueen) is a bank-robber, four years into a 'ten stretch' at the Texas State Penitentiary. Increasingly frustrated by his lack of parole, he sends his wife, Carol (McGraw), to make a deal with a local corrupt businessman and member of the parole board, Jack Benyon (Ben Johnson). Benyon 'arranges' Doc's release but on one condition: that McCoy carries out a bank heist and is accompanied on the job by Rudy Butler (Al Lettieri) and Frank Jackson (Bo Hopkins), two of Benyon's hoods. McCoy agrees.

The heist goes wrong when a guard is killed by the trigger-happy Jackson and the robbers scatter. McCoy violently confronts both Butler and Benyon and discovers that delivering a message was not all his wife was required to do for Benyon to guarantee her husband's release. Together with the loot, the McCoys race to the Mexican border, hotly pursued by the psychotic Butler and by a gang led by Jack Benyon's brother. They also have frequent run-ins with a host of Texas policemen. The movie climaxes with a bloody confrontation in El Paso when all the parties come together.

***

What is immediately obvious about The Getaway is that it is certainly not plot-heavy. There are no particular twists or turns, no real surprises, no in-depth character studies. There is just a straight chase, with McQueen and McGraw running and the rest following hard on their heels. There is certainly the double-cross set up by Benyon and (possibly) Butler near the beginning but that is only there to give purpose to the central storyline, the getaway. We find out almost nothing about the characters other than their names and their roles, and we know nothing of the past and nothing of the future. The movie is simply a brief and bloody snapshot in time. Yet none of that matters. The movie is ALL about the moment, and it works for two reasons: the strength of Steve McQueen's performance; and the authentic Texas 'atmosphere' that pervades the movie.

McQueen is excellent as the hard-bitten 'Doc' McCoy, sometimes tender, sometimes violent. As always, the maxim "Less is More" applies to his performance, yet he is never less than convincing. McCoy is no brainless thug; he is a methodical and careful professional: he plays chess; he builds delicate models; he picks locks and breaks safes; he thinks and he plans. Yet his is a brutal and unforgiving world and as much as he is meticulous and patient he is also capable of savage and merciless acts of violence; he is a practiced killer, and we don't doubt that for a second.

The Texan backdrop is also key to the film's success, as much for the roughness of the locations and people as for the romance. The prison scenes at the beginning of the movie were filmed in Huntsville Penitentiary: the prisoners were real prisoners; the guards, real guards. Even the head of the parole board that turns McCoy down was the real thing. Policemen along the getaway trail were often real policemen driving real police cars and there is something quite exotic about the constant chit-chat of the prison guards as they direct the prisoners working outdoors, comfortable as they are with their unscripted thick rustic drawl. All this gives the movie a raw and amateurish edge, yet also an authenticity; somehow if we know that the prison guards are real, even if they're 'acting', it makes the movie unfolding around them sort of real too.

There ARE a couple of downsides. Chief among these is the acting performance of Ali McGraw: it is woeful. The lady clearly couldn't act. She is wooden and hesitant, her eyes always looking downwards, seemingly in search of the script. She always seems to be asking herself: What do I say next? How should I react? What should my expression be? Ironically, her best scene comes when she's not acting at all. When McCoy finds out what his wife had done to ensure his release he pulls the car over and confronts her. He then promptly smacks her repeatedly across the face, hard. McGraw wasn't expecting to be struck for real and it shows in her genuine surprise and pain. It's a powerful and convincing scene.

The other downside is the tiresome ménage à trois involving the injured Rudy Butler and the married couple he abducts to drive him to El Paso in his search for McCoy and the loot. Butler is a frightening character and he quickly 'gets it on' with the wife, much to the humiliation of her helpless husband. The trouble is that the scenes are played out once too often and the dim-witted wife, played by Sally Struthers, is extremely irritating. Strangely, her final scene in an El Paso hotel was as spontaneously 'acted' as McGraw's was on the roadside: McQueen delivers a powerful and unexpected blow, and we wince as it is delivered, feeling guilty for cheering inside.

The Getaway is far from being a great film, but it is a good one. It was one of a number of similar movies made around that time - movies such as The Outfit, starring Robert Duvall, and Don Siegel's Charley Varrick (both worth watching) - that were bleak, immediate and amoral. The whole movie comes down to the relationship between Doc and Carol, and how it survives a whole host of trials. Steve McQueen plays it effortlessly, and despite Ali McGraw's gross deficiencies their relationship works because there is a palpable chemistry between them (it would continue off-screen too; the pair would later marry). There is actually something quite endearing about Ali McGraw in this movie; she is classically beautiful AND forgivably amateurish, and we can understand how the hard heart of Doc McCoy is repeatedly melted by her 'goofy' smile. However, it doesn't do to think too much about the likelihood of a well-to-do gal like Carol taking up with a Texas hoodlum like Doc: Ms McGraw AND her character were more Park Avenue than Panhandle. Still, suspension of belief is a prerequisite in any kind of movie and this one is no exception. Look out too for a brief-but-enjoyable cameo from the folksy Dr Strangelove rodeo rider, Slim Pickens. There is also one last thing of note about The Getaway: it was the last significant movie Steve McQueen ever made (his penultimate movie, Tom Horn, is, however, worth a watch).

DVD Editions

I have never been particularly bothered about DVD 'extras' so my copy was the basic 1998 edition that although being in a widescreen format contains only scene selection, subtitles in English and Arabic and some brief production notes about the two lead stars that will hold nobody's interest for longer than five minutes. There is also a more recently released deluxe edition that contains more comprehensive information and commentaries. Both editions can easily be picked up online for between £3 and £6.

For those who insist on a more complete home-cinema experience and possess the equipment to deliver it, there are also HD-DVD and Blu-Ray editions now available. The first is available for under £5, and the cheapest deal I could find for the second was £16.39 at 101CD.com.