The Getaway (1972 film)

Peter Bogdanovich, whose The Last Picture Show impressed McQueen and producer David Foster, was originally hired as the director of The Getaway. Thompson came on board to write the screenplay, but creative differences ensued between him and McQueen, and Thompson was subsequently fired, along with Bogdanovich. Writing and directing duties eventually went to Hill and Peckinpah, respectively. Principal photography commenced February 7, 1972, on location in Texas. The film reunited McQueen and Peckinpah, who had worked together on the relatively unprofitable Junior Bonner, released the same year.


The Getaway premiered December 13, 1972. Despite the negative reviews it received upon release, numerous retrospective critics give the film good reviews. A box-office hit earning over $36 million, it was the eighth highest-grossing film of 1972, and one of the most financially successful productions of Peckinpah's and McQueen's careers. A film remake of the same name starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger was released in 1994.

Plot[edit]

Four years into his ten-year sentence for armed robbery, Carter "Doc" McCoy is denied parole from a Texas prison. When his wife Carol visits him, he tells her to do whatever is necessary to make a deal to free him with Jack Beynon, a parole board member and corrupt businessman in San Antonio. Beynon facilitates Doc's parole on the condition that he plan and take part in a bank robbery with two henchmen, Rudy Butler and Frank Jackson. The robbery initially goes as planned, until Frank kills a security guard. Rudy kills Frank as they drive away. At the designated meeting place, Rudy tries to shoot Doc, but Doc anticipates Rudy's double-cross and shoots Rudy several times. Doc and Carol take the $500,000 (equivalent to $3.64 million in 2023) and flee. Rudy, having secretly worn a bulletproof vest, is only wounded.


When Doc meets with Beynon, Carol sneaks into the meeting to kill Doc, per a double-cross Beynon arranged with her. However, Carol turns her gun on Beynon and kills him instead. Doc, having just been taunted by Beynon before Carol shot him, realizes that Carol had sex with Beynon to secure his parole. He angrily gathers the money and, after a bitter quarrel, the couple flees for the border at El Paso.


Rudy manages to collect himself and drive to the home of rural veterinarian Harold Clinton, who treats his injuries. Rudy kidnaps the doctor and his wife Fran to pursue Doc and Carol. Beynon's brother, Cully, and his team also track down the McCoys. At a train station, a con man swaps locker keys with Carol and steals their bag of money. Doc follows him onto a train and forcibly takes it back, although the thief has already pocketed a packet of the money. The injured thief and a train passenger—a boy Doc had rebuked for squirting him with a water gun—are taken to the police station, where they identify Doc's mug shot.


Carol buys a car, and they drive to an electronics store. As Doc buys a portable radio, the radio and television sets start broadcasting the news of the earlier incidents they were involved in. Doc leaves immediately, but the proprietor gets a glimpse of his picture on TV and calls the police. Doc steals a shotgun from a neighboring store, and shoots up the arriving police car so he and Carol can flee.


The mutual attraction between Rudy and Fran, the veterinarian's wife, leads to them having consensual sex on two occasions in front of her husband, who is tied up in a chair at a motel. Humiliated, the vet hangs himself. Rudy and Fran move on, barely acknowledging the suicide. They check into El Paso's Laughlin Hotel, used by criminals as a safe house, as Rudy knows that the McCoys will be heading to the same place. When Doc and Carol check in, they ask for food to be delivered, but the manager, Laughlin, says he is working alone and cannot leave the desk. Doc realizes Laughlin sent his family away because something is about to happen. He urges Carol to dress quickly so they can escape. An armed Rudy comes to their door while Fran poses as a delivery girl. Peering from an adjacent doorway, Doc is surprised to see Rudy alive. He sneaks up behind Rudy, knocks him out, and does the same to Fran.


Cully and his thugs arrive as the McCoys try to leave. A violent gunfight ensues in the halls, stairwell and elevator, and all but one of Cully's men are killed; Doc allows him to run away. Rudy comes to, follows Doc and Carol outside onto a fire escape, and shoots at them. Doc returns fire and kills him. With the police on the way, the couple hijack a pickup truck and force the driver, a cooperative old cowboy, to take them to Mexico. After crossing the border, Doc and Carol pay the cowboy $30,000 (equivalent to $219,000 in 2023) for his old truck. Overjoyed, the cowboy heads back to El Paso on foot, while the couple continues into Mexico, having gotten away with their crimes and the remainder of the money.

Critical reception[edit]

Initial reaction to The Getaway was negative.^[40] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "aimless".^[41]


Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times complained that the story was contrived, calling it "a big, glossy, impersonal mechanical toy", and rated it 2 of 4 stars.^[42]


The New Yorker's Pauline Kael said the onscreen relationship between McQueen and MacGraw leaves much to be desired. In hindsight, Kael referred to MacGraw as a much worse actress than Candice Bergen.^[40]


Jay Cocks of Time felt Peckinpah "was pushing his privileges too far", but complimented his film as "a work of a competent craftsman".


The New York Daily News' Kathleen Carroll denounced the film for being "too violent and vulgar".^[40]


John Simon called The Getaway "a sourly disappointing, ugly, and unbelievable film".^[43]


Conversely, the Chicago Tribune's Gene Siskel said The Getaway "play[ed] like a 1970s Bonnie and Clyde", giving it 3½ of 4 stars.^[44] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote, "McGraw is a zero, so she makes us question her all the time. Outside of that (immense) flaw in casting, the picture is smashing."^[45]


Modern criticism has been more appreciative. Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews gave it a B-grade rating, praising most of the film's action sequences, and calling it "a gripping thriller (...) filmed in Peckinpah's excessive action-packed violent and amoral style".^[46]


Newell Todd of CHUD.com scored it 7 out of 10, considering it "an entertaining film that is only made better with some McQueen action".^[47]


Casey Broadwater of blu-ray.com described it as "an effective thriller that plays with and against some of [Peckinpah's] well-noted stylistic trademarks, ... a well-constructed, lovers on the run-style heist flick".^[48]


Writing for Cinema Crazed, Felix Vasquez lauded most action scenes, and remarked, "The Getaway is a top notch crime thriller with a fantastic turn by McQueen and it's still the best action movie I've ever seen."^[49]


Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 83% based on 23 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads, "The Getaway sees Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen, the kings of violence and cool, working at full throttle."^[50] Rotten Tomatoes also ranks the film at number 47 on its "75 Best Heist Movies of All Time" list.^[51]


In 2010, The Playlist included The Getaway on its list of the "25 All-Time Favorite Heist Movies", describing it as "a solid, straight-ahead action flick that's always fun to wander into the middle of on late night TV".^[52]