The Getaway is a 1972 American neo-noir crime film directed by Sam Peckinpah and written by Walter Hill, based on Jim Thompson's 1958 novel. It stars Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, and Sally Struthers. The following plot is imprisoned behind the robber robber Carter "Doc" McCoy (McQueen), whose wife Carol (MacGraw) conspires for his release on the condition they rob a bank in Texas. A double cross follows the crime and McCoy is forced to flee to Mexico with police and criminals in pursuit.
Peter Bogdanovich, whose The Last Picture Show impresses McQueen and producer David Foster, was originally hired as director of The Getaway . Thompson came to write the screenplay, but creative differences occurred between him and McQueen and he was later fired along with Bogdanovich. Writing and directing assignments eventually went to Hill and Peckinpah, respectively. The subject of photography began on February 7, 1972, at a location in Texas. The film reunites McQueen and Peckinpah, both of which previously teamed up in the relatively unprofitable Junior Bonner released the same year.
The Getaway opened on 13 December 1972 for generally negative reviews. Even so, many retrospective critics give good film reviews. Boxing counts generate more than $ 36 million, it is the second best-selling film of the year, and is one of the most financially successful production of Peckinpah and McQueen careers. In 1994, a remake was released for generally negative reviews, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.
Video The Getaway (1972 film)
Plot
Serving four years of ten-year sentence for armed robbery, Carter "Doc" McCoy was denied parole in Texas prison. When his wife, Carol, visits him, he tells her to do whatever it takes to make a deal with Jack Beynon, a corrupt businessman in San Antonio, to free him. Beynon uses his influence and gets Doc's parole on condition that he take part in a bank robbery with two of his henchmen, Rudy and Frank. During the robbery, Frank killed a guard. Rudy tries to double-cross, shoots Frank and draws a gun on Doc, who strikes him into the raffle and shoots him several times. Doc leaves Rudy to die, but Rudy, after secretly wearing a bulletproof vest, is alive despite being hurt.
Doc meets Beynon, who tries to double-cross before Carol shoots and kills him. Doc realizes that Carol has sex with Beynon to get her out of jail. He angrily collected the money and, after a fierce fight, the couple fled to the border in El Paso. A bloody Rudy forced the vet Harold and his young wife, Fran, to treat the wound, then kidnapped them to chase Doc and Carol. Beynon's brother Cully and his criminals are also chasing McCoys. At a railway station, a swindler exchanges locker keys with Carol and steals their money bags. Doc followed him to the train and forcibly took it back. A wounded fraudster and a train passenger - a boy Doc told him to spray with a water gun brought to the police station, where they identified Doc mug shots.
Carol buys a car, and drives McCoys to an electronics store. When Doc bought a portable radio, he turned off the television near the owner's desk that broadcast news about the previous incident they were involved. Suddenly, all the television in the store showed a picture of Doc, which prompted him to leave immediately. The owner gets a glimpse of the picture, and calls the police. Doc stole the rifle, followed by several shots and police chase. The couple escaped by hiding in a large dumpster, just ending up behind a garbage truck that dumps its load in a local landfill. Dirty and frustrated, they argue about whether to stay together or part. They decided to see it all.
Rudy's appeal to the vet's wife caused them to have sex in front of her husband. Disgraced, the vet hung herself in the motel bathroom. Rudy and Fran continue, barely acknowledging suicide. They check out the El Paso hotel that criminals use as safe homes because Rudy knows that McCoy is heading to the same place. When Doc and Carol checked in at the hotel, they asked for food to be delivered, but the manager, Laughlin, said he worked alone and could not leave the table. Doc soon realizes that Laughlin sends his family away because something will happen. She urges Carol to get dressed so they can run away. The armed Rudy comes to their door while Fran poses as a delivery girl to be paid for food. Peeking from the adjacent door, Doc was surprised to see Rudy alive. He slipped behind Rudy, dropped it, and did the same to Fran.
Cully and the criminals arrived when McCoy tried to leave. Fierce battles take place in halls, stairs, and elevators; all men Cully killed but one, which Doc allows to escape. Cully himself died when Doc photographed the elevator cable that was in it and it fell to the base of the stem. Rudy realized, following Doc and Carol out on the fire escape, and shooting them. Doc returned fire and killed him. With police on the way, the couple hijacked a pickup truck and forced the driver, a cooperative old cowboy, to take them to Mexico. After crossing the border, Doc and Carol paid a $ 30,000 cowboy for his truck. Out of joy, the cowboy returned to El Paso on foot, while the couple went on to Mexico.
Maps The Getaway (1972 film)
Production
Development
Steve McQueen has encouraged his publicist David Foster to enter the film industry for many years, as a producer. His first attempts were Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid (1969), with McQueen starring alongside Paul Newman, but 20th Century Fox, especially his president, Richard D. Zanuck, did not want Foster in the deal. Instead, Zanuck hired producer Paul Monash because he was a profit-maker in the studio, which resulted in McQueen's departure from the project, which then fell apart. While McQueen is making Le Mans (1971) Foster gets the rights to Jim Thompson's crime novel The Getaway . Foster sent McQueen a copy of a book that urged him to do so. The actor sought the role of "good/evil" and sees this quality in the novel protagonist, Doc McCoy.
Foster sought out the director and Peter Bogdanovich came to his attention. Agent Bogdanovich, Jeff Berg, prepared a special screening of his soon-to-be-released client The Last Picture Show (1971) for Foster with McQueen in attendance. They love it and meet with directors and made deals. However, Warner Bros. approached Bogdanovich with an offer to direct What's Up, Doc? (1972), starring Barbra Streisand, provided that he must get started immediately. The director wanted to do both, and the studio refused. When McQueen found out, he became angry and told Bogdanovich that he would have someone else direct the The Getaway .
McQueen recently worked with director Sam Peckinpah at Junior Bonner (1972), and enjoyed the experience, but the film proved unsuccessful. He said: "Of all my movies, Junior Bonner did not make a single penny, in fact, it lost money." McQueen recommends that Foster approach Peckinpah. Like McQueen, Peckinpah needs a box office hit and is instantly accepted. The filmmaker had read the novel when it was first published, and had talked with Thompson about making film adaptations when he started as a director.
At that time, Peckinpah wanted to make the Arctic Emperor (1973), a story that was made during the Great Depression about a brake who was obsessed with keeping the homeless people from his chariot. The film's producer made a deal with Paramount Pictures' head of production, Robert Evans, allowing Peckinpah to do his personal project if he first directs The Getaway. Director immediately dismissed from Emperor and said that Paramount did not make The Getaway .
Conflict appears with Paramount over the movie budget. Foster has thirty days to make a new deal with another studio, or Paramount will have exclusive rights. He was flooded with an offer and received one from the First Artists Group, because McQueen would not receive a salary in advance, only 10% of the gross revenue of the first dollar taken on the film. It would be very profitable if the film was a box office hit.
Write
Jim Thompson was hired by Foster and McQueen to customize his novel. He worked in scenarios for four months, changing some of the scenes and episodes in his novel. The Thompson manuscript includes a surrealistic finish line from his novel featuring El Rey, an imaginative Mexican city filled with criminals. McQueen objected to a sad ending and Thompson was replaced by scriptwriter Walter Hill. Hill had been recommended by Polly Platt, wife of Bogdanovich, who was still in direct contact; Platt has been impressed by Hill's work on Hickey & amp; Boggs (1972). Hill said Bogdanovich wanted to turn matter into more Hitchcock thriller, but he only got twenty-five pages when McQueen fired the director. Hill finished the manuscript in six weeks, then Peckinpah joined.
Peckinpah reads Hill's script and the scriptwriter remembers that he made some changes: "We made it non-periodic and added a little more action." In Thompson's novel, Hill said:
I do not think you can do a Thompson novel. I think you should make it more than a genre movie. Thompson's strange and paranoid novel, having this remarkable ending in an imaginary city in Mexico, criminals who bought their freedom by staying in this kingdom. This is a weird book. It was written in the fifties, happening in the fifties, but this is really the story of the thirties. I do not believe that if you faithfully adjust the novel, the movie will be made, or that McQueen will get his share. There is a brutal nature to Doc McCoy who is in the book that I think you will not get that far and make a movie made. I found myself in this strange position, trying to make it less rude.
Casting
When Bogdanovich had to direct, he intended to cast Cybill Shepherd, his lover, in the role of Carol. As soon as Peckinpah came to direct, he wanted to cast Stella Stevens with whom he worked on The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), with Angie Dickinson and Dyan Cannon as possible alternatives. Foster suggests Ali MacGraw, a much sought after actress after the commercial success of Love Story (1970). She is married to Robert Evans, who wants him not to be typecast in a neat role, and arranges meetings for her with Foster, McQueen, and Peckinpah about the film. According to Foster, he is afraid of McQueen and Peckinpah because they have a reputation as "wild beer guzzlers, two hands,". McQueen and MacGraw had a strong instant interest. "She's just separated and free," she said, "and I'm afraid of my incredible interest in her."
Peckinpah originally wanted actor Jack Palance to play the role of Rudy Butler but was unable to pay his salary. Impressed by his performance at The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Hill recommends Richard Bright. Bright had worked with McQueen fourteen years earlier, but he did not have the menacing physicalities that McQueen described to Butler because the two men had the same height. Because of his friendship with Bright, Peckinpah considers him a fraud. Al Lettieri was brought to the attention of Peckinpah for the role of Butler by producer Albert S. Ruddy, who worked with the actor at The Godfather (1972). Like Peckinpah, Lettieri is a heavy drinker, which causes problems while filming due to unexpected behavior.
Filming
The subject of photography on The Getaway began in Huntsville, Texas on February 7, 1972. Peckinpah shot the opening prison scene in Huntsville Penitentiary, with McQueen surrounded by actual prisoners. Other shooting locations include several Texas cities such as San Marcos, San Antonio, and El Paso.
McQueen and MacGraw started having an affair during production. She will eventually leave her husband, Evans, and become McQueen's second wife. Foster worried that their relationship could have a negative impact on the film by causing a scandal. MacGraw started his career as a model, and his experience as an actress proved to be set when he struggled with the role. According to Foster, the actress and Peckinpah got along well, but she was not happy with her performance: "After we finished The Getaway and I saw what I had done in it, I hated my own performance. image, but I hate my own work. "
Peckinpah's alcohol intake increased dramatically while making The Getaway, and she was happy to say, "I can not direct when I'm aware." He and McQueen often argue during filming. The director recalled one such incident on the first day of training at San Marcos: "Steve and I have discussed some things we did not approve of, so he grabbed a bottle of this champagne and threw it at me.I saw him come and duck... And Steve just laughed. "McQueen has a talent with props, especially the weapons he uses in movies. Hill remembered, "You can see Steve's military training in his movies, he's so quick and confident in the way he handles weapons." It was McQueen's idea to have his character shoot and blow up a patrol car at the spot where Doc was holding two police officers at gunpoint.
Under his contract with First Artists McQueen has a final cut right on The Getaway, and when Peckinpah finds out he's upset. Richard Bright says that McQueen chose to "make it look good" and Peckinpah feels that the actor plays it safely: "He chose all these Playboy photos." He plays safely with this beautiful boy. "
Music
Peckinpah composer and collaborator Jerry Fielding was assigned to print The Getaway . She had worked previously with directors at Noon Wine (1966), The Wild Bunch (1969), Straw Dogs (1970), and > Junior Bonner . After the preview of the two films, McQueen was unhappy with the music and used his power to recruit Quincy Jones to upload the movie again. Jones music has a jazzier edge and harmonica solo displays by Toots Thielemans and vocals by Don Elliott, both of whom have become his peers. Peckinpah was unhappy with this move and took out a full-page ad on Daily Variety on November 17, 1972, including a letter he wrote to Fielding thanked him for his work. Fielding will work with Peckinpah on two more films, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and The Killer Elite (1975). Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his original score.
Release
Running theater and box office
There are two preview playbacks for The Getaway : a lackluster in San Francisco, and an enthusiastic one held in San Jose, California. In the second week of January 1973, the film earned an estimated $ 874,000 in thirty-nine locations in the United States, during which time also peaked the office's Variety ' box. The film grossed $ 18,943,592 by the end of 1973, and went on to become the second best-selling film of the year. The North American rental for the year was $ 17.5 million. With a production budget of $ 3,352,254, the film grossed $ 36,734,619 in the US alone.
Walter Hill then remembers:
I think of the movies I wrote, I think it's far and away the best, and the most interesting. I think Sam did some things while shooting great. (...) It was not well reviewed, but a great success. Biggest blow ever experienced by Sam. (...) He will always say we do this for money which is one half of that truth. (...) She's well paid and the movie makes a lot of money and that fact is about the only movie where the points mean anything; he also took a considerable amount of money. After all the disappointments and heartbreaks of all these films he never gets rewarded or paid, meaning much to him.
Home media
Warner Home Video released the DVD version of the two pieces of The Getaway on November 19, 1997, which was presented in a wide screen and pan and scanning. They also released the movie again on DVD as part of a seven-disk box compiled on May 31, 2005, followed by HD DVD and Blu-ray versions on February 27, 2007. Special features include audio commentary by biographer and documentary Peckinpah, Nick Redman, Garner Simmons, David Weddle, and Paul Seydor; 12-minute "virtual" comments by Peckinpah, McQueen, and MacGraw; featurette titled Main Title 1M1 Jerry Fielding, Sam Peckinpah & amp; The Getaway which included an interview by composer wife Jerry Fielding and two daughters, and Peckinpah's assistant; sequence of bank robberies with Fielding movie scores; Fielding's only alternative audio score; trailer and three minute movie trailer for other Peckinpah movies.
Matthew Hinkley of DVD Talk gives the Blu-ray version an overall rating of four stars out of five, praising the video transfer and special features, but criticizing the audio transfer. Peter Bracke of High Def Digest felt the same in terms of transfers and special features, even though he gave the overall rating of three and a half stars out of five.
Reception
The initial reaction to The Getaway is negative. Vincent Canby of The New York Times describes the film as "aimless". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times complained that the story was contrived, calling it "a big, shiny, impersonal mechanical toy". Ebert gave him a two-star rating of four. Pauline Kael from The New Yorker found a relationship on screen between McQueen and MacGraw wanted. She's called MacGraw, in the back, as an actress much worse than Candice Bergen. Jay Cocks of Time magazine felt that Peckinpah "pushed his privileges too far", but eventually described the film as "a masterpiece of a competent craftsman." Kathleen Carroll of the New York Daily News denounced the film for being "too harsh and rude".
Modern criticism is more appreciative. Dennis Schwartz from Ozus ' The World Film Reviews rated it B, praised most of the movie action sequence and, overall, called it "thriller gripping"...) was filmed in an action-packed and violent force in Peckinpah. "Newell Todd of CHUD.com scored seven out of ten, and considers it an" entertaining movie that's only made better with some McQueen action. "Casey Broadwater from Blu -ray.com describes it as "an effective thriller that plays with and against some well-known trademarks [Peckinpah]", (...) style, heist flick style lovers ". Writing for Cinema Crazed , Felix Vasquez also praised most of the action scenes and commented: " The Getaway is an upscale crime thriller with fantastic turn by McQueen and it's still the best action movie I've seen. "
Contemporary review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes gives this movie an 85% score based on 20 reviews - an average rating of 7 out of 10, which gives consensus, "The Getaway sees Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen, violent kings and cool, working at full speed. "They also rated The Getaway at No. 46 on 75 Best Heist Movies of All Time. In 2010, the film was included in 25 thefts being considered an all-time favorite by Playlists , which described it as "a live, congenial live-action movie that is always fun to hang around in the middle of late night TV ".
Remake
A remake of the film was released on February 11, 1994, directed by Roger Donaldson, and co-produced and co-written by original David Foster and Walter Hill. It features Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in the lead roles, and Michael Madsen, James Woods, David Morse, and Jennifer Tilly in supporting roles. The film received generally negative reviews, with particular criticism for plots and characters laden with cliches and inspiration from the original. In 2008, Baldwin called it a "bomb".
See also
- List of American films in 1972
References
Bibliography
- Eliot, Marc (2011). Steve McQueen: A Biography . New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN: 978-1-84513-744-1.
- Sandford, Christopher (2003). McQueen: Biography . New York: Taylor Trade Publishing. ISBN: 978-0-87833-307-3.
- Simmons, Garner (1982). Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage . University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-87910-273-9.
- Terrill, Marshall (1993). Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel . Tangles. ISBN: 978-1-55611-414-4.
- Weddle, David (1994). If They Move... Kill Them! Life and Time Sam Peckinpah . New York: Grove Press. ISBN: 978-0-8021-3776-0.
External links
- The Getaway on IMDb
- The Getaway in the TCM Film Database
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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