Getaway, The (1972)

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The Getaway is a strange beast, constructed of three parts almost entirely different in character: a daring heist, a bitter relationship-drama, and happy a riding-off-into-the-sunset. Ooops, spoilers! Roger Ebert's scathing review explains the problems with the heist (and, indeed, the rest of the plot); it's not worth talking about, though the action isn't bad by the standards of the time.

The drama, on the other hand, is more interesting. It's pure Peckinpah: double and triple-crosses; misogynistic men beating their adulterous women; treachery and violence at every turn. Life sucks and then you die.

Peckinpah was a perfect fit for the novel's original ending, apparently one of bleak, existential horror as Doc and Carol arrive to begin their new -- and almost certainly unpleasant -- life in the thieves' paradise of El Rey. Instead, apparently at Steve McQueen's insistence, the film suffers a bizarre anticlimax when it abruptly changes gears from despair to joy. One moment their relationship is falling apart; the next, they ride off into the sunset to breezy Quincy Jones jazz. It just ends.

What the hell? There are two movies here, one a happy McQueen action flick and one a clone of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Apart, they might have been worth watching; together, they're a disaster. The sum is much, much less than the parts.

- Sam - 2007-07-17 14:37:07