In the 1930s and 40s, quite a few heist films were made. However, due to the tough Production Code, the movies were amazingly non- violent and evil always was punished eventually. Starting in the 1960s with films like "Bonnie and Clyde", the studios changed the genre completely. Now, because of this films and a few other violent films of the era, bad guys could be anti-heroes, the violence level was cranked up several notches and the audience in many cases had no idea if evil would ever be punished. Director Sam Peckinpah benefited from this new film morality and "The Getaway" is a film in this new tradition...a tradition where the line between the good guys and the bad is DEFINITELY blurred!When the story begins, Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) is in prison for his part in an armed robbery. When he comes up for parole after four years, he's denied...yet, oddly, the decision is reversed and he is freed. Why? Because the Warden is organizing a bank robbery and he needs Doc's skills. Unfortunately, many things go wrong in the robbery and folks involved in the holdup start dying. This is only the first third of the film and the final portion involves Doc and his wife (Ali McGraw) and their attempt to get away scot-free.With Sam Peckinpah and being made in the 1970s, it's not at all surprising that this film is violent and several gallons of blood are spilled. According to IMDb, the director and his notoriously difficult leading man argued a lot during the filmmaking...and the studio always backed McQueen. I assume had Peckinpah been SOLE director it actually would have been even bloodier. But like you'd expect in a McQueen picture, there is LOTS of driving mayhem...lots of shootouts...lots of action. It's like all the action of "Bullit" and a dozen other McQueen films shoved into one! Now this is not to say there isn't much in the way of story...there is. And it has enough novelty that it keeps the viewer wondering what's going to happen next. Well worth seeing, though if it has a fault that it is a tad overlong and the action seems a bit more important than the plot.By the way, Slim Pickens makes an appearance near the end...and it's VERY memorable!

The Getaway (1972) more than fulfills the expectations we bring to a Sam Peckinpah film, being tough, suspenseful, gritty, and unsentimental, with a nod to Peckinpah's personal mythology of Mexico as the mythic country where the rules are different -- the protagonists don't actually get there, but it is the destination of their whole violent odyssey. Steve McQueen, at his iciest, and Ali MacGraw are a Bonnie-and-Clyde style bank robbing couple who pull a big heist which, of course, goes horribly wrong: in the aftermath they have to dodge both their double- and -triple-crossing partners and the police to escape the country with their loot. The film has a number of stunning sequences -- the scenes where the couple hide in a dumpster and end up being slid into landfill is a classic -- and suspense is kept up throughout. The film's main defect is Ali MacGraw's lackluster performance -- she's at her most effective when she just stands there and lets the photography present her as a warm-blooded sexual foil to McQueen's cold-bloodedness. (Incidentally, McQueen and MacGraw were married after meeting doing this film.) A more memorable performance is given by Sally Struthers as a 180-degree opposite of the wholesome girl next door that is her usual public image.Advisory: if you know Peckinpah films, you know this will be replete with sex and, especially, violence.I saw this the 2005 Warner Home Video standard DVD; which was of good quality. There is now also a Blu-Ray, which I suppose would be better.

As this film ably demonstrates, literally and symbolically, if you aim a shotgun at a big enough target, you're gonna hit something. This film takes a lot of the more controversial and distasteful aspects of "The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs" and presents them devoid of all philosophical content. It's a triumph of style over substance. I get it -- in 1972, McQueen and Peckinpah were both in need of a box-office hit. So they got Ali McGraw, who can't act to save her life but manages to get halfway there in this film, and off they go on a crime spree. Author David Weddle noted in his book on Peckinpah that the director made off with about $500,000 at the end of the day -- the same amount McQueen and McGraw's characters made from the heist. Fitting.It's not a "bad" movie.... the performances are underwhelming, pretty much all around (Ben Johnson disappears too quickly to make much more than an impression), but the action scenes are compelling and the suspense is strong. The story does not make a lot of sense.... for example, Johnson's character is sitting there in the house with all that loot just waiting for McQueen, under the assumption that McQueen's wife is going to betray him. This powerful, cynical man had no back- up plan whatsoever? Time and again, Peckinpah puts pedal to the metal and blasts right through story and character logic, but we don't mind too much.It's sort of a high-class drive-in movie.... not quite as much mayhem as "Gone in 60 Seconds", but close. McQueen and McGraw are a super sexy couple, and there's an amusing (although sadistic) side story with Sally Struthers and the suitably disgusting Al Lettieri. It's the sort of film Jack Hill would make if he had a bit more money; the stuff that Tarantino fans' dreams are made of.

The Heist is a landmark action film. It is surprising that it is so overlooked. It looms large over the film action genre over the past two decades. Almost every action film owes something to this remarkable masterpiece by Peckinpah at the the height of his directorial powers. For starters, the garbage compactor scene was directly lifted by George Lucas in Star Wars. The dialogue, pacing, and editing are stamped all over Tarantino's films. The action sequences are the starting point for John Woo's Triad masterpieces. A few movies that bear out the direct influence include Point Break (which the story and action sequences are similar); as well as Ben Affleck's The Town.The script by a then up and coming Walter Hill, based upon a Jim Thompson novel, is perfection in itself. In fact, all of Hill's movies can be tied in one way or another to his screenplay in The Getaway. In fact I don't think it's a stretch to say the brash direction and machismo was a defining influence on Takeshi Kitano's directorial career.By all means, if you are a film lover and have not seen this one, you are indeed lucky to be able to see it for the first time. Usually, Peckinpah is defined by critics with his film The Wild Bunch and by general consensus - consider it his best. After seeing this film, it is no longer true for me - this is Peckinpah's finest hour. McQueen shows why he is still regarded as a legend - a simply unforgettable performance.