Endlessly watchable

Why? Because its directed by Sam Peckinpah and has a first-rate cast.
Of course Steve McQueen is magnetic in every scene he's in, Ali McGraw is pretty good as well, but the scary Al Lettiri almost steals the film from under their noses as Rudy Butler. You wouldn't want to mix it with this guy.

Its basically a simple heist movie with a few minor variations. Naturally as its Peckinpah there are some superb set pieces that you won't forget quickly.

The extras on this version are an audio commentary from DVD producer Nick Redman and authors Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle. Also a 'Virtual' audio commentary with stills of Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw and Sam Peckinpah. These are all OK and in some places quite interesting, but the film is the main reason to get this DVD.

DVD's According To Me

To me this DVD - The Getaway is a classic. It is still a powerful movie, even by today's standards. McQueen and McGraw together were a new breed of Bonnie and Clyde.

Scenes From A Marriage

This 1972 movie directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen as Doc McCoy and Ali MacGraw as his wife Carol deserves to be seen again and certainly is worth the viewer's time. Based on a novel by Jim Thompson "The Getaway" essentially is the tale of a recently-sprung convict who must perform a bank robbery to pay back a character named Beynon who has pulled strings to spring him. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong in this perfect robbery so we have this genre film that never slows up.

The film, however, is also about a marriage, its ups and downs, what can go wrong, how a cuckolded husband handles his wife's infidelity. etc. Certainly the best thing in the movie is McQueen's usual understated performance. While he is not Marlon Brando, he doesn't have to be. A man of few words, he acts with both his face and body. Initially I thought Ali MacGraw (of "Love Story" fame) was going to be only mildly pretty with a great mane of hair, but she does rise to the occasion and is quite good as the wife who makes the sacrifice of adultery to get her husband out of jail. The scenes between this couple work and sometimes sizzle; the fact that they were having some kind of an affair off-screen during the filming of "The Getaway" probably didn't hurt either. (MacGraw left her husband Robert Evans and married McQueen soon after the completion of the movie.) Sally Struthers has a strange role (the Patricia Hurst syndrome?) as a women who is kidnapped, along with her husband, by one of McCoy's cohorts who double-crosses him and is left for dead by McCoy and his wife. It is never clear whether or not she is brainwashed by her captor although she appears to like her new position in life a lot more than her dire circumstances call for. Then there is the obligatory car chase scene, not as good as the one in "Bullitt" but exciting just the same.

As we would expect from the director of "Straw Dogs" "The Getaway" has enough violence for the most bloodthirsty viewer. This is, after all, a film about a bank robbery. On the other hand, McCoy appears to be a decent man if only left alone, if you disregard his profession. He only kills when absolutely necessary.

The opening scenes from the film that show the frustration and pent-up emotions of prisoners are extremely well done and probably had an influence years later on the makers of the extraordinary prison series "Oz." Finally, the ending of "Getaway" was something totally new for this kind of movie.

The DVD edition has commentary by Peckinpah, McQueen and MacGraw that is worth watching.