Movie review: ‘The Getaway’ (1972)

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The late Sam Peckinpah is a legend as a director and as so there are a variety of opinions about what is his best work. It’s my opinion that his best work standing out by a mile is “The Getaway” with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Sorry, “The Wild Bunch,” it’s simply a sensational film on all levels … like yours, but even better. It has Peckinpah’s signature violence but it is also a great story, a great drama and is tightly directed to a wonderful conclusion. The violence in a Peckinpah film is so much more effective than you’ll find in films today. If you don’t remember “The Getaway” then watch it again, if you didn’t see it … make sure you do … as soon as possible. It is cinematic magic.

‘The Getaway’
(1972; 122 minutes; rated PG; directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw and Al Lettieri)

VIOLENCE SOLVES JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING HERE

(NOTE: I expanded this review with a bit more opinion and the updating of links on March 18, 2017. I again expanded the review on Nov. 6, 2020. I again expanded the review on June 25, 2025.)

Today, you know you’re in for a rough ride watching any film by Quentin Tarantino. However, back in the day, moviegoers knew they were in for a rough ride when they sat down to watch a film by the pioneer in slo-mo, cinematic violence: Sam Peckinpah.

After “The Wild Bunch,” Peckinpah brought out “Straw Dogs” and after a change-of-pace with “Junior Bonner,” continued to ratchet up the violence and tension. So, today I’ll look at “The Getaway,” which landed in theaters with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw burning up the big screen as they made their way across the Southwest … and soon began to burn up them up on the real-life and then-called “society pages.”

Oh, beware the **SPOILER ALERT** below …

“The Getaway” simply sizzles because of the two stars and the director. It doesn’t get any better than this when you combine the electricity generated by the director and stars for differing reasons.

At the time, there were few bigger stars than McQueen, who in the previous decade had an Oscar nomination, two Golden Globes and four Globe nominations, and MacGraw, who was just two-years off her Oscar-nominated work in the instantly legendary “Love Story.”

Toss in the Oscar-nominated Peckinpah, who hit his stride with this one in 1972 and would go on to make the cult classic “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” and his only World War II film “Cross of Iron” (click here to read my review). One cannot find any flaw with the timing, cinematography or carefully choreographed violence highlighted with slow-motion sequences in either of these.

“The Getaway” is the same, but it offers the crackling electricity between McQueen and MacGraw that none of Peckinpah’s other films could match between characters. Both McQueen and MacGraw would be divorced from their respective spouses and within a year they would be married. Somewhat expectedly for this kind of star power, they would divorce in 1978.

A remake of the same name in 1994 starred the simply pathetic Alec Baldwin and should-have-known-better Kim Basinger (they were married at the time). However, they brought nothing but a shadow of the original to the big screen … in fact, they didn’t even do that because it would have been an accomplishment – something of which Alec is incapable.

Frankly, that remake is just a piece of minor-league crap. Basinger certainly offered a much steamier physical presence than McGraw, but Kim couldn’t hold a candle to the acting and emotional effort by the much superior Ali. Baldwin is a legend in his own mind and could never be compared in any way, shape or form to McQueen. Heck, he’s just unfettered noise today and unworthy of watching in any context.

Now, let’s get back to why we’re here …

In “The Getaway,” McQueen plays “Carter ‘Doc’ McCoy,” a jailed bank robber looking to get out. He sends his wife “Carol McCoy” (MacGraw) to a parole board member who’s crooked and looking for someone to pull a bank job. It’s hinted that she uses feminine charms to ease the situation along and they get involved with robbing a bank. The job goes wrong; one of the two men hired to help them tries a double-cross and soon McQueen and MacGraw are on the run.

Peckinpah takes his time and the film is carefully plotted but without sacrificing pace. Once the bank is robbed, it rolls and gathers momentum until you’re on a roller coaster ride. But Peckinpah doesn’t ever sacrifice good filmmaking, even in the search of a train for a man who rips off the stars. The scene is as detailed and intricate as any in the film and not just a toss away bridge to the next plot development.

Here’s a look at the principal cast:

  • McQueen is his usual self-assured leading man here and does everything to be the superstar he had become. He is just right in a role that stretches from prison to Mexico and doesn’t let down for a moment. McQueen was also in the World War II classic “The Great Escape” (click here read my review) as well as the other classics including “Bullitt” (click here to read my review) and “Papillion.” However, I liked him best in “The Cincinnati Kid” (click here to read my review). McQueen, who died at 50 in 1980 from a heart attack following cancer surgery, was nominated for “The Sand Pebbles.”
  • MacGraw has a smoldering passion for her husband in the movie, but the couple’s relationship is strained by her helping get him out of prison. She’s in love completely with him but does have to pull a gun on him at one point and is just as strong and audacious as he. MacGraw was most famously in “Love Story” as well as “Goodbye Columbus.” It’s surprising that she has a very thin acting resume of only 15 roles (the last being in 1997), but it’s quality work and she was nominated for an Oscar for “Love Story.”
  • Al Lettieri is “Rudy Butler” and is the **SPOILER ALERT** double-crossing member of the bank job team. There’s a nice twist when he wears a bullet-resistant vest during the job and survives when McQueen shoots him before he can shoot McQueen in their first showdown. Lettieri, who was “Virgil Sollozzo” in “The Godfather” the same year as “The Getaway,” is a tough guy here and kidnaps a veterinarian and his wife to help him treat a gunshot wound. Lettieri is good at being psychotic and has also been in “ Majestyk” with Charles Bronson. He died young(ish) at 47 of a heart attack in 1975.
  • Sally Struthers, best known as “Gloria Stivic” on TV’s “All in the Family,” plays “Fran Clinton,” who is the over-sexed wife of the passive veterinarian. She’s immediately attracted to Lettieri and even gets frisky with him while her cuckolded husband sits tied to a chair and forced to watch. Struthers is very good here in a solid dramatic role for her. She was also in “Five Easy Pieces” and did 52 episodes on tee-vee’s “The Gilmore Girls.”
  • A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “The Getaway.”

    An Oscar winner (not for this one), Ben Johnson gets co-star billing as “Jack Benyon” and gets McQueen out of prison and casts more than a lustful eye on MacGraw. It is Johnson who promotes the bank job to cover up his brother’s financial fiddling, but he leaves quickly at the business end of MacGraw’s gun. Johnson was also in “Dillinger” (click here to read my review) as well as “The Sugarland Express” and he won his Oscar for “The Last Picture Show.” Johnson showed his class by being in “Terror Train” with scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (click here to read my review). He died at 77 in 1996 of a heart attack.

  • The final notable supporting role is from Richard Bright, who was also in “The Godfather” the same year (he played “Albert Neri,” who was “Michael Corleone’s” bodyguard and was in its sequels). Bright is the thief who pulls a train locker switch on MacGraw and McQueen tracks him down on a train (no obvious pun intended … maybe Sam planned it as an elaborate pun). Bright is smooth and confident and has also been in “Once Upon a Time in America.” Tragically, he was struck and killed by a bus in 2006 in New York City. He was 68 at the time of his death.

Hiding in plain sight in the film are …

  • Bo Hopkins as the fourth gang member, “Frank Jackson.” It’s a small role and he’s good, but he’s even better in his first Peckinpah flick (“The Wild Bunch”) and still better when he reunited with the director for the original “The Killer Elite” (click here to read my review). He did special work in “American Graffiti” and its sequel. Hopkins died at 84 of a heart attack in 2022.
  • Slim Pickens shows his best side with the delightful role of “Cowboy,” who helps McQueen and MacGraw escape to Mexico. His voice is distinctive (turn on “Blazing Saddles” – click here to read my review – and you won’t have to open your eyes to know when he’s on screen) and plays the goober here very well. Pickens also had a magnificent scene in “ Strangelove or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb.” He died at 64 in 1983 of a brain tumor.

Peckinpah, who died in 1984 at 59 of heart failure, does his usual sensational work in violent scenes as McQueen and MacGraw have to shoot their way out of two towns before the climactic shootout in a hotel as they are about to cross the Texas border into Mexico. McQueen is totally old school with his choice of weapons: He wields a basic 12-gauge pump shotgun with double-ought buckshot and carries an iconic Colt .45-caliber M1911 military-style automatic handgun. Plus, he knew how to use them in real life (MacGraw reportedly had to learn how to fire weapons for the film).

“The Getaway” was the ninth ranked film at the U.S. box office in 1972 with $36.7 million in ticket sales, according to Wiki. Since it was made on a budget of $3.3 million, it was a hit with investors, too. Of course, the No. 1 film of that year was “The Godfather” with $133.6 million. It was the second film in two years starring McGraw that made more than $100 million – the other being “Love Story” in 1970. Here are the other films from 1972 that I’ve reviewed:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • McQueen’s full birth name was Terrence Stephen McQueen and his nicknames included “Bandito” and “King of Cool;” MacGraw’s full birth name is Elizabeth Alice MacGraw; Pickens’ birth name was Louis Berton Lindley Jr.; and Hopkins’ full birth name was William Mauldin Hopkins.
  • Peckinpah’s full name was David Edward Samuel Ernest Peckinpah Jr. and his nicknames were reportedly “Bloody Sam,” “Mad Sam” and “Peck.”
  • Peckinpah originally wanted Jack Palance to play the part of “Rudy,” but the production couldn’t afford Palance’s pay scale.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The film was rated PG by the MPAA in the United States. A few years later, in retrospect, this was considered a mistake and the board believed that the film should have been rated (what was then) one step higher, an R.”
  • A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “The Getaway.”

    For “The Getaway,” MacGraw not only had to learn how to fire a weapon, but she also had to learn how to drive.

  • “The Getaway” was nominated for a Golden Globe, but it wasn’t for acting, direction or cinematography. It was for the music of Quincy Jones, who was nominated for Best Original Score. However, Jones was not the original driving musical force. Peckinpah favorite Jerry Fielding did the first score but was replaced – at McQueen’s instance – by Jones.
  • James Garner has an uncredited role as the driver of an orange Volkswagen that you can see in the getaway after the bank robbery. He was at the shoot to visit a friend and was hired to drive the car by the stunt coordinator who knew that he could handle the driving. Garner was also in HBO’s “Barbarians at the Gate” (click here to read my review) and recently passed away.

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