Ticket to the Movies: ‘The Getaway’ is the best-ever from Peckinpah

FloridaGator80

Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, I cannot explain why Sam Peckinpah’s “The Getaway” isn’t in my Top 10 favorite films, since the movie, which stars Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw is arguably (at least in my mind) Peckinpah’s best, even over his iconic and classic Western called “The Wild Bunch” (and for which he received an Oscar nomination).

With “The Getaway,” you get top-of-resume efforts from McQueen and MacGraw as well as solid work from a supporting cast that is topped by Oscar winner Ben Johnson (not for this one) as the crooked parole board member; Al Lettieri, who was ultra bad-guy “Sollozo” in “The Godfather,” who plays a bad guy for the bad guys; Sally Struthers of “All in the Family” fame, as an over-sexed wife who cuckolds her husband by making him watch her and Lettieri in bed; and Bo Hopkins, who worked for Peckinpah in several films, rounds out the gang.

The plot of “The Getaway” is straightforward: A convict in prison (McQueen) wants out and has his beautiful wife go “talk” to the crooked member of the parole board. He agrees to plan and execute a bank robbery that is going to cover up embezzlement by the parole board member’s brother.

Well, as you don’t need to guess, it all goes wrong and, as is expected in any Peckinpah movie, violence is heaped on just about everyone in the film in one fashion or another. “The Getaway” is layered with emotional undercurrents as well as over-the-counter shotguns! McQueen and MacGraw sizzle on the big screen and would marry in real life the year after the release of “The Getaway.”

I can find no flaw in “The Getaway” and enjoy watching it again at least once a year and I can’t explain why I don’t have it as part of my Top 10 list of favorite films, but it sure comes in 11th! Oh, don’t bother with the remade piece of garbage put out in 1994 with Kim Basinger and an actor who can’t hold a candle to even McQueen’s worst effort.

So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and watch “The Getaway.” It is available on a limited number of subscription services and is available to rent via several other streaming services. Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later if you watch “The Getaway.”

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