Classic 70s Movie: “The Getaway”
September is Classic 70s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Steve Huerta.
Movie Title: The Getaway
Year: 1972
Writer: Walter Hill (screenplay), Jim Thompson (novel)
Lead Actors: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson and Al Lettieri
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Plot Summary: Doc McCoy has been granted parole after 4 years in Huntsville prison. The catch is that Sheriff Benyon, who orchestrated the release, expects a small favor from McCoy for his generosity: robbing another bank! Benyon does not really intend to let McCoy walk away after the heist and neither does co-robber Rudy Butler, but stopping Doc proves more difficult than planned.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 70’s Movie: The 70’s was a weird time in recent American history, and particularly the early 70’s. We were still hopelessly entangled in the Viet Nam war, the economy was uninspired and we still had Nixon as our president until 1974. Watching a film like “The Getaway” at that time gave one a sense of catharsis and freedom from the malaise of the real world. It was also a great date movie.
Jim Thompson wrote the book in 1958 and he was courted for his works by many directors, including Stanley Kubrick, Sam Fuller, and Peter Bogdanovich. Walter Hill had written a script for Steve McQueen and, after coming off the disappointing returns of “Junior Bonner”, McQueen showed it to Sam Peckinpah who agreed they could produce a well polished film of the script and get both of them a winner this time out. In fact, Peckinpah had met Thompson in the fifties wanting to make “The Getaway” into a film back then! Under the First Artist and Solar Productions banner, they began filming in Texas and shot the film almost entirely in sequence, a rarity even now.
The main and absolute underlying question in “The Getaway” is not “will they make it to Mexico”, it’s “does he love her or not?” The first four minutes of the film we see Doc in Huntsville Prison in an anguishing montage of his life and waiting to hear the results of a parole hearing. There are pictures of Carol, his wife (Ali MacGraw), in his cell. He builds matchstick airplanes, plays chess, and just kills time. The background sound is a constant hum and clanking of a weaving machine he operates. His need to get out is palpable and finally we see him crush the plane he’s built with his hands. Overlapping dialogue of a heavily accented Texan confirms his parole is denied. Doc holds his head in his hands and as the weaving machine continues we feel he is being crushed by the machine as well until it suddenly STOPS.
Carol walks into the visitor’s area and Doc sits down, looks at her seriously, puts his hand to the glass and she does the same on the other side. He picks up the phone and tells her only this: “Get to Benyon. Tell him I’m for sale, his price.” Doc gets up and walks away. Carol goes to Benyon’s office dressed very sexy and he offers her a drink. They chat and he says” It’s funny how things happen. The parole board almost never changes their mind.” The next scene Doc is walking through the gates of Huntsville a free man.
Walter Hill has written many fine screenplays, The Warriors, Hard Times, and 48 Hrs. to name a few. He said in an interview, “Every film I’ve done has been a Western,” and elaborated in another, “The Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories.” The dramatic problem here is Doc sent his wife to Benyon and now he has a problem dealing with it. Does he love her or not?
After Doc and Carol try and get back in a groove after four years, and I’ll talk more about that, the movie takes off on the planning and execution of the robbery. This is well paced and introduces Rudy Butler (Al Lettieri). Rudy will play along till it’s time to cut up the money and then he’ll want it all. When Doc denies him this, he’s a force bent on killing Doc.
Why and how are all these parts reflective of the 70’s? There’s evil stalking good, and though Doc and Carol are not precisely good, you still root for them. In most people’s lives during this time, it was difficult to fight against the evils which existed. The rich were very rich and everyone else was just trying to make a living. In “The Getaway”, Doc and Carol are trying to make a living too while also trying to decide if their marriage is worth repair. After the travails of running to Mexico, they learn something about Life and themselves as well.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: After Doc gets out of prison, Carol takes him to a park near a small river or lake. He gets out of the car and just looks. He sees kids playing and laughing. Couples bask in the sun. There’s a tree with a rope dangling and kids are swinging out into the water. Quincy Jones’ music score is in the background. Doc sees himself diving in the water fully clothed with Carol following. He sees them happy and together. The scene cuts to them walking into their apartment soaking wet. Lucien Ballard’s cinematography was spot on in this film with slow motion shots freezing the good and the bad moments several times as if to just make it last a little longer.
My Favorite Dialogue in the Film: When Doc and Carol do arrive at their apartment after the park scene, there’s some sparse dialogue leading up to them in bed. Doc is overcome by freedom. He tries to tell her what it was like.
Doc: It does something to you. It does something to you. It does something to you.
Carol: We’ve got time Doc.
Doc: Just give me a minute, baby.
Carol: I’m as nervous as you are. Let me make you Feel, good Doctor.
Now I’ve never been able to really tell if she’s saying this line as above or simply “Let me make you feel good”. I choose to think it’s the above because it doesn’t just say, “Let’s have some hot sex.” Its saying “Let me make you have an emotional connection with the world again”.
Key Things You Should Watch For In This Movie: Between all the action and chases and double-crosses, watch how Doc and Carol come back together as a couple. Jim Thompson’s book was a much darker property than the way Peckinpah made the film. Actually it was more McQueen who saw the happy ending as imperative, in fact the two had legendary champagne bottle throwing brawls on the set over the question “does he love her or not?”. Peckinpah thought he hated her, but in the end McQueen’s sense of what the audience wanted prevailed.
I’ve vowed never to watch the remake of this film, and I never have. What Hill and Peckinpah and McQueen did in the early 70’s was a movie of that time and for all time, a classic.
Thanks, Steve! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
For Steve’s blog, go here.
We already have a set of 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 70s Movies.
Thanks to all of you for your participation in this project, creating a resource for writers, movies we should all watch to help learn the craft of screenwriting!