Steve McQueen

I watched The Getaway last night on Dish. I've never been able to just sit down and watch the whole thing through.

Observations:

They don't make 'em like Steve McQueen anymore. Nowadays, even if you competently portray an action hero, you're supposed to be conflicted about it. I don't know that Doc in Getaway was really a "hero" so much as a protagonist, but his only conflict was whether to stick with Ali MacGraw.

Sticking with Ali MacGraw would not be a bad thing.

Sally Struthers very competently and convincingly portrayed a dumb bimbo slut. Hmmm.

This movie may well have sold more 1911s and 12 gauge pump shotguns with extended magazines than all other movies put together since the Titanic sank. Seeing Doc walk into a hardware store and walk back out 30 seconds later, wielding that new shotty like a WMD (why'd he shoot out the gumball lights on the squad car, though? Contempt?), then later clearing out a mob of cowboy mafiosos (who, predictably enough, arrived three-abreast in front and back seats of a Cadillac convertible) with it makes a person start to calculate: shotguns like that nowadays may be had for under $300. Old .45s for about $350. Toss in an old fast car or two, and you start to think that you, too, could be cool. Like Steve McQueen.

Rough movie for a "PG" in 1972.

15 minutes before the movie ends, you don't find yourself really actually liking the McQueen and MacGraw characters. But a final shootout at the hotel and a meeting with Slim Pickens fixes everything.