Better And Better

If you don't draw yours, I won't draw mine. A police officer, working in the small town that he lives in, focusing on family and shooting and coffee, and occasionally putting some people in jail.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

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.

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5 Comments:

At Tuesday, August 07, 2007 5:35:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, yeah - -
McQueen/McGraw were ever so much more cool than the 1994 Baldwin/Bassinger remake, but for just a COUPLE of items - -

In the '94 effort, in the opening credits there's some of the best close-up slo-mo pistol shooting I've ever seen. And they gave 'em a couple of good lines:
Doc: " . . . you want?"
Carol: "I want the Colt."
Doc: "The Colt's mine."

And, Kim takes part in the hotel shootout - - The best, most realistic (panic stickened) reloading under fire since Clarice (Jody Foster) ran her S&W dry in Silence of the Lambs. Summation: Bring plenty of LOADED magazines. Sux to try to fumble loose ammo into a mag while there are opponents in the wire.

 
At Tuesday, August 07, 2007 8:53:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

Not everybody carries as many magazines as DelTorro did in Way Of The Gun.

 
At Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:31:00 AM, Blogger Mark said...

Best all time Car Chase is the one in Bullitt, BAR NONE! The Car the Driver, made it what it was. It's too bad we no longer have actors like Steve, or Jimmy, or Henry, or Burt, and dozens of others. Todays hollywood is a washed out fingerpainted picture compared to the Full Frescoes of old Hollywood

 
At Wednesday, August 08, 2007 12:12:00 PM, Blogger muse said...

I do like the outlaw pairing of Harleson and Lewis(Micky and Mallory)in Natural Born Killers. Although the film very graphic and disturbing I like that Stone took his best shot at the Media.

Even in the book by Larry McMurtry Pretty Boy Floyd the media takes an active role in perciptating the continued violence.

So why does the media insist on the semi-glorification of these criminals?

 
At Wednesday, August 08, 2007 12:53:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

Why, Muse-- the criminals in The Getaway were just Bank Robbers With Hearts Of Gold!

The fact that they had pointed guns at innocent people to rob the bank (with one of the gang killing a bank guard), and risked lots of people's lives with running gun battles and car chases through towns shouldn't be held against 'em! They never shot nobody that they didn't have to!

Such is an entire genre of Hollywood.

Natural Born Killers made me sick to my stomach, though. They were over-the-top portrayals (does Olly Stone know any other way?) of murderers, glamourized by the news media because they were murderers. I can't think of any case where it's quite gotten that bad in real life (O.J., perhaps).

 

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