Getaway (1972)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Getaway
Alternative title:
A man explodes
The Getaway - your chance is nil
Original title The Getaway
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1972
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK old 18 / new 16
Rod
Director Sam Peckinpah
script Walter Hill
production David Foster
music Quincy Jones
camera Lucien Ballard
cut Robert L. Wolfe
occupation

Getaway is an American film from 1972. The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jim Thompson , which was published in 1950, is essentially about a bank robbery and the subsequent escape of the gangster couple from both accomplices and the law and becomes the genre Thriller , in rare cases also assigned to the road movie . The Texas flick, which is slightly irritating in a geographical sense, is regarded as outstandingly staged and is one of the great masterpieces of director Sam Peckinpah .

action

The professional criminal Carter "Doc" McCoy, incarcerated in a Texas prison, is released early from custody with the help of local politician Benyon. In return, McCoy's wife, Carol, had to sleep with Benyon. After his release from prison, the corrupt politician hires McCoy for a bank robbery to cover up a $ 250,000 embezzlement. Benyon secretly intends to eliminate McCoy afterwards. To carry out the robbery, McCoy has two accomplices, the professional criminals Frank Jackson and Rudy Butler. But even during the preparations there is friction between McCoy and Butler.

The bank robbery is not going according to plan. The money is stolen, but the nervous Jackson shoots a security guard. He himself is murdered while on the run by his accomplice Butler and thrown into the street. McCoy and Carol drive to the agreed meeting point. There Butler tries to get McCoy out of the way as well, in order to keep the loot to himself, but the suspicious McCoy already had a pistol at hand and shoots faster. He thinks the motionless butler is dead and leaves him lying there. At the agreed distribution of the loot in Benyon's house, Carol shoots Benyon after he has informed McCoy about the exact circumstances of his release from prison and the crooked deal with the money.

Butler was only slightly injured by McCoy's bullets as he was wearing a bulletproof vest obtained for the bank robbery. He gets up again and assaults a vet and his wife to get the gunshot wound taken care of. He then takes both of them hostage and drives them towards El Paso . On the way, the butler and the woman keep having sex without having to force them to do so. The tied up vet, who has to watch, later commits suicide.

Carol has the money stolen from her by a con artist on the way, which McCoy can recover. However, the con artist took some money out of his pocket and is caught by the police. McCoy is identified and put up for a manhunt; a photo of him appears in the press and television. The couple, who are fleeing towards Mexico , are now being followed by the police, Benyon's cronies and Rudy Butler. McCoy finally gets a shotgun and ammunition in a shop, when the police show up. He shoots his way free; a police car is left behind as a burning scrap heap.

The relationship of the gangster couple comes under further pressure, as McCoy does not want to forgive Carol the escapade with Benyon. The sparse dialogues paint the picture of two people who have nothing more to say to each other and whose feelings for each other have cooled off. When they hide in a dumpster while on the run and are driven to the garbage dump, they stand in front of the shambles of their marriage and consider separating. But they choose to move on together; McCoy forgives Carol.

At the originally agreed meeting point, Laughlin's Hotel in El Paso on the Mexican border, the chase ends and there is a fulminant shooting. After the McCoys have eliminated all pursuers, they must quickly flee. You stop a pickup. Its driver, an old cowboy, is cooperative and brings the couple across the border to Mexico. There they give him $ 30,000 of the booty.

Awards

  • Quincy Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Music
  • The film won a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing.

criticism

  • Lexicon of the international film : "Brilliantly staged thriller that emphatically embeds its theme, the problem of the naive relationship of American society to violence, into the genre plot, even if it is occasionally covered up by the lurid and brutal facade."
  • Cinema : “The stylish classic found a slack remake in 1994 with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. Conclusion: tough, breathless thriller of the extra class. "

background

  • Ben Johnson had already played in The Wild Bunch in 1969 - You knew no law under Sam Peckinpah.
  • Ali MacGraw played again in Convoy in 1978, directed by Peckinpah.
  • Steve McQueen had already made a film with Peckinpah with Junior Bonner in 1971.
  • Ali MacGraw and Steve McQueen met on the set; they married in 1973. The marriage was divorced in 1978 before the filming of Convoy .

Remake

Roger Donaldson made a remake of the same name in 1994 . Again Walter Hill wrote the script. The roles of the McCoys took over with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger again a real married couple; other actors were Michael Madsen , James Woods , Jennifer Tilly , Richard Farnsworth and Philip Seymour Hoffman . The remake was classified as an artistic and commercial flop that did not do justice to the classic from the 1970s. Basinger was nominated as "Most Desirable Woman" at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards , but also as the worst actress for the 1995 Golden Raspberry .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Getaway. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 28, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Cinema.de: film review

Web links