First Impressions (Sam Peckinpah Edition)
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
The Getaway (1972, dir. Sam Peckinpah)
Steve McQueen is the coolest guy in the world. That’s not opinion; it’s science. Red States, Blue States; Christians, Atheists; Israelites, Palestinians – they all unite on this one known truth. If you want cool, you want McQueen. Of course, being a chump, I’d never seen a Steve McQueen movie before. Sure, I’ve rented Bullitt from the library once or twice, but I’ve never found myself “in the mood.” So it wasn’t until The Getaway that I’ve been able to see McQueen in action, and it’s only really under the guise of watching some Sam Peckinpah, one of the great cinematic misanthropes of our time. Oh well. Killing two birds with one stone, I guess.