The Getaway · reception & legacy
1972 · Sam Peckinpah
How The Getaway has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A big commercial hit in 1972 — one of Peckinpah's most profitable films — but critics sniffed at it as a director-for-hire job; today it's warmly regarded as prime McQueen-cool and top-tier Walter Hill-scripted genre craft, even if it still gets filed under 'minor Peckinpah.'
What's debated
The eternal fan debates: whether Ali MacGraw's performance sinks or suits the film, and whether softening Jim Thompson's famously nihilistic novel ending was a betrayal or a mercy.
Its footprint
Steve McQueen pumping a shotgun in slow motion is one of the defining images of 70s tough-guy cinema, and the film got a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger — another real-life couple stepping into the roles.
Where it stands
A movie-night staple of the 70s crime-cinema canon — the 'commercial' Peckinpah that cinephiles reach for after The Wild Bunch, and a touchstone for Walter Hill devotees.