Search - The Getaway on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1972 DVD Release: 11/19/1997 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 3 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Action, Crime, Action Thriller, Chase Movie, Crime Thriller See Also: The Getaway [Deluxe Edition], The Getaway [Blu-ray], The Getaway [HD DVD]

In Sam Peckinpah's version of Walter Hill's script, from Jim Thompson's novel, an ex-con and his wife go on the lam after a Texas bank heist. Denied parole after four well-behaved years, Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) sends his wife Carol (Ali MacGraw) to dirty politician Jack Benyon (Ben Johnson) to get him out of prison. Carol secures Doc's freedom, on the condition that he does one more bank job for Benyon. Doc and his accomplices Rudy (Al Lettieri) and Jackson (Bo Hopkins) get the cash, but Doc soon discovers how Rudy intends to keep it all for himself and how Carol convinced Benyon to get him sprung. While Rudy hijacks a veterinarian and his wife (Sally Struthers) to take him to get Doc in El Paso, Doc and Carol make their own embattled way south with the money, threatening to desert each other before reaching a trash dump rapprochement after a harrowing garbage truck episode. All sides converge in El Paso for a shootout, but trust a happily married old-timer (Slim Pickens) to help Doc and Carol have a future. With violence shot in his trademark balletic style, Peckinpah does not hide the damage that Doc can do, whether to a cop car or an enemy. Still, as in such other morally relative outlaw movies as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Peckinpah's western The Wild Bunch (1969), Doc may be a criminal and killer when necessary, but his and Carol's loyalty to each other elevates them above their crooked milieu. With its non-traditional traditional couple played by the then hot (and notoriously adulterous) stars McQueen and MacGraw, The Getaway was a substantial hit. It was lackadaisically remade with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in 1994. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Steve McQueen - Doc McCoy
Ali MacGraw - Carol McCoy
Ben Johnson - Jack Benyon
Sally Struthers - Fran Clinton
Al Lettieri - Rudy

The Getaway DVD package is not impressive. Special features are presented in the form of written passages. The first, "An Actors Preparation," briefly explains some of Steve McQueen's research before embarking on the film. The second feature, "Two Firsts for MacGraw," reveals two skills that Ali MacGraw had to learn before filming began. The third feature, "On Location," offers some trivia facts about the film. Although mildly interesting, these features will not keep viewers entertained for more than a few minutes. Some production notes on the key figures involved in the making of The Getaway are available, providing a brief but concise account of their career histories. Scene access is also available. The film is presented in widescreen and the excellent picture quality does add depth to the quietly intense scenes with McQueen and MacGraw, as well as to Sam Peckinpah's direction. But that is about all this DVD has to offer. ~ Hannah Court, All Movie Guide