The Getaway (1972) HD DVD Review

Buy This HD DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!

Title: The Getaway (1972)

Media: HD DVD (Also Available On Blu-ray Disc)

Region: N/A

Genre: Action Thriller

Stars: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, and Sally Struthers

Writer: Walter Hill

Based On The Novel By: Jim Thompson

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Feature length: 123 minutes

Extras: Commentary By Peckinpah Biographers/Documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle, Virtual Commentary By Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, and Sam Peckinpah, Main Title: 1M1 Jerry Fielding, Sam Peckinpah, and The Getaway, Reel 4 Bank Robbery Sequence With Alternate Jerry Fielding Score, Alternate Jerry Fielding Score Track, Sam Peckinpah Trailer Gallery

Languages: English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Plus Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Elite Red HD Case

Chapter Stops: 33

Sound: Dolby Digital Plus Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1972/HD DVD Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Long before Arnold Schwarzenegger and Producer Joel Silver pretty much changed action features in the 1980s and 90s, there were Hollywood stars and maverick filmmakers that commanded the attention of a movie going public for whom HBO was just three letters and the idea of video cassette recording was just a dream. There were many movie theaters and they were like palaces with great screens and ornamental interiors that heralded a time that had already passed, the golden age of Hollywood movies. A whole new generation of filmmakers were just capturing the attention of movie goers and bringing with them a new breed of star that would link the classic old Hollywood stars of the first half of the century with an entirely new wave method actors. These actors in turn would bridge the gap between the age of movie theaters and drive-ins to the age of multiplexes and home video. Among the filmmakers that had a creative clout that would influence the filmmakers of today was Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah was a bridge between the old Hollywood system and the auteur in America. His artistic use of violence to punctuate a scene in a way that actually forwarded the story instead of just shocking the audience was matched by his use of quick cuts long before there was an MTV and music videos that were filmed or videotaped were often made solely for in-house record industry promotion and not for public consumption. While by contemporary standards Peckinpah’s work might seem less blunt than it did in the 1960s and 1970s, I can’t help but imagine the amount of filmmakers that have been influenced by him.

Equally influential was Steve McQueen, who had he still been alive through the 1980s and 1990s I have no doubt that he would have had a career resurgence and at the very least an Irving Thalberg Award on his mantel next to Oscar® nomination certificates. Steve McQueen was an interesting actor even for his time. His first film-starring role was in the cult classic The Blob, but McQueen would parlay his unique charisma into a mix of dramas and action films where the acting required more than three line catch phrases. McQueen was a leading man and an interesting one when compared to the leading men actors that get top billing in A-list films today. For one thing, McQueen is neither an overtly handsome man and yet he is far from ugly. He was one of those actors that seemed to be caught in a vacuum of time. He did not look young nor did he particularly seem to age much. Today if McQueen were first starting out in Hollywood, he probably would have trouble proving that he was leading man material and would have been cast as a character actor because today’s stars are more handsome or pretty than they are talented with the exception of a select few. Sex appeal also means a lot and though there are different tastes for every man or woman in what he or she considers sexy, McQueen perhaps has more in common with Clint Eastwood in terms of having a strong masculine presence and for being a man of few words off screen. Both actors also had early roles in cult films with Eastwood appearing in Revenge Of The Creature and both appeared in a fair share of westerns over the years.

As much as it is a chase film and an action crime drama, The Getaway is also a western complete with corrupt law enforcement, a bank heist that goes wrong, a reluctant antihero and his wife seeking to start over south of the border in Mexico, and ruthless villains. McQueen is terrific in this film and Ally MacGraw is nothing short of sexy. Ben Johnson and Al Lettieri have great villain roles and the film features a memorable supporting role by Sally Struthers and a terrific cameo by Slim Pickens. Quincy Jones is credited with the music, but the score also features music composed by Jerry Fielding. The one shortcoming to the music is it has a dated 70s melodramatic tone at times that I found distracting. Peckinpah sets up some great scenes and interesting locales too. My favorite composition occurs early on with McQueen and Johnson talking about the bank job on a floating restaurant barge or something. It really helps to make what is essentially, some exposition and talking heads with reaction shots, more entertaining visually. Walter Hill (The Warriors) adapted the book and wrote the screenplay.

The Getaway on HD DVD is presented in a widescreen scope aspect ratio that while showing grain from source material used, somehow it still fits the film appropriately. English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 1.0 Monaural Soundtracks are provided, but again you are not going to get the same fidelity had this been remastered as a 5.1 mix. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the HD DVD as options too. The disc encoding for both the HD DVD and the Blu-ray Disc that is also available uses VC1 encoding and features the pan and scan zoom feature unique to most HD DVD titles, but not readily available on the Blu-ray Disc counterpart.

Peckinpah Biographers/Documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle provide feature length and screen specific audio commentary discussing the behind the scenes making of the film, it’s production history and it’s place in the careers of Peckinpah and McQueen. The other extra value features include a virtual audio commentary for select scenes using sound bites and stills of Peckinpah, McQueen, and MacGraw recorded during the production with the scenes occupying the left side of the screen and the stills occupying the right side of the screen (10:36). There is also a documentary on composer Jerry Fielding (29:54) that is supported by a demonstration scene (9:18) with his score with sound and effects for the bank robbery sequence. There is also an isolated score track of Fielding’s alternate music for the film and a Sam Peckinpah trailer gallery that can be viewed individually or as one reel (16:01) and includes trailers for The Getaway, Ride The High Country, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue, and Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, which features an appearance by Bob Dylan.

The Getaway (1972) is available now on HD DVD and also Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.

Return To The Previous Page

Buy This HD DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!