AllMovie

From the groundbreaking Wild Bunch to the fascinating Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Sam Peckinpah's list of achievements between 1969 and 1974 rivals that of any other American director of the time. In the middle of this watershed period was The Getaway, a film originally intended to be directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Ostensibly a standard heist flick, The Getaway is one of the most underrated crime thrillers of the 1970s. Very much in keeping with the gritty, violent style of the time, the film is an entertaining blend of hard-boiled characterizations and suspenseful thrills. The Getaway paired two of the biggest sex symbols of the era, Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, who was fresh off her star-making performance in the weepy Love Story; they began a notorious love affair on the shoot, after which MacGraw divorced producer Robert Evans. The screenplay for The Getaway was the first picture based on a novel by noir writer Jim Thompson; the adaptation was by Walter Hill, who went on to become a successful action director.