Mexican Getaway

The Getaway (1972) is a Paul Newman vehicle. Ms. Spenser took a pass, so I figured I'd watch, and if there were a lot of hot muscle cars, I'd watch it with her later.

It starts with Newman in prison, going crazy. He is denied parole. His girl Ali McGraw visits him, and he tells her he wants to get out. She goes to a connected business man and boom, his parole comes through. Now he is out, but he owes the boss a job - knock over a little bank in Texas. Of course, that goes wrong, someone gets shot, but McGraw and Newman get away with half a million.

When they take it to the businessman to get their cut, he tells Newman that it was a setup from the start, and tells McGraw to go ahead and shoot Newman. But she shoots the businessman - which Newman likes better than the alternative, but still thinks is pretty troublesome. So now they are running from the police and the mob.

They steal a car, then find out that their names and faces are all over the news. All hands are against them, their old friends want them or the money, and they need to get to Mexico.

Now, this is a Sam Peckinpah movie, with a script by Walter Hill from a story by Jim Thompson. So you can imagine how grim and tough this is. Also, it's kind of aimless - at one point, McGraw is putting the money in a train station locker and a random grifter boosts it. Newman spots him, and chases him to a train, then loses him, then finds him again, etc. This turns out to be just a tense digression, when Newman comes back to McGraw with the money.

Also, there weren't a lot of hot car chases, mostly just wrecks involving wrecks. And most disappointingly - SPOILER - they get to Mexico safely. For such a gritty, violent, downbeat movie, this just seems weird.