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The Getaway

Screening on Film
Directed by Sam Peckinpah.
With Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Sally Struthers.
US, 1972, 35mm, color, 122 min.

Carter “Doc” McCoy (McQueen) is sprung from prison by a crooked politician who wants him to pull off a bank heist. Instead, he heads for the Mexican border with his wife Carol (MacGraw) and the loot in tow, and the mob hot on their trail. Peckinpah sure-handedly navigates the film’s many action sequences, leading up to a final showdown in an El Paso hotel. Al Lettieri and Sally Struthers round out the cast as Doc’s vengeful one-time partner and his somewhat-willing hostage. Walter Hill adapted the film’s script from a novel by Jim Thompson. Slim Pickens makes a memorable cameo as a trash collector who doesn’t care what the McCoys are involved in, so long as they are married.

Part of film series

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Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: A–Z

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