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Let me start to say, for purists, that Sam Peckinpah is one of my all time favorite directors and an inovator on staging action sequences and handling over-the-top violence to the screen and the original "The Getaway", starring the then couple Steve McQueen & Ali McGraw, remains untouchable and a cult classic of the action / crime / thriller genre.
However, and even if i usually despise modern remakes (except in some cases), this Roger Donaldson's rendition of Peckinpah's cult flick is in fact a very good entry in the genre.
By 1994, this Aussie director was already an established director in U.S.A. after he helm'd the political thriller "No Way Out" ('87) starring Kevin Costner in one of his first leading roles, Gene Hackman and Sean Young; the romance / drama "Cocktail" ('88) starring Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue or "White Sands" ('92), an extremely underrated crime / thriller film starring Willem Dafoe, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Samuel L. Jackson and Mickey Rourke and was chosen to fill Peckinpah's shoes directing this remake which Donaldson did with his peculiar sense of visual style, well-staged action sequences and a bunch of good actors giving life to vivid and colorful characters.
"The Getaway" moves frantically forward, with a great sense of pace and editing; the screenplay by Walter Hill, who also penned the original movie, based on the 1958 crime novel by Jim Thompson, is incisive and straight to the point, enhancing the 1972 version to the more sophisticated 90's, but without losing its soul and stamina on the process.
The casting of the then couple, Alec Baldwin & Kim Basinger as the McCoy couple, provides almost the same McQueen / McGraw electric on screen chemistry and even if Baldwin wasn't on McQueen's level, let's be honest, who was ?
The supporting cast is near perfection: the always sleazy and a riot to watch, James Woods (he would play almost the same character in the next year's "The Specialist" starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone and Eric Roberts); the forever underrated character actor, David Morse; the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (credited as Philip Hoffman) in one of his first major roles; "The Straight Story" beloved old timer, Richard Farnsworth and Burton Gilliam, but Michael Madsen as the quirky & vicious, Rudy Travis and Jennifer Tilly as his submissive girlfriend, Fran Carvey, made a cool looney couple that almost stole the movie from the leads.
An interesting fact is that Madsen plays his character so Mickey Rourke-ish: his manneirisms and on-screen persona; the machismo, self-confident arrogance & misogynism; the eccentric urban cowboy clothes ("Wild Orchid"); the chopper and even the hairstyle (Rourke was sporting long blonde / reddish hair back in 1993 when this movie went into production, check "The Last Outlaw") that maybe it's possible that Mickey Rourke was the first choice for the role (he already worked with the screenwriter Walter Hill in "Johnny Handsome" ('89) and two years before with Donaldson in "White Sands", which he played Gorman Lennox, a very similar character to Rudy), but after the troublesome shooting of "Nine and a Half Weeks" ('86) and Baldwin's crescent stardom against Rourke's career decline, the couple probably vetoed to his casting.
In short, "The Getaway" isn't by all means a masterpiece movie, neither the original was, it was unfairly bashed by critics and nominated for of few Razzies (the same Razzies that nominated Kubrick for worst director, can you get how laughable this Awards are ?), but aside of all the badmouthin, it's a very entertaining, sexy, steamy & stylish flick that can put the nowadays action / crime / thrillers to shame.
I give it an 8, because it's a remake, but it's worthy of a 8.5 !!
score 8/10
DeuceWild_77 15 February 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4063264/ |
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19-4-2021 02:51:09