. Steve McQueen and Ali Macgraw make a
> good Doc and Carol in Peckinpah's film Getaway. The
movie is quite
different
> from the book however.
>
I'm not so sure about McGraw. McQueen woul've been a good
choice if he hadn't been such a big star that the suits
(presumably) decided that you can't have Steve McQueen
ruthlessly betraying & murdering his accomplices.
"Heroes", even armed robber heroes, just don't do that in
Hollywood. (Honour amongst murderer/thieves - pardon me while
I chuckle sceptically). Taking away the El Rey ending from
the story as well just leaves you with a bog standard caper
flick (even though a well done caper flick) & that's
definitely not the story Thompson wrote. It's a shame that
Peckinpah wasn't able to do a more faithful translation to
film, he would've been perfect otherwise.
Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is
much closer to Thompson. The scene where Warren Oates (my
hero!) is driving through the desert, with a head rolling
around the front seat & floor, flies buzzing around it,
while Warren argues with the head, abusing it for screwing
his girlfriend & giving it a great whack or two as
punctuation is one of the great black comedy scenes in
movies, IMO. I remember the critics really hated this one,
like they seemed to hate all Peckinpah's movies in the 1970's
- "Straw Dogs" (his masterpiece, IMO, though "Alfredo" is my
personal fave) & "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" were
rubbished while earlier films were lauded, at least by some.
These same critics also hated the early movies the great
Canadian horrormeister, David Cronenberg. (Who's masterpiece,
"Dead Ringers" is not just a great psychological horror story
but very noir, IMO.)
Rene
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