SILVER

From a screenplay by future director Walter Hill, based on a Jim Thompson novel, Sam Peckinpah’s THE GETAWAY featured “King of Cool” Steve McQueen opposite his real-life love interest Ali MacGraw, both at the peak of their stardom when the film was released in December 1972. McQueen plays Carter "Doc" McCoy, a convicted bank robber who is four years into a 10-year stretch. Desperate to get out, he and his wife, Carol (McGraw), engineer a furlough through the aid of corrupt businessman and parole board member Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson). The catch: Doc must team with thugs Rudy Butler (Al Lettieri) and Frank Jackson (Bo Hopkins) to pull a bank job arranged by Beynon. A cascade of double and triple crosses ensues in this high-octane chase film, peppered with gunplay and automotive recklessness and riven with psychosexual gamesmanship. Quincy Jones’ jazzy score features harmonica legend Toots Thielemans. DIR Sam Peckinpah; SCR Walter Hill, from the novel by Jim Thompson; PROD Mitchell Brower, David Foster. U.S., 1972, color, 122 min. RATED PG

In Memoriam: Quincy Jones (1933–2024)

Also part of Scores by Quincy Jones.