Steve McQueen Movie Post!

I have the urge to drive fast and show a lack of respect for authority. That I don't want to shave my head or appear in terrible comedies is how I can tell it's not a Vin Diesel movie review post.

The Getaway - For being a Peckinpah film, I really expected a more depressing ending, but it was actually kind of sweet. Those crazy kids made it past all the rich assholes trying to use them, and they regained their trust in one another. The romantic in me approves.

I'm used to seeing Ben Johnson in movies like The Undefeated, where he's John Wayne's trusted partner. He really plays that creepy bastard on the parole board well. I think not having facial hair helps. He looks less friendly clean-shaven somehow. Or he's just that good of an actor, he can exude that air of sleaze so readily.

That subplot with Rudy, Fran, and Fran's husband drug on far too long, though. Rudy's so sleazy, Fran's such a twit, and her husband's so passive, it's just painful. I kept imploring hubby to drive the damn care into oncoming traffic, or park it abruptly on railroad tracks, hop out with the keys and run. Something. Well, he did something eventually, such as it was.

Bullitt - I don't think the plan was ever to watch it the whole way through. My dad and a friend of his had apparently been debating what weapon McQueen carries in the movie, and Dad was going to settle it. Every group of hobbyists has their own arguments.

Anyway, Dad was sure we see the gun in the opening scene, when Bullitt's partner rouses him and he has to get dressed for work. Turned out we didn't see it until the very end of the movie, at the airport. So rather than simply skip ahead, we watched the whole movie. What the hell, I had to wait for my laundry to finish anyway.

I didn't manage to piece together the plot on my own. I thought when the investigated the deceased girlfriend's room and found passports in other names, it meant Ross and his lady were planning to flee the country rather than testify, and had used Chalmers as a shield to cover their escape. The idea that "Ross" was some other poor sucker entirely had not occurred to me.

The music puts me in the mind of Jonny Quest, which I guess was coming out at the same time. At least there wasn't any annoying dog running around, yapping constantly. If there had been, it probably would have been run over during the big car chase scene. That is a well-done sequence, though neither of us could quite figure out McQueen's goal. Was he trying to kill them, or just stop them so he could question them? I'm guessing the latter, in which case it was just bad luck they hit that gas substation. But considering they were in a bigger car, there were two of them (while Bullitt was alone), and they had a shotgun, I'm not sure how he was going to catch them by his lonesome.

Tomorrow, actual comic reviews. I know, you'd almost forgotten this blog's ostensibly about comics. So had I.