In THE BLOB Steve McQueen plays “Steve” and he’s supposed to be a teen. But he was actually 28 and looked about the same age as he did in THE GREAT ESCAPE. Therefore I don’t think there’s anything unreasonable about leaping to the conclusion that he was re-enacting true events that had happened to him for real. The Young Steve McQueen Chronicles. None of this is included in his biography and some of what happens here (like his father being a store owner) don’t jibe with the established facts. But what importance do the details have when there is an essential truth at work here, the truth that a teenaged Steve McQueen sighted, tracked, battled and helped defeat The Blob? In a sense, this is BATMAN BEGINS to Steve McQueen’s life. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Steve McQueen’
The Blob (1958)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Saturday, February 25th, 2006This movie stars Steve McQueen as a bank robber, which automatically makes it worth seeing. And this is a good movie. But to be honest it doesn’t live up to its reputation or its potential. I know that Steve McQueen, like me, was someone who often could be spotted out and about striving for excellence. So I don’t think he would have a problem with me holding him to a high standard of achievement.
The first thing you’ll notice about the movie is that it’s very stylish. The opening and various other scenes use split-screen up the wazoo, splitting the screen into something like six different little boxes to show the different people intersecting for a heist. The cinematographer is Haskell Wexler (see TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE above for more on him) so despite all the showoffery in the editing alot of the footage is very handheld, documentary looking, like you’re there. Alot of the scenes are just dialogue-free footage of Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown fucking around. For example he flies in a glider or drives around really fast in a dune buggy. The dune buggy footage is pretty spectular, it seems like he’s about to flip over at any moment and you can’t help but notice he’s got no roll bars above his head.
After the opening heist, the rest of the movie is about a hot insurance investigator (Faye Dunaway) tracking down the mastermind Thomas Crown and seducing him, toying with him, falling in love with him and finally realizing maybe she doesn’t want to bust him. It reminded me a little bit of OUT OF SIGHT and the whole romance between bank robber and federal marshall. (more…)
The Hunter
Saturday, January 1st, 2005What could be more badass than Steve Mc-Fucking-Queen in the true life story of a world famous bounty hunter?
Well, it turns out alot of things could, but that’s not a complaint. Maybe it wasn’t the gritty action thriller I pictured when I saw the cover, but I still really enjoyed this goofy movie. It starts out real promising with a bounty hunter named “Papa” Thorsen (Steve) driving a big ass boat of a car into a neighborhood, having a hell of a time parallel parking it, right in front of a crowd of people. Bumping a Cadillac right in front of the owner. Then he goes inside a bar and picks up young Levar Burton, who is wanted for some petty crime. He brings the kid in, gives him some tips for dealing with the judge, and goes home.
Somewhere around here, we realize that the movie is not necessarily gonna be balls to the wall asskicking. I mean he picked up Levar without a struggle. And then they have a long conversation! It is starting to seem that motherfuckers will not get their arms broken in this movie, at least not very often. There will not be any eyeballs poked out or even some dude tossed through a window. It is looking pretty dicey at this point. See, “Papa” has this eccentric type lifestyle where he goes home to his big house, and there’s like 25 people there hanging out and playing cards, some of them don’t even know who he is and he owns the damn place. Pretty soon even Levar Burton is gonna get out of jail and he’s gonna start hanging out there too, likes it’s a god damn dorm.
Papa’s pregnant girlfriend is there and he brings her an antique Buck Rogers toy. Turns out he’s one of these dudes who likes everything old and hates everything new, which is why he drives that big car. For a minute it seems like this is gonna be some wacky PG rated comedy like Fun With Dick and Jane or something. (more…)
The Getaway (1972)
Saturday, January 1st, 2005Now this is what I call a fuckin MOVIE. I forgot about it until seeing it on Bravo today but it is even better now that I’m older and now that I’ve done my own bid. First though, a word about Bravo. This is the “film and arts network” they CLAIM, but they don’t have the balls to live up to that slogan. You know how Sam Peckinpah movies always have the real slick opening credits with the freeze frames and the atmosphere and what not? They show these in widescreen and your thinking, “Look at that! Look at that rectangular screen! That atmosphere! THIS is a fuckin MOVIE.”
And then it says “directed by Sam Peckinpah” and BAM, no more widescreen. No, that’s just so the words will fit, we don’t need it anymore. The picture is square and cramped and the film is all faded and dark and you’re thinkin, “What is this crap, Hunter?”
But worse, at the end of the movie, the credits come up and BLOOOOOP, the screen shrinks down to unreadable size and the rest of the screen is giving trivia about Carter Burwell. And I’m sure I’d like that dude as much as the next guy if I knew what movies he was in but jesus man, this is the film and arts network, you gotta understand some of us Cinema appreciaters such as myself and some of these other motherfuckers, they want to read the damn credits.
Anyway the Getaway. This is the story of Steve McQueen as Doc McCoy, an armed robber who just got out of the joint. Which I think alot of us can relate to. Doc goes on a job that goes a little sour. For one thing, his partner Rudy tries to kill him. So he and his wife Ali McGraw take the money and run for the Mexican border. Along the way they have to deal with cops, Rudy and others chasing after them. And they have a lot of problems and they go through alot of cars and at one point some fucking pickpocket scum even swipes their bag at the train station. What a pain in the ass. (more…)
