The Hunter

source: The Hunter

I am a lifelong (since Wanted: Dead or Alive) McQueen fan. But by the time I saw this film, he had, sadly, passed away. Therefore, I looked for the signs of his pending demise in the film and they were clearly there. Both McQueen and his character looked tired. This is probably due to his being ravaged by cancer and its medical therapy. His character seemed to pursue his work, chasing bail jumpers, with only half hearted interest. It was as if he did his job just to get away from his pregnant girlfriend and the circus side show freaks that had a running card game in his house. Somehow, the character knew the actor was dying, and simply chased bad guys in the plot to pass the time until his demise. Life imitating art imitating life. Stil, there were signs of the old "Vin", Capt. Hilts and Max Sand at times. A sad last hurrah for a truly great actor, only because I knew this was his last film. I have watched this movie a number of times since his passing, and the film does seems to get better each time I do. Let's face it, there were only once each of Gable, Cooper, Brando and McQueen McQueen started out thinking he'd never be able to walk with these type stars. Ultimately, as shown by his popularity 26 years after his death, he eclipsed them all. He will always be the Cooler King and King of Cool. His exploits still thrills movie goers in The Blob, The Great Escape, Nevada Smith, Papillion, Sand Pebbles, Bullit, Junior Bonner and The Magnificent Seven. "I'll take care of you, and set you up real good, Pilar." He still means it.

Steve McQueen's farewell performance in The Hunter is a fine action thriller based on the true story of Ralph 'Pappy' Thorsen, bounty hunter and scourge of bail jumpers everywhere or at least those in and around the Chicago area. It's interesting how the film builds up the level of difficulty of McQueen's cases. His first case was bringing in LeVar Burton who was between the two roles that made his career, in Roots as Kunte Kinte and in Star Trek the Next Generation as Geordi LaForge. The two of them hit it off so well that when Burton's charges are dismissed, he goes to work for McQueen. The film itself builds up gradually to McQueen's last two cases where the action in the last 25 minutes doesn't let up at all, almost like an Indiana Jones film. There's a fine action sequence involving pursuit on the Chicago Metro and later in a parking lot with McQueen trying to apprehend Thomas Rosales, Jr. who is one real psycho. And then McQueen has to deal with Tracey Walter, a psycho out to kill him who kidnaps McQueens's pregnant girl friend Kathryn Harrold. Walter makes Rosales look like Cary Grant, in fact it was the best psycho act since Steve Ihnat in Madigan. Always a pleasure in any film is Eli Wallach, reunited with McQueen from one of McQueen's earliest triumphs in The Magnificent Seven. Wallach plays the bail bondsman who hires McQueen's services and is his friend and confidante. McQueen's last illness came on him with suddenness, though he looks his 50 years, he doesn't look ill in The Hunter. As so he did not get the kind of cinema valedictory that John Wayne did in The Shootist. Still The Hunter is a fine film for a screen legend to go out on.

"The Hunter" is no masterpiece, certainly, and not on a par with Steve McQueen's classics from the 1960's. But it did showcase a looser, more easy going McQueen and showed a direction he might have gone further in during the 1980's had he lived. Certainly its no worse than a lot of the films Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were churning out in this time period. I enjoyed the movie, its certainly watchable, but it is hampered by what seems like a made-for-TV look and budget at times (Steve McQueen couldn't get a bigger budget??). The musical score sucks in the way many 70's and 80's films did, and there's one howlingly ludicrous classroom scene featuring Kathryn Harrold as McQueen's girlfriend. But its all about McQueen in his final performance really. Fortunately he looks pretty good in this film, at least better than he did in "Tom Horn" and "An Enemy of the People" and he also looks like he was having a pretty good time. It was also nice to see him in his final film go full-circle playing a modern equivalent to his break-through role as a bounty hunter in "Wanted:Dead or Alive", which was where I first became a fan of McQueen's. He was a true movie star and a man's man and I still miss him.

Steve McQueen's last film had him playing Papa Thorson, a modern day bounty hunter based on a real person. Thorson goes after bail jumpers all over the country and his assignments in the movie get more dangerous. Rocco Mason is a psycho that Thorson caught. He is stalking Thorson's pregnant girlfriend. Sadly The Hunter is episodic in nature and the screenplay has disconnected incidents joined up to make a movie. Thorson is portrayed here as a lousy driver. He goes to an all black neighbourhood, crashes into a car repeatedly as he tries to park and a black man who owns the damaged car just shouts at him. The action scenes are badly directed. One of them involving a combined harvester wants to be humorous but is just stupid. A long chase scene involving a train just fizzles out with a car ending in the river. McQueen was ill when he made this movie but he still looks good in his scenes. It is just a shame he did not go out in a better movie.

I did not see The Hunter until after McQueen died in November of 1980. It seemed weak - with sluggish pacing. Then it became known that he was ill during the filming and the lack of energy was understandable. Only some of the scenes where he wrecks the rental car in Nebraska even remotely rise to the excitement of some of his other action roles, and the feigned confusion with modern technology really falls flat. His constant appearance in the green Air Force jacket is overdone - or was it used to hide something? Given all the great performances in the 60's and 70's - I often thought what kind of roles he might have had in the 80's and 90's. Were he alive today - he would be 72 and probably defining intelligent, cool action for older actors.

This is surely not McQueens best Movie ever. But it's fun to watch and the fact, that he insisted on playing a terrible car driver makes it even more enjoyable. The worst part of this movie is clearly its terrible musical score. It's just irritating. While most action scenes (like the famous Subway Chase) are not dubbed, the movie gets an almost soap opera like touch (barely watchable) when Steve is with his girlfried. I watched this movie the first time when I was 14 and now (20 years later) I found it on the DVD shelf in Walmart and bought it, because I liked it so much the first time I saw it.

Steve McQueen's last film features him as an aging modern day bounty hunter who drives a crumbling jalopy barely strung together. He is only just managing to make a living. The story is based on a real life bounty hunter, Ralph Thorson, who worked as technical adviser on the production, I believe. This film has pretty much always been critically dismissed and, to be sure, it barely has a story line, just a series of incidents, some of them humorous, involved in Thorson's arrest of bail jumpers. There is a major chase sequence towards the end that is excitingly staged, involving a subway car passenger being taken captive, among other things. There's even a little bit of humour to be found here, as well, this prolonged chase sequence the highlight of the film. I have to say that I found the film to be quite watchable as a time waster, despite its mediocre reputation. I liked the (presumably) on location shooting of some of the seedy areas in which the character had to work. McQueen has a seasoned presence and is quite effective in his role, though he doesn't have much of a characterization to work with. There are also a few twists to be found here. One inside joke for McQueen fans is that in this film his character is a bad driver who can't seem to parallel park without mounting the curb several times and doing damage to the cars around him. The supporting cast includes Eli Wallach, Kathryn Harrold as McQueen's pregnant girlfriend, and Ben Johnson as a good old boy town sheriff who pulls a gun on McQueen to emphasize the fact he wants him out of his town. McQueen gives him no argument. Frustrating that the film uses so little of Johnson. He has two reasonably effective small scenes and then he's gone for good. What the film has plenty of, though, is Tracey Walter as a vengeful psycho sworn to kill McQueen. Walter's character likes to indulge in cat-and-mouse games. There's nothing subtle in this actor's over-the-top performance. I saw no sign of the cancer that would lead to McQueen's death in his appearance here. The actor found out about the asbestos-related mesothelioma shortly after filming on The Hunter was completed. (He died of a heart attack following a brutal operation to have tumors removed in Mexico).

Let me start out by saying I loved this movie! At first I was biased towards this movie, but that quickly changed. I think the director's intention was to make this movie for everbody. For those of you who like action movies it has a grueling scene involving a subway, a parking garage and a child being held at gun point. For those of you who like romance it has a sub-plot involving a woman who is facing pregnancy issues with her husband. For those who like horror movies there is a wonderful end scene that scares the daylights out of anybody breathing! For those who likes comedy there are a few punchlines mixed in plus a scene involving a cornfield a car and a tractor. Steve McQueen gives off a great performance as a "Dirty Harry" type Bounty Hunter. I have never in fact seen a S. McQueen movie however, upon seeing it, I thought this guy was great. I was a little disappointed to find out that was Steve McQueen's final movie, he could have done a lot more. The rest of the cast gave out great performances as well, The actress playing Dotty was very beautiful and had so much presense, she did wonderful. 10/10 (And I am not always this nice)

Steve McQueen plays Papa Thorson a man who lives in the past with the motto "New things are no Good." Papa's a bounty hunter who relies on a law from the late1800's that allows anyone to capture those who jump bail (by almost any means necessary). Most of the movie shows Papa tracking down and capturing criminals. There are some wacky chase scenes -- one involving a Trans Am and a Harvester in a corn field - but most the action is mundane especially compared to McQueen's other films. The movie would have benefited greatly with better effects (explosions, etc), some one liners and stronger characterization. The ending is somewhat sentimental and cheesy. The film is based on a true story - which probably could have used some embellishment. McQueen gives a pretty good performance and it's fun to see Levar Burton in one of his earlier roles. Recommended for hard-core McQueen fans only.