The Getaway

The Getaway (1994)

A dangerous deal. A double cross. And the ultimate set up is yet to come.

An ex-con and his devoted wife must flee from danger when a heist doesn't go as planned.

Date of release
1994-02-11
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (405)
Runtime
1h 56m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Director
Roger Donaldson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Getaway
  • Filmed in: Arizona

The Getaway is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Michael Madsen, James Woods and Jennifer Tilly. It is a remake of Sam Peckinpah's 1972 film, in turn based on the 1958 novel written by Jim Thompson. The screenplay was written by Walter Hill and Amy Holden Jones.

Production

The screenplay for the 1972 version of The Getaway was written by Walter Hill. In 1990, Hill's wife, Hildy Gottlieb, had left her job as an agent to head up Alec Baldwin's production company, Meadowbrook Productions. Hill and Baldwin were friendly – at one stage they were going to make The Fugitive together before being replaced by Andrew Davis and Harrison Ford.

Producer David Foster approached Roger Donaldson to direct in Hill's place. Donaldson originally said no as he did not want to do a remake. Then he read the script "and I really liked it," said Donaldson. "And then I rented the original movie, which I'd never seen, and I liked that, too. I saw how I could put my own stamp on it.

Baldwin said he "always wanted to do a movie that required what I consider to be movie acting, which is that it's not what you do, but what you don't do. It's all about small, and less and less. An action film is a perfect opportunity for that. There's always a steady flow of action films – it's the most mined material – but what distinguishes an action movie is the acting."

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger had fallen in love while making The Marrying Man together and he asked her to play the female role Carol McCoy. Basinger said she "loved" the original movie "a lot. It had this cult status. But my first reaction to Alec's suggestion was no." She went back to the original Jim Thompson novel to see if there was a more substantial theme to the story.

I saw that this theme could be summed up in one word – trust.... And I said to Alec, "See what we have here. This is all about trust. These two people can't trust anybody or anything. They can't trust their colleagues. They seemingly can't trust each other. And when mistrust occurs, it breeds violence and havoc."

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