 |
| 1980 |
Steve McQueen's last two films (Tom Horn and The Hunter, both released in 1980) were both troubled productions and both flops at the box office. Which is too bad in the case of the former, which is a solid enough western and a treat to see McQueen give if not an iconic Western performance definitely a worthy inclusion to the repertoire. In the case of The Hunter, it's no masterpiece, but it's a perfect candidate for The Scenic Route.
 |
| McQueen plays Ralph "Papa" Thorson, bounty hunter extraordinaire, whose life, the opening text tells us, is getting too complicated. |
 |
| As he goes about his job, he and his pregnant ladyfriend are stalked by VW-van-psycho-killer. |
  |
| The line between his personal and professional life blurs and un-blurs apace. |
STARRING:
 |
| Steve McQueen |
 |
| Kathryn Harrold |
 |
| Tracey Walter |
 |
| LeVar Burton |
 |
| And (briefly) Papa Thorson himself. |
Eli Wallach and a bunch of others, too. Now let's get to the cars!
Outside of Chicago and a handful of spots around the state, Illinois looks mostly in 2018 the way it did in 1980. Altough the script has Papa travel to Texas and elsewhere, the whole movie was shot throughout Illinois, opening in Joliet:
And quite a bit in Kankakee County, IL, which has (like any non-Cook IL County) a rural element but is characterized mainly in 2018 by rte 57 and attendant gas and fast food and outlet shopping. Starting with Herscher and Bonfield and continuing into Aroma Park:
 |
| And at Greater Kankakee Airport: |
The cornfield set pieces were fun for me as I recently did a work trip through the very same fields - well, not quite the same, but the same visuals at least. I don't know how much variety there is in corn and soybean fields throughout any of the Prairie states, to be honest, Illinois very much so.
The ending chase is shot - excitingly for your humble narrator - on the "El" CTA tracks of the commute I used to have (the Brown line, heading through Old Town, Chicago) and showcasing Marina City, i.e. the Marina Towers, two-of-many-but-still-cool-recognizable-Chicago-skyline features.
 |
| Almost everything I've read for this blog was read on this train line commuting back and forth on the brown line. |
 |
| And like Steve McQueen, I wrote the entirety of the King's Highway on top of the train car. |
 |
| 1980 |
 |
| 2017 |
The various characterizations of McQueen's character (his clumsy driving, his love of La Traviata, his train set, his heart, the whole deal with his drunk cop friend - or, as Rogert Ebert put rather uncharitably in his review: "McQueen is a lousy driver. He also collects antique windup toys. He wears funny glasses. His wife is pregnant, and he attends natural childbirth classes with her. He has a dog that doesn't like him. A bunch of guys are always playing poker in his living room. In one ridiculous scene, he argues with his wife while sitting on a stepladder, wearing his funny glasses, and working on a windup toy with a screwdriver. It's all just, "business" things the actor is given to do while saying his lines."
Perhaps Ebert is correct. But none of these things bothered me. I think had Ebert saw it in 2018 like me he'd have said (1) "Hey, I'm alive! Suddenly I'm not so cranky!" and (2) "Had I known at the time of my original review that this film would have led to Midnight Run - among other things - I'd have been more forgiving"
~
(1) Boy, that psycho killer in the van sure does seem exposed. Brother, you gotta cover up better than that! Er...so I've heard, at least. I don't even own a van!
ReplyDelete(2) Tracey Walter weirds me out. From that standpoint, that's a marvelous screencap you've selected to represent him.
(3) It still feels wrong to see LeVar Burton's eyes. I bet he's real thrilled when people say things like that. And they're great eyes! Just...wrong.
(4) "The ending chase is shot - excitingly for your humble narrator - on the "El" CTA tracks of the commute I used to have" -- It's a VERY rare occurrence for me to see any place where I have been captured in a real movie. So I get where you're coming from here.
(5) "Almost everything I've read for this blog was read on this train line commuting back and forth on the brown line." -- The official train line of Dog Star Omnibus. I dig it. I think there ought to have been some endorsement paychecks in this for you, somehow.
(6) "And like Steve McQueen, I wrote the entirety of the King's Highway on top of the train car." -- There's your "lol" for this post. Well-earned. And very dangerous! I assume the train kept pestering you for riddles, which is why you had to ride atop it.
(7) That screencap (the one right below the 2017 photo) of the falling car set against the backdrop of the building is awesome. Very surreal.
(8) I like that convertible McQueen is driving. I also like that quote from Ebert's review; it seems petty, but probably true. Either way, it's vivid.
(9) "I think had Ebert saw it in 2018 like me he'd have said (1) "Hey, I'm alive! Suddenly I'm not so cranky!" " -- lol #2.
(10) Here's the kind of nerd I am: I see the musical-credit screencap and I think, "Hey, from the composer of Cujo!" Ay yi yi. It's true, though.
(2) I forgot until just now but Tracey Walter has a brief cameo in MIDNIGHT RUN, too, which is interesting, as that one definitely seems to have been inspired by this one.
Delete(5) There really should be! I almost always sat in the same spot, too, having worked out the pros and cons of every spot in the train car over 10 years of taking the brown line. "In this spot, Bryan took over 70 King books to the brain!" etc. But yeah it was kinda cool to see that whole sequence going through Old Town, as there is a pretty modern-looking school on one side of those tracks now (Walter Payton Regional Prep) and the other side knocked down a lot of Cabrini Green and what not, but it was still quite recognizable of the scenery outside the window every morning.
(6) Why the hell didn't I think of a Blaine the Mono joke for this part! I'm slipping.
(10) All roads lead to CUJO. Which isn't true, but it's kind of a fun idea if it were true. Maybe it IS true, somehow.
(2) I am vastly overdue for a rewatch of "Midnight Run," which I barely remember anything about.
Delete(5) It'd be easy to get overly hippy-dippy about it, but it's pretty damn cool to think of all the imaginative energy the flowed through that one spot on that train over the course of those years. In the "Solar Boat" sense of things, that's GOT to be kind of meaningful. I love it!
(10) Nope, nothing wrong here.