MovieChat Forums > The Getaway (1972) Discussion > The Book ( Spoilers! )

The Book ( Spoilers! )

posted 15 years ago by twelveboar
6 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers for those who haven't read the book.

I've just finished the Jim Thompson book and I've gotta say I'm pretty perplexed. While it's been a long time since I saw either version of The Getaway I cannot remember either having the hallucinatory hell that was the finale of the book. I recall Carol and Doc's fractured companionship is a theme running through the films, but don't they both end in some shotgun shootout and clean break at the end? I was hoping a the pulp-crime shootout with Rudy in the book- not the metaphorical/metaphysical purgatory of El Rey.

Christ, it was like reading Jaws all over again.

Um. Any thoughts?

[–] lackery 14 years ago

I'd of gone with the Thompson ending all the way it's what the pair of them deserved, a couple of psychopathic killers unable to escape their supposed sanctuary of distrust and forced compliance to a haven of criminals - talk about victims of there own system.

Thompson got it right it's twisted but then that's what we have to expect when we read the most provocative crime writer the genre has ever known but yet he defies genre typecasting with exactly the type of ending he gives us in the book The Getaway.

Of course you have McQueen on your side he wanted it changed and got his way I wonder what Peckinpah's private thoughts on this were? Would he have given the McCoys there final hurrah or sent them to their own living hell? Emm.........

Just one more thing after reading the book you realise what a cold pair these two are, something that was distilled in the film so I thought the ending of the film was good and suited Peckinpah's adaptation if we had seen the Thompson McCoys the shoot-out ending would of been weak and an insufficient denouement for the pair because in the end with a couple like this something has to give, you just can't carry on with the amount of paranoia and distrust these two had for each other.

[–] bradjanet 14 years ago

If only either director had had the courage to do the weird and unforgettable ending in the book, they might have made a classic instead of a cliche fest.

But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.

[–] twelveboar 14 years ago

Thanks for the replies. The Getaway is only the second Thompson book I've read, after The Grifters. I've gotta admit the feel of the book is A LOT colder than that of the films ( which play more like a modern westerns ). In the very start of the book, Doc kills the bank guard in cold, premeditated murder- something he never really does in the film. Maybe El Rey is their just desserts.

Who knows, maybe one day someone will do an entirely faithful adaptation... But I kinda doubt it.

[–] nicoroni 14 years ago

"I've just finished the Jim Thompson book and I've gotta say I'm pretty perplexed. While it's been a long time since I saw either version of The Getaway I cannot remember either having the hallucinatory hell that was the finale of the book."

i too just finished it,and i only read it because i'd just finished a biography of steve mcqueen and it mentioned the book and how peckinpah did the ending as written ,but the studio had him change it because it was so bleak

i just ordered the dvd because i probably haven't seen it since the theater

ot
the author of the biography,darwin porter,claims mcqueen(and a whole lot of other stars of his era) was secretly gay and simultaneously homophobic
mighty bizarre

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[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 14 years ago

Good thread...I saw it the other day but held off reading it until I could finish the book, which I did today, and I'm glad I did because....the ending - WOW!

I'd love to see the footage Peckinpah supposedly shot of the book's ending! 'The Getaway' is the first Thompson I've read - it was the only one my library had, so it was the one I got to first (I just bought about 10 others, one of which I'll start tomorrow, probably 'The Killer Inside Me'). 'The Getaway' is called nihilistic, among other things, and it may be, but there's a (twisted?) morality to it. The innocent people killed by Doc, the main protagonist, was jarring, and I'd guess it was uncommon, when the book was written, for a protagonist, a "hero", to do such things. I found it especially sad, or bleak, when he kills the salesman, who did absolutely NOTHING to deserve being shot in the face. I guess I don't remember a lot about the movies, which is why I'm about to watch both versions again, but I seem to remember all the really distasteful things being done by the Rudy character...not so in the book, and thank god for that. But Thompson punishes Doc and Carol, and I swear I didn't see what happens in the last 16 pages coming! There were little hints along the way, looking back - Doc is called "a hell of a guy" a lot, for one thing. But Thompson really does it in style! How 'bout Gaglioni, and the place he lived in(the place AFTER El Rey)! SHOCKING! And about Doc and Carol getting their just desserts: When he's on the way to the border, Doc can hear snatches of laughter from cars headed to Tijuana, and Thompson writes the one-line paragraph "People who had EARNED their good time". Thompson tells you not to get confused: Doc and Carol are NOT heroes. The line foreshadows the scene where the carabinero explains to Doc how the village at the very end was such a fitting ending for people like him...who live off other humans (If you have not read it, please do...you'll see why I said "humans" and not "people". But I suppose there won't be many here who haven't read it).

I'm excited, sorry if I rambled incoherently...but I loved this book! One last note: I mentioned how, looking back, there were "hints" at how they might wind up in (their own version of) hell; well, I don't know if I'd call it a hint per se, but what do any of you make of Ma Santis? She's like a ghost or some other supernatural figure. She just happens to find Doc and Carol in that cab! And it seems like she may be funneling people to El Rey...she sure knew not to go there herself! Any thoughts?

"How do you feel?"
"Like the Kling-Klang King of the Rim-Ram Room!"

[–] silverkid 14 years ago

How does the book end? I'm genuinely interested in this "hallucinatory hell" conclusion. The ending to the movie was obviously very sugar coated.

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