4th of July With Steve McQueen

  To celebrate the 4th of July, here's one of my favorite pictures of Steve McQueen. A great combination of patriotism and coolness/insolence.

  And here's Steve, James Garner and Jud Taylor celebrating the Spirit of '76 with Yankee Doodle and some moonshine in John Struges's The Great Escape from 1963.

Steve McQueen & His 12 Gauge Shotgun - The Getaway 1972

   Steve McQueen as "Doc" McCoy in Sam Peckinpah's 1972 heist classic The Getaway. Noticing the police checking out his car, McQueen heads into a nearby gun shop, steals a 12 gauge shotgun (plus has it wrapped up "to go") and then uses it to totally destroy a police car. A great film and one on my favorites of both Peckinpah & McQueen. One of the (many) cool things about McQueen was that in his movies he always handled guns like "real" guns, not just props.
  IMO the only thing that lets this down is the performance of Ali McGraw in the female lead as McQueen's girlfriend. Supposedly Sam wanted Tuesday Weld (which would have been interesting) and Karen Black was also considered. Also featuring Al Lattieri in a great psycho role who takes Sally Struthers (All in the Family) & Jack Dodson (Andy Griffith) captive and embarks on the road trip from hell while pursuing McQueen.