Great movie. What a turn by Ned Beatty from Deliverance to this as well. Also love the sound of the police sirens back then. One of Burt’s best movies.
Too bad Steve McQueen didn't want to be "typecast" as just another road movie actor. He was asked to be in what could have been amazing movies, had he decided to work on them. Instead, without the star power of an A-list actor.... many of those movies became B-list, Drive-in fodder with either no-name actors or worse.... has beens. McQ (besides obvious title implications) was supposed written for McQueen as a sequel to Bullitt. Steve McQueen didn't want to do another Cop/car chase movie and turned it down. It was passed around to a handful of actors who for whatever reasons, turned it down. Eventually, a 65-year-old John Wayne heard about the film and figured it'd be his last chance to star as something else other than a cowboy. I've heard anecdotally that the title and name for the lead character was John Sturges' way of thumbing his nose at Steve McQueen as a "you could have been in this awesome movie but you turned it down" gesture. The film was not a hit, but performed well. Interestingly, Hal Needham also did much of the stuntwork on "McQ".
Most favorite parts of the movie, there’s one scene Burt’s pushing the 4 speed into 1st. Then in another when he stops by his parents home he throws the column shifter into park.😂😂😂😂
Gotta love the attention to detail in this movie. In some scenes you can plainly see the shifter on the column, and you also see him shift from park to drive with that shifter. Yet in other scenes you see him row thru the gears with a Hurst 4 speed shifter.
Seen a car near pigeon forge,tn. Was Burt's personal car collection. The car was 429- 4 speed. He had a trans am . And general Lee also. Cool guy, wish I could of met him.
I love how the car goes from floor shift to column shift and back to floor shift and back to column shift throughout the movie. pay close attention next time you watch it.
The scene where Burt's parked and the sheriff's car flies over him into the river is special because Hal Needham was driving in place of Ned Beatty and if you notice Burt never ducked his head or flinched.
