The Hunter (1980)

He made his film debut in 1956’s SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, starred as the soft hearted bounty hunter Josh Randall on CBS’s WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE (1958-1961), and became one of Hollywood’s greatest actors with hits like: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968), BULLITT (1968), THE GETAWAY (1972), PAPILLON (1973), and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). Who am I talking about? The King of Cool himself: Steve McQueen, who stars in Director Buzz Kulik’s 1980 action/comedy/thriller THE HUNTER. Based on real-life exploits, the film tells the story of Ralph “Papa” Thorson (McQueen), a professional bounty hunter, going through modern-day life between tracking down bail jumpers, his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, and being pursued himself by a psychotic, revenge-driven killer. The film also stars Eli Wallach (The Magnificent Seven) as bail bondsman Ritchie Blumenthal, Kathryn Harrold (TV’s The Rockford Files, Chicago Hope) as Ralph’s pregnant girlfriend Dotty, LeVar Burton (TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Ralph’s bounty Tommy Price, Tracy Walter (Tim Burton’s Batman) as the psychotic Rocco Mason, stuntman Thomas Rosales, Jr. (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) as Ralph’s Chicago bounty Bernardo, and Academy Award Winner Ben Johnson (1971 – Best Supporting Actor, The Last Picture Show) as Sheriff Strong. Filmed in around Chicago and Los Angeles with an estimated budget of $8,000,000, McQueen was 49 years old when he worked on this movie from September 10th to November 28th, 1979. Sadly it was to be the very last movie he ever did. After the end of filming that year, McQueen was later diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, caused by exposure to asbestos, called Mesothelioma. He died from a cardiac arrest one day after having an operation to remove or reduce several metastatic tumors in his abdomen on November 7th, 1980 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico at the age of 50. THE HUNTER was released four months before his death on August 1st, 1980, grossing over $16,274,150 domestically. As I was watching this film, McQueen was both funny and entertaining to watch as “Papa” Thorson going after all the criminals in this film. I also thought there were some cute moments between him and his girlfriend. One scene to point out that I thought was very frightening was seeing Walter’s character scaring Kathryn Harrold in the school classroom. Being that McQueen was an avid car and motorcycle enthusiast, he came up with the idea of going against his famous car racing abilities and having Papa to be a terrible driver. Watch out for the real life Papa Thorson making a cameo in the film as a bartender, talking to McQueen’s character. As I end this review, Steve McQueen is one of my favorite movie actors and THE HUNTER shows how great this legendary actor did, both heroic and comedic ally, for one last time. GOD BLESS YA, KING OF COOL (1930-1980).