The legendary Steve McQueen stars as Doc McCoy, a master thief, in this intense cinematic excursion based on the novel by Jim Thompson. In order to be released from prison after serving four years, McCoy offers his unique services to the local political boss. McCoy is then hired to execute a bank robbery, but when the heist goes sour, it sends Doc and his wife (MacGraw) on the run through Texas in an attempt to reach Mexico.
Special features include commentary with Nick Redman and Authors Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle; a 30-minute Main Title 1M1 Jerry Fielding, Sam Peckinpah And The Getaway featurette; a 1972 Reel 1'Virtual' audio commentary with stills featuring Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, and Sam Peckinpah; The Bank Robbery Sequence with the alternate Jerry Fielding soundtrack; trailers; and the audio-only isolated score.
While the color scheme heavily favors earthy browns and golds, the 2.35:1 Blu-ray Disc and VC-1-encoded HD DVD look very good considering the age of the original film. The source material is cleaned up well, and contrast is well rendered. Color fidelity shows some signs of aging, but is surprisingly well saturated. Details are captured well, but are not quite as well resolved as newer high-definition releases. There are times when the image can be rather soft, but, for the most part, this is an impressive release on both formats. (Danny Richelieu)
The HD DVD's Dolby® Digital Plus 1.0-channel mono encoding and the Blu-ray Disc's Dolby Digital encoding sound rather similar, with slightly dated fidelity and dimensionless presence. The noise floor is surprisingly low. While music and effects can sound distorted, this is still an adequate soundtrack. (Danny Richelieu)