Steve McQueen - Essence of Cool

I recently got into Steve McQueen films and have been watching a bunch of them this week. I wonder if any other people on this board are Steve McQueen fans? He makes great action/drama films. So far, I've seen

Bullitt - Good action. It's not a flashy action movie, but a more realistic approach to film violence. I like how the secondary story suddenly becomes the main story.

The Cincinnati Kid - McQueen plays a poker player who has a chance to play one of the greats. Great cast. Nice music. Good twist ending.

The Getaway - Bank heist and chase film. It's a movie where the villians are the heroes.

Papillon - great escape film. Good locations. Supporting cast Dustin Hoffman is good.

Tom Horn - a western, but not a standard one. There's no "shootout at high noon" here. Great locations, and good character actors. One of McQueen's best.

The Great Escape - A classic. Loosly based on real life events in a WWII POW came where a joint American/British tesms dig underground to escape.

 

You should see "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Thomas Crown Affair", too.

McQueen is the essence of 'movie star'. He was not much of an actor, but few cared. The camera loved him.

 

^Agreed. He just had that look about him. You really believed him in his roles. I'll definatly check out those two films. I understand he even did a western TV series that's coming out on DVD soon.

 

This thread title would make a good name for a brand of aftershave.

 

I believe it's called "Wanted: Dead or Alive"

When you see "The Magnificent Seven" watch how he steals scenes from Yul Brynner. Particularly obvious in the opening sequence, where he rides shotgun on a hearse. He's shaking cartridges, etc. behind Brynner's back. Brynner was livid when he saw the footage, but it stayed in.

 

Well,he doesn't have the moniker "king of cool" for nothing. Yeah, as stated above he was not a great actor but he had a charisma that is in very short supply these days.

The Great Escape
The Magnificient Seven
Bullitt
The Getaway
The Thomas Crown Affair
Papillon (sp)

Good movies....

 

Not a great actor? Didn't he win an Oscar for his role in The Sand Peebles?

 

Never won an Oscar.

 

He was a student of Bruce Lees' Jeet Kune Do if that helps his coolness any. Ive actually heard that in real life he was an unbearable ***hole and beat the crap out of his wife quite a bit, but on the silver screen I guess he was pretty cool.

 

McQueen had a difficult life; his father abandoned him; he hated his stepfather, and ran away from home. He spent time in the Boy's Republic (i.e. Boy's Town), and supported it later in life.

Yes, he often behaved badly, and refused to appear in several movies because he didn't get top billing ("Butch Cassidy" for one). OTOH, he once showed up, heavily bearded, for an open call for motorcycle riders in a movie, and appeared without credit.

Nobody's ever consistent, eh?

 

No certainly not. He was definetely a haunted and tragic real life person. All these loner, enigmatic types seem to be - McQueen, Clift, Dean, River Phoenix, Brando, Cassavetes - to name a few. Its like they cant get out of there own way.

 

For one reason or another Steve McQueen is a star who hasn't survived in the public's eye. He is someone that each new generation has to discover on their own. He isn't anywhere near the icon of a James Dean or Marlon Brando, but for a generation of movie goers he was the epitome of cool. Every now & then you can catch some mention of him: Sheryl Crow has a song about him, he's Homer Simpson's hero, Mustang used his image in a commercial a while back. Fellow actor friend James Coburn talked about a friendly rivalry between him and Bruce Lee. He said both men wanted what the other one had. Lee wanted Coburn's popularity & stardom and McQueen wanted to be the physical specimen & fighter that Bruce Lee was.

 

I'd never heard of Steve McQueen until the Sheryl Crow song (like Django211 mentioned). But after that, I saw some of his movies - the one I remember the most is The Great Escape - and had new respect for him. It's a shame he's no longer alive.

 

Steve McQueen was an excellent actor IMO - I've pretty much loved every movie he was in - particularly The Great Escape and The Towring Inferno.

 

I love Steve McQueen, my favourite movie is 'The Great Escape' he was a brilliant mix of cool and human and his reactions to the British escape is just hilarious. He had so much potential.

 

Steve McQueen > everyone else.


Except maybe Eastwood.


With my dad, I was raised on old car movies, WW2 & westerns with both of those guys in them.

 

He was only 50 when he died, of a rare form of cancer generally caused by asbestos exposure. His first wife said he used to put a rag soaked in asbestos over his face when he raced cars.

 

I didn't know that Zaz, man, that is terrible.

This thread is especially interesting to me because in the last few months, I've been watching some McQueen pictures, and I agree he is
the "essence of cool." Compare his on-screen presence to some of
the so-called Stars of Today (Mark Wahlberg comes to mind) and it's not
even a contest. He just had "it." I also have heard he was a real creep in real life, and I think that's undoubtedly due to his early life, which is a shame. Yet I think it imbued him with something too, that's uniquely him.

I saw a documentary on cable about him recently (that's one of the reasons I got interested in his films) and his co-workers said he worked very hard at his craft, particularly movement. He would spend an hour getting into a car over and over again, so that when it was filmed the movement was absolutely smooth and graceful.

I've enjoyed the Great Escape (of course), Bullitt (loved his driving),
Nevada Smith and the Sand Pepples. I saw Papillon long ago, plan to see it again as well as more of his films.

There's an absolutely GREAT story on the Close Encounters of the Third King Special Edition DVD about Steven Spielberg attempting to hire Steve McQueen to play the Dreyfuss role in Close Encounters. Spielberg and McQueen met to discuss the role in a bar and it's hilarious. Worth checking out.

 

Excellent legend of Hollywood, love many of the films mentioned. I would like to add Hell Is For Heros and Junior Bonner. Great films.

Been meaning to see The Reivers, has anyone seen this one? And your thoughts?

 

No, but I'd love to see it; heard it's good.

But very obscure.

 

"The Cooler King" Great Actor.

I love his role in The Great Escape. I love that movie.

 

The Great Escape is a great movie! Very enjoyable to watch.

And as someone mentioned above, was interesting to see him "steal the show" from Yul. There is one scene when they are crossing a river and each rider does something unusual to outdo the last. Brilliant!

 

Turner Classic Movies is showing the documentary about Steve McQueen called "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool (2004)" on Friday night, along with several of his more obscure movies, including "The Blob", "The Honeymoon Machine", "Hell is for Heroes", "Never So Few" and "The Cincinnati Kid."

 

That reminds me of "The Great Escape", when the three are drinking the booze made from the potatos.

 

In The Magnificent Seven everyone was trying to steal scenes from Brenner. However it was McQueen that got the warning from Brenner that all he had to do was take off his hat and everyone would go back to watching him.

BTW that documentary is on the DVD for Bullitt and it gives a lot of information about McQueen. I highly recommend it to McQueen fans.