I lied.
The Hunter is not cinematic storytelling.
It feels and looks like a movie of the week made for TV.
It’s barely storytelling.
It’s a few action scenes somewhat connected to scenes of Steve McQueen doing the funny in unconvincing ways that impress the dishonesty of the movie on the viewer. Steve is a bounty hunter who is a bad driver, attends Lamaze classes with his wife, and owns antique toys.
Steve’s final film is a sad note to end the career of the King of Cool.
Steve went off brand for his final film.
Steve wanted to act, instead of just being.
By acting I mean his screen presence. Steve was more of a vibe, a mood, than actual thespian talent.
Steve was cinematic.
His antihero persona came along at a perfect time to match the counterculture of the 1960s. His cool blue eyes and no-nonsense attitude, projected through action instead of stated through dialogue, was a jolt of awesomeness to young people of that era. It translated to box office success, multiple Oscar nominations, the beginning of stars doing their own stunts, and Steve becoming the highest paid actor of his time.
It’s tempting to say it was the cancer that was interfering with his acting abilities in The Hunter, but he wouldn’t be diagnosed with pleural mesiothelioma till December 1979.
The shoot for The Hunter had wrapped in October 1979.
Steve had quit smoking years before the diagnosis.
It‘d be more accurate to say that Steve was undergoing an identity crisis.
Roger Ebert, in his review of The Hunter, noticed that after 1974’s The Towering Inferno, Steve made some erratic choices,such as 1976’s An Enemy of the People, 1980s Tom Horn and The Hunter, after having passed on multi-million dollar offer roles more in line with Steve’s temper and personality.
Ebert wrote in his review of The Hunter, “Sometimes the only way to retain your mystique is to retire.”
Perhaps mercifully, cancer retired him.
Had Steve continued on the path he was headed, we would have gotten more confused, more dishonest, more embarrassing roles from the once King of Cool.
As it is, thanks to the limited use of Steve’s likeness in licensing and his own increasing withdrawal from the big screen, Steve’s allure and mystique continue.
The situation reminds me of a straight-to-video film titled Action USA.
The VHS cover is honest.
The slogan at the back of the VHS box says “Made by stuntmen, for stuntmen.”
A bare thread plot about stolen jewels becomes an excuse for stunt people to engage in high speed car chases, jumping out of exploding buildings, bar fights, and many other high adrenaline shenanigans.
The separate elements that make up a brand have to be in harmony with each other.
Tom Cruise’s career arc reflects this. The actor that once sought dramas has now completely dedicated himself to action movies and controlling all the production aspects of Mission Impossible franchise, and his latter day box office is an indicator of the harmony of his brand.
In contrast to this, The Walt Disney Company. A multi-media company once dedicated to wholesome, family friendly entertainment, now caters to fringe identity politics groups and produces entertainment through their many acquisitions that favors diversity and representation over quality storytelling.
Look up their stock prize drop, their proxy wars to remove current CEO Bob Iger, their decreasing public attendance in their theme parks, and their significant decline in box.
Like Steve McQueen, Disney is a brand in conflict with itself.
A divided house if you will.
In Steve’s unfortunate case, a dark fate intervened to preserve his brand.
What will happen to Disney’s brand if they continue in the direction they are headed?
McQueen was quite the icon. RIP. As for The Hunter, well, we all make mistakes.
As long as the film and television animation divisions survive that coming bloodbath, I will be satisfied.