Movie Review: The Hunter (1980) directed by Buzz Kulik
Frank “Papa” Thorson (Steve McQueen) is an old-fashioned kind of guy. He collects antique tin toys, struggles to show his emotions, and is a bounty hunter, going after those who have jumped bail to bring them back–usually alive–for a reward. Right now, he seriously needs the money because his lover, schoolteacher Dotty (Kathryn Harrold) is heavily pregnant with their child. Some pickups, like electronics repairman Tommy Price (Levar Burton), are easy. Others, like the murderous Bernardo (Thomas Rosales, Jr.) are deadly. But even with his body rapidly aging and the past coming back to haunt him, this is the only work Papa knows how to do.
This was the last Steve McQueen movie, as he passed away from cancer a few months later. Knowing this makes his performance as a man who is “getting too old for this shit,” feel especially poignant. Papa has spent too long dealing with the underbelly of society, which has given him a jaundiced view of modern civilization. One character suggests that perhaps he was born in the wrong century, but Papa seems more comfortable with the Thirties or Forties, when he was young and idealistic. The story is loosely based on a book about the real life bounty hunter of the same name, so how much of this is straight out of that person’s experiences is debatable.
The movie depicts Papa as not a good driver, and being particularly bad at parallel parking. (Playing against type for professional driver McQueen.) He does have a soft heart under his hard, bitter shell–Papa quickly figures out that Tommy is basically a good kid who made mistakes and gives him advice, and a job. Several of his friends (who seem to be former bounties) use his house frequently for poker games, and he means well by his future child, even if he shows it by accepting dangerous assignments for money.
Ritchie Blumenthal (Eli Wallach) is Papa’s primary employer, a bail bondsman who would rather pay rewards for skippers than have to collect on the collateral that relatives or friends of the skippers put up. “I already own two restaurants.” He’s a businessman, and that affects his behavior and personality, but also cares about Papa as a person and wants him and Dotty to be happy.
Violent drug addict Rocco Mason (Tracey Walter) is here primarily to supply a through line for the various chapters of Papa’s story. He has a grudge against the bounty hunter for the last time he was brought in, and stalks both Papa and Dotty before abducting the latter towards the end of the movie to force a showdown. He’s not a deep character, more of a walking plot device exploiting the fear of crazy/doped up people.
There’s a couple of good chase scenes, one between a Trans Am and a harvester in a Nebraska corn field, and another involving roof hopping, the Chicago transit system and a spectacular finish in a parking high-rise.
After the explosive conclusion to the Mason arc, the movie ends on a more hopeful coda as Papa, a father at last, holds his newborn child.
Content note: Quite a bit of violence, some fatal. An off-screen suicide. Abortion is discussed. Extramarital sex, off camera. Children in peril. Alcohol abuse, some rough language. Older teens should be able to handle it, possibly with adult supervision.
This isn’t one of the best McQueen movies, but it’s solid, and a decent sendoff for one of the iconic actors. Well worth finding and watching if you like Steve McQueen or a very young Levar Burton.
