The Hunter

Plot synopsis:
Ralph "Papa" Thorson (Steve McQueen) is a modern day bounty hunter who hunts down and captures criminals who have skipped on their bail to bring them back for a 20% of the reward to his bailbondsman employer. It is revealed in the opening text that Thorson has has apprehended more than 5,000 criminals and bail jumpers and life is just getting complicated for him.In the opening scene, Thorson arrives in a small, African American town in Texas where despite being a terrible driver of cars (a running joke used throughout the film), he captures fugitive Tommy Price (LaVar Burton) for fleeing on his bail. Next, Thorson drives to another small Texas town where he is to bring in a dangerous punk, named Billie Joe, whose kinfolk include Sheriff Strong, a redneck lawman who warns Thorson not to get involved. Papa ignores him and ends up in a violent fight with the fugitive, who is so huge, even a Taser barely stops him.Thorson drives both Tommy Price and Billie Joe back to Los Angeles where he collect his $1,800 reward for bringing them back. However, Thorson vouches for Price, and thus soon after becomes one of his many acquaintances who hang out at Thorson's house.At home, Thorson is revealed to be an old-fashioned guy who has a love of antiques and classical music, drives a 1950s convertible and keeps an antique gasoline pump in his house. His schoolteacher girlfriend Dotty (Kathryn Harrold) is pregnant and would like "Papa" to be there for her when the baby is born, but his work continually keeps him on the road.Thorson works for elderly and veteran bailbondsman Ritchie Blumenthal (Eli Wallace) who sends him out on dangerous assignments to chase down fugitives in all parts of the USA. However, Throson himself is pursued by a psychotic killer who was one of Thorson's former convicts, Rocco Mason (Tracey Walter) who begins stalking Thorson at his home and begins following Dotty around as well.Thorson's adventures continue when he is sent to rural Nebraska to bring back two fugitives, called the Branch Brothers. He flies out to Nebraska, rents a fancy 1979 Pontiac Trans Am car and drives to the Branch farmhouse where the two psycho brothers steal his car and try to kill him with dynamite. Thorson commandeers a crop cutter machine and chases after the two Branch Brothers through a cornfield which ends when a stick of dynamite dropped by them blows up their car, but they both survives. Thorson arrives back at the local airport to deliver back the destroyed Trans Am and bring the Branch Brothers on the plane back to L.A.Meanwhile, Rocco Mason begins terrorizing Dotty at her workplace which leads Thorson to try to protect her, but she instead tries to make him give up his bounty hunter way of life and to take her to a Lamaze class. Thorson grows tired of it and Dotty threatens to leave him due to his uncertain feelings towards being there for her.When Thorson's police friend Captain Spota (Richard Venture) commits suicide after he is investigated for illegal use of police funds and embezzlement, Thorson goes into a further decline.Blumenthal next sends Thorson to Chicago to pick up fugitive Bernardo (Tom Rosales) a dangerous ex-con which leads to a long chase sequence as Thorson and Bernardo exchange gunfire with each other at an apartment building. Thorson chases Bernardo on foot through the streets and to an elevated train where Thorson is forced to climb on the roof of the train to avoid getting shot at. The chase leads to a high-rise tower where the both steal cars and chase each other to the top level the parking garage, where the psychotic fugitive drives off the edge and plunges several stories into a river to his apparent doom.After returning to Los Angeles that evening, Thorson learns from Price that Dotty has been kidnapped by Rocco Mason and is holding her at the high school where she teaches. Thorson arrives when Mason attempts to kill him with an M-16 assault rifle. Unarmed after being deprived of his weapon, Thorson lures Mason into one classroom where he floods the room with flammable gas where once Mason opens fire, the sparks ignites the gas and blows up the room with Mason in it.Having delt with Mason, Thorson immediately needs to rush Dotty to the hospital when she begins to go into labor. Despite being a terrible driver, he manages to get to the hospital where he collapses exhausted in the lobby area. He comes to in the final scene to walk back outside where Dotty has given birth and he holds his new baby.

Tags: murder, suicidal, humor, comedy, violence

Review:
McQueen's last film before his tragic and untimely death from cancer was this minor but enjoyable action comedy based on the exploits of real life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson.
The small scale, episodic structure and a few plot contrivances sometimes make it feel like a glorified made-for-TV movie (TV veteran Buzz Kulik directed), but Steve is terrific in the role and he's aided by a large and colorful supporting cast.
But the great acting alone from McQueen, good supporting work from LeVar Burton and Eli Wallach, and the great subway chase at the end of the film, certainly raises this film above made for TV fare.
For those who likes comedy there are a few punchlines mixed in plus a scene involving a cornfield a car and a tractor.Steve McQueen gives off a great performance as a "Dirty Harry" type Bounty Hunter.
I was a little disappointed to find out that was Steve McQueen's final movie, he could have done a lot more.
No nasty words about this film, i was in the cinema on it's release and at the end of the film the manager came out to inform everyone {it was a packed house} that Steve McQueen sadly passed away, i still remember that moment 24 years on....the film my not be his greatest but i loved it.........
"Tom Horn," Steve McQueen's second to last feature, would have been a more appropriate swan song for the legendary star than this rather ramshackle production, but this action picture is much better than it is usually given credit for.
There is an almost TV look about it (the director, Buzz Kulik, has amassed more credits for the small screen than he has in theatrical films), but McQueen, looking for all the world like the picture of health (a year after the film was shot, he'd be dead), is terrific and he makes it all worthwhile.
While most action scenes (like the famous Subway Chase) are not dubbed, the movie gets an almost soap opera like touch (barely watchable) when Steve is with his girlfried.
Steve McQueen not only made the movie he demanded that he make THIS movie.Ralph "Poppa" Thorsen is a professional bounty hunter with bad driving skills, a house full of cons, cops, and hanger-ons.
Thrilling film with a spectacular final performance by the legendary Steve McQueen as a modern-day bounty hunter.
Steve McQueen stars the life of bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson, who traveling from one state to another in pursuit of fugitives as he has apprehended more than 5,000 criminals and bail jumpers .
Based on real life of troubleshooter Ralph Thorson (performed three roles on this movie ,he acted as a technical consultant, had written the novel on which it was based, and played a small cameo), well portrayed by Steve McQueen in this movie, Ralph was killed by a car bomb in 1994.Action-filled film contains an uneven plot with familiar drama , thrills ,car races , pursuits and many other things .
Very good acting by Steve McQueen as Thorson , an old-fashioned guy who has a love of antiques , classical music and drives a 1950s convertible .
Furthermore , he filmed some vehicles for notorious actors as Burt Reynods (Shamus) , Lee Marvin (Sergeant Ryker) , Steve McQueen (The hunter) and Pierce Brosnan (Around the world in 80 days) ..
I saw this film several times as a kid and really enjoyed it--seeing it as a 13 year old, it was my introduction to Steve McQueen.
Steve McQueen's last film features him as an aging modern day bounty hunter who drives a crumbling jalopy barely strung together.
The story is based on a real life bounty hunter, Ralph Thorson, who worked as technical adviser on the production, I believe.This film has pretty much always been critically dismissed and, to be sure, it barely has a story line, just a series of incidents, some of them humorous, involved in Thorson's arrest of bail jumpers.
One inside joke for McQueen fans is that in this film his character is a bad driver who can't seem to parallel park without mounting the curb several times and doing damage to the cars around him.The supporting cast includes Eli Wallach, Kathryn Harrold as McQueen's pregnant girlfriend, and Ben Johnson as a good old boy town sheriff who pulls a gun on McQueen to emphasize the fact he wants him out of his town.
I enjoyed the movie, its certainly watchable, but it is hampered by what seems like a made-for-TV look and budget at times (Steve McQueen couldn't get a bigger budget??).
The musical score sucks in the way many 70's and 80's films did, and there's one howlingly ludicrous classroom scene featuring Kathryn Harrold as McQueen's girlfriend.
It was also nice to see him in his final film go full-circle playing a modern equivalent to his break-through role as a bounty hunter in "Wanted:Dead or Alive", which was where I first became a fan of McQueen's.
Steve McQueen's farewell performance in The Hunter is a fine action thriller based on the true story of Ralph 'Pappy' Thorsen, bounty hunter and scourge of bail jumpers everywhere or at least those in and around the Chicago area.It's interesting how the film builds up the level of difficulty of McQueen's cases.
There's a fine action sequence involving pursuit on the Chicago Metro and later in a parking lot with McQueen trying to apprehend Thomas Rosales, Jr. who is one real psycho.
Walter makes Rosales look like Cary Grant, in fact it was the best psycho act since Steve Ihnat in Madigan.Always a pleasure in any film is Eli Wallach, reunited with McQueen from one of McQueen's earliest triumphs in The Magnificent Seven.
Steve McQueen plays Papa Thorson a man who lives in the past with the motto "New things are no Good."  Papa's a bounty hunter who relies on a law from the late1800's that allows anyone to capture those who jump bail (by almost any means necessary).Most of the movie shows Papa tracking down and capturing criminals.
There are some wacky chase scenes -- one involving a Trans Am and a Harvester in a corn field - but most the action is mundane especially compared to McQueen's other films.The movie would have benefited greatly with better effects (explosions, etc), some one liners and stronger characterization.
"The Hunter" is maybe the one time McQueen gave a naturally comic performance on film.Telling someone they drive like Steve McQueen is usually a kind of compliment, but not if you mean the character he plays here, then-modern-day bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson.
He must also deal with his girlfriend's pregnancy, which means taking on dangerous parole violators he'd rather leave to another guy."I'm getting too old for this bleep," he says, coining a phrase later immortalized by the "Lethal Weapon" series of action comedies.Directed by TV veteran Buzz Kulik with much of the texture of a "Rockford Files" episode, including "Rockford" regular Kathryn Harrold playing Dotty the expectant girlfriend, "The Hunter" does struggle with trying to throw in too many dramatic subplots, probably in an effort to showcase McQueen's range.There's a police buddy who's falling apart.
Falling flat especially is a linking sequence featuring a speed freak who's stalking Thorson ("I'm gonna kill Paaaah-paaaah" he says in one ridiculous confrontation scene with Dotty; Tracey Walter has done much better work).But Kulik gets a fine performance out of McQueen, and some nifty action sequences, particularly one on a Chicago el-train and another of Thorson in a cornfield trying to ride down a pair of dynamite-crazy brothers with a Harvester.
McQueen seems to be consciously coming down from his "King of Cool" pedestal; many of the jokes are on him as he's shown to be a stick-in-the-mud spectacles-wearing antique-loving fossil who actually says at one point: "New things are no good." But he inhabits the persona of Thorson in a really cool way, whether he's answering a threatening phone call or reloading his .45.It's fun to see Eli Wallach back in a McQueen film, too, this time as comic relief as a bail loaner who counsels a pair of worried parents: "Can I talk honestly to you?
His part doesn't add up to much, but it's fun watching him pull a gun on Thorson for McQueen's utterly nonchalant reaction.Yes, "The Hunter" feels like a pilot to a TV series rather than a movie, but as madsagittarian noted in another review, it could have been a neat series to watch, particularly if we had had McQueen around for another five years to play the role.
It was all about him doing what he does best(acting real, tough, and yet vulnerable) McQueen is one of the last old school action movie star who possessed such a qualities.
McQueen was perfectly cast as real life bounty hunter, Ralph, papa, Thorson.
It is sad for America that they just don't make them like McQueen anymore, I can only imagine/dream about how he would be developed as an actor if he didn't pass, and yet making The Hunter would be greatest thing for his last standing......
This move also features Old cowboys like Ben Johnson, Eli Wallach (co-star of The Magnificent Seven), beautiful Kathryn Harrold, and TV Roots, LeVar Burton.
Buzz Kulik's The Hunter is a slow moving action flick about America's last bounty hunter played by a tired looking Steve McQueen in his last role.
Most characters are just out of the cardboard cabinet, the acting seems adequate.This said, I have to admit I like the movie's and especially McQueen's relaxed rhythm and the ironic approach to the subject, which is reflected by the unpolished cinematography, the tv like editing and the music.Which brings us to the one oddity of the production that separates it from similar films: the soundtrack.
Like McQueen's acting, the unrushed editing and the slow development of the story (if there's any to speak of) it's totally of the school of cool (rhythm intended).Its main theme with its mixture of elements of Jazz, Blues, Swing and deeply rooted country style gives the movie not only rhythm, it also structures it and keeps it on track through repetition and variation in the transition sequences.
(Note: A late scene briefly discussed in next paragraph)If you go along with this, though,  it's still entertaining to watch Steve McQueen's character chase after his prey with whatever tactics are available.
They succeed in continuing McQueen's image of a popular tough guy of the movies, as in earlier films like "The Great Escape" and "Bullitt".
McQueen is Ralph "Papa"Thorson, a tough but aging bounty hunter traveling thecountryside nailing runaway criminals and bail jumpers.
It's been a long time since I saw Steve McQueen's last film, a sort- of biopic about a real-life "Skip Tracer," also known as a bounty hunter.
It didn't help that it looked and felt like a glorified TV movie, that it felt thrown together, that Kathryn Harrold was pregnant.Would you please stop bringing that up, you sexist piglet?Kulik, a veteran TV director who had crossed back and forth between the little and big screens knew how to craft a good, solid bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese, on screen, that is.
There's nothing really wrong with The Hunter, it's just so inconsequential, so much so that I can't really remember what it was about.There's a crooked detective who wants to kill himself, and he gets talked down by McQueen, Levar Burton is some sort of school kid kid for a human interest angle, Steve drives a beattoshitmobile for the cute angle, he packs a 1911 Colt .45 ACP (for the Dirty Harry angle), and the angles Harrold gets into to get up and down, because she's as big as a house (I'm warning you--bring that up again and I'll tape over your copy of Wild Things!), all making for 90 or so minutes of sitting in an air-conditioned theatre when it's pushing 90 or so outside.
Over time crept into the movies and this movie is one example, though not a good one.Based on the true life story of Bounty Hunter Ralph 'Papa' Thorson, it portrays him as thoroughly human while also have a tough edge.
Steve McQueen plays real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson in this disappointedly routine action film, which would sadly be his final film.
With a lesser actor playing Papa Thorson, "The Hunter" would have long been forgotten, but McQueen makes this film something worth watching.
Eli Wallach, Kathryn Harrold, LeVar Burton, Ben Johnson, and Tracey Walter also appear in the film.
This is how this iconic Steve McQueen (being his last film role) starring vehicle "The Hunter" plays out.
Might seem serious as it does have its lean and mean moments (like the outstandingly long-winded suspenseful train scene), but standing out more so is the offbeat tone making it humorously amusing mainly thanks to McQueen's affably hardy performance and respectably fun support by Eli Wallach.
McQueen's Ralph "Papa" Thorson is an aging modern-day bounty hunter, who doesn't like change but deals with it in his own way and is committed to seeing everything through.
McQueen plays this excellently, with an ironic appreciation of how he was seen before this, his last role(R.I.P.), a Hollywood action(one of the better elements of this, with shoot-outs and chases, vehicular(some of them creative, one takes place in a corn field, another involves a train) and on foot) star.
True, Steve McQueen's final performance is visibly haggard (which in its own negative way kind of suits the character), but this fictionalized account of real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson is compelling viewing.The action sequences I once thrilled to now look rather silly and pedestrian, even though the subway chase is still a grabber.
Today, this film stands out as a fascinating character study about a man out of time.Although McQueen once again plays a bounty hunter (remember his TV series "Wanted Dead or Alive"?), he is refreshingly cast against type as an over-the-hill, cynical, world-weary technical moron.
I'll agree with others here: "The Hunter" may not be the most prestigious film in the career for the late movie star Steve McQueen, but he certainly could have done worse than this.
But this is still reasonably exciting and worth watching for McQueen fans.The movie is a combination character study and action film based on the real life of bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson, played here by McQueen.
Burton, Eli Wallach, Ben Johnson, the lovely Harrold, Walter, and Richard Venture offer fine support; Johnson has a great moment wherein he says to McQueen that he thinks that the two of them were born about a century too late.It is sad watching this knowing of its stars' fate, but still worth seeing for his presence.Seven out of 10..
McQueen plays a bounty hunter that drives an old clunker of car that he can't even park (let alone drive) with any confidence.
I also enjoyed the co-starring performances of Eli Wallach and Levar Burton.The production obviously doesn't compare to the movies of the 90's and latter, but for what is essentially a late 70's movie, this was a Grade A motion picture of the time that moves well and keeps the viewer interested.Special note with it being McQueen's final movie.
This is the legendary Steve McQueen's final film, in which he plays the role of aging bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson.
The late, great, sorely missed tough guy supreme Steve McQueen gives a typically cool, laconic and utterly engaging performance as rugged, but weary modern-day bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson, who goes after dangerous criminals who have skipped bail and has trouble adjusting to an ever-changing world he feels increasingly out of place in.
Unjustly reviled by most critics during its theatrical release, "The Hunter" overall sizes up as an extremely solid and satisfying little ripper that's well worth checking out by both Steve McQueen fans and action movie buffs alike..
Steve McQueen's final film performance as real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson consists of an anthology of chases alternating with his life with family and friends in Chicago and his young girlfriend Dotty (Kathryn Harrold of "Nightwing") who is pregnant with their first child.
For that reason, it seems like a sadly mediocre end to McQueen's career.McQueen had taken a long hiatus from movies in the 1970s (unless you count the bizarre "An Enemy of the People") but returned with two 1980 releases, "The Hunter" and the western film "Tom Horn".
It's a story of a modern bounty hunter (McQueen), his pregnant girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold), and McQueen's efforts to bring the bad guys in.
Steve McQueen's role seems like a pale imitation of his former work, until one realizes that he was dying of cancer at the time of its making, and that the character he portrayed was SUPPOSED to be worn out and past his prime.
Was sorry to learn this was McQueen's final film.May not be an award winner,but liked it better than a lot of what was mainly macho swagger.Loved the scenes with his acting like the worst driver around,and he wasn't!Many familiar faces,Tracy Walter as the psycho,Teddy Wilson as a character I call the Real Coolman,Levar Burton as another runner he (Papa) brings in,Eli Wallach,Ben Johnson as two favorite long-time favorite actors.Katherine Harrold good as his long suffering girlfriend.Solid performances,great chases,comedy.Good film for McQueen to exit the stage on..
Steve McQueen's final film.
This isn't Steve McQueen's greatest film but it is still a lot of fun and amazingly he still had what it took to do an action role even though he was to die of cancer not that long afterwards.
The film is fairly episodic; following bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson as he brings in a variety of bail jumpers.
If you are a fan of Steve McQueen this is obviously a must see film but even if you aren't it is a lot of fun..