The Hunter (1980)

Steve McQueen’s final film feels like a script that Burt Reynolds rejected. Much of the film could have been appealing but ends up as a pile of clichés and disconnected plotlines. It’s a very 1970s work comprising a series of vignettes about the protagonist’s bounty hunting exploits. It feels very much like a Hal Needham film, which is why it resembles a Reynolds’ movie or a Roger Moore Bond adventure with its disjointed storytelling.

The Hunter in a biopic based on the experiences of real-life bounty hunter Ralph “Papa” Thorson. The film opens with the very white Thorson showing up in a black neighborhood to catch a black bail jumper played by LaVar Burton. McQueen’s Thorson is a terrible driver who bangs into several vehicles while trying to park in that the neighborhood notably upsetting many of the residents. Hilarious. He is a caveman dropped into a modern world, a relic equipped to take on the dregs of society and bring them to justice. However, the biggest problem for the film is its lack of focus.

Within the plot is a completely unnecessary subplot about the hunter being hunted by a figure from his past, an ex-convict, Rocco Mason (Tracey Walter), whom Thorson was responsible for apprehending. Back home, Thorson has a pregnant girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold) who longs for him to put a ring on her finger. Harrold is given virtually nothing to do in her role as the character except complain and get kidnapped by the vengeful ex-convict.

Had the director Buzz Kulik focused on the exploits of Papa Thorson’s experience in tracking down bail jumpers, the movie would have been tolerable. I imagine that whoever produced the film believed that the whole hunter being hunted subplot was needed to stitch the vignettes together into an appealing plot.

Kulik's background includes a handful of B-movies, but he had mainly directed episodes of television along with several TV movies, the best known of which would be Brian’s Song, that delightfully sappy male bonding film about football, manhood, and friendship with Billy Dee Williams and James Caan. It’s hard to beat Lando Calrissian and Sonny Corleone.

Steve McQueen was an actor with strong screen presence whose earliest recognition came from the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive, which focuses, yes, on the weekly adventures of a bounty hunter. The setting of that show is the old west. The Hunter takes place in a contemporary, late 70s/early 80s, setting. There is certainly symmetry with his early and final roles. However, the knowledge that his performance in The Hunter was his last and not a particularly well-developed part leaves me feeling disheartened because such an important actor deserved a better exit. Still, McQueen is charming as Thorson even if the character doesn’t give him much to do. His understated method and lowkey humor cannot carry this film. As stated, this feels like a rejected Burt Reynolds movie, and that actor’s easygoing not so subtle mugging would have better served this material. That’s not an insult: those qualities made Reynolds lovable. What we loved about McQueen was his effortless coolness that was closer to Clint Eastwood’s style but dialed down a notch.

Unfortunately, The Hunter is not a very good film. What could have been an insightful and humorous depiction of life in a dangerous profession ends up being a misguided action comedy. The Hunter is neither a lost masterpiece nor bad enough to charm your socks off.