The Hunter (1980)

(In French, On TV, May 2019) Steve MacQueen lived fast and died young at 50, after a mere twenty-three-year career as a leading man. The Hunter has the distinction of being the last film he did before his death from a drawn-out battle with cancer. He’s clearly older here than in the roles that made him famous, and the age is part of the point: Showcasing an older bounty hunter protagonist, The Hunter blends action and light comedy even from the first few scenes. Largely episodic in nature, the film takes us from one bounty-hunting assignment to another, in between domestic scenes showing the protagonist’s unusual lifestyle (but “cool”—because MacQueen), his struggles being an expectant father and a psychotic stalker taking aim at his pregnant girlfriend. The bounty-hunting episodes are far more entertaining than the more grounded and suspenseful domestic material: The farm combine sequence is a highlight, as is an extended chase in downtown Chicago that culminates with a car driving off the corncob Marina towers into the Chicago River. Too scattered to be wholly effective, The Hunter nonetheless has a few good action beats, and offers a glimpse into what kind of actor Steve MacQueen could have been had he lived longer: he clearly wasn’t going to let age make him look any less cool.