The Kingdom of Shadows

One thing you have to admire about Steve McQueen movies, is how little they generally have to do with the original historical subject that they portray. While I'm not necessarily certain that makes the films better, it does give credence to the force of Steve McQueen's personality.

I should be more committal. This film turned an interesting portrait of a real life person, into schlock during approximately the last 20 minutes of the film. The rest of the film is quite nice. Despite the fact that Lavar Burton was just thrown in the film for the hell of it (McQueen liked him), and the guy who the story was based on said that the film did not in any way resemble his life, the story holds together largely because its a movie about McQueen's stage persona. The most enjoyable thing about the film is watching McQueen drive poorly (you can tell he's enjoying it a lot, and he still looks like he's driving poorly really well), and seeing him take everything in stride, like McQueen does in all of his other movies.

I suggest watching the film, but turning the movie off right after the big car chase scene (the bad guy drives off a building into the river, then press stop), it quickly degenerates into absurd cheesiness, that can only leave you feeling depressed about the last 20 minutes that McQueen gave us to remember him by.

Buy the Hunter here