The Hunter

1980
PG
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

7.3K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer3:14

1 Video

99+ Photos

Dark Comedy Action Biography Comedy Crime Drama Thriller

Bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson is receiving death threats from a criminal he helped put away. This while his girlfriend is about to give birth, an event he isn't looking forward to.Bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson is receiving death threats from a criminal he helped put away. This while his girlfriend is about to give birth, an event he isn't looking forward to.Bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson is receiving death threats from a criminal he helped put away. This while his girlfriend is about to give birth, an event he isn't looking forward to.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

7.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Videos1

Trailer 3:14

The Hunter

Photos109

+ 101

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Steve McQueen was diagnosed with cancer the month after filming had ended. He first began to suspect his condition in the autumn of 1979, while he was shooting scenes for this film on location in Chicago.

Goofs
When Papa goes to pick up the Branch Brothers, he gets surprised by a bundle of dynamite with a lit fuse tossed at his feet. As he runs away in slow motion, the dynamite explodes behind him, throwing him into the air and his feet out in front of him as he lands on his back. A second later, grass lands in his face from the explosion behind him, but it comes clearly from the front as if thrown by a crew member.

Quotes
Ralph 'Papa' Thorson: I'm getting too old for this shit.

Alternate versions
The US release features a score by French composer Michel Legrand, one sequence is scored by 'Charles Bernstein'. The European dubbed versions (in French, Spanish, Italian, and German) feature only the music of 'Charles Bernstein'. Omitted in these versions are also the passages of source music from McQueen's/Papa's radio (Opera). The region 1 DVD made by Paramount for the US market features only the American version. The region 2 DVD also made by Paramount, this time for the European market, features both scores: Legrand's score on the English language track, Bernstein's score on the tracks in Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

Connections
Featured in Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge (1989)

Soundtracks
Sempre Libera
from opera "La Traviata"
Composed by Giuseppe Verdi (as Verdi)
Performed by Pamela Hicks

User reviews65

Review

Featured review

7/10

Enjoyable, loose funky McQueen bow-out

"The Hunter" is no masterpiece, certainly, and not on a par with Steve McQueen's classics from the 1960's. But it did showcase a looser, more easy going McQueen and showed a direction he might have gone further in during the 1980's had he lived. Certainly its no worse than a lot of the films Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were churning out in this time period. 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. But its all about McQueen in his final performance really. Fortunately he looks pretty good in this film, at least better than he did in "Tom Horn" and "An Enemy of the People" and he also looks like he was having a pretty good time. 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. He was a true movie star and a man's man and I still miss him.