It remains one of the pinnacle political periods of American history – and in a new comedy drama which focuses on the biggest heist to date in American history, we return to the oft-told period.
FINDING STEVE MCQUEEN is the account of the events surrounding March 24th, 1972 when a group of men from Youngstown, Ohio, headed to a bank in California and attempted to steal $30m from then-President Richard Nixon’s funds at a time when the Watergate scandal was breaking thanks to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
For Harry Barber (Travis Fimmel), he and his group, including leader Enzo Rotella (William Fichtner), the goal is the bank to try and prove a point and determine who is the bigger crook. The film opens in 1980 when Barber is on the run from the FBI and openly admitting to his then girlfriend Molly Murphy (Rachael Taylor) that he is not who he is, posing as his favourite actor McQueen and also under the alias of John Baker. Murphy is the daughter of a town sheriff and inevitably truth has to come out.
Barber then recounts the events of the heist and the ambition of the group, pursued in part by a local agent (Forest Whittaker) who comes on the scene after the events have taken place…
With echoes of Robert Redford’s retirement role in THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN, FINDING STEVE MCQUEEN is a cute and rather pacifist heist film, with very little violence a la HEAT. It is more of a character study, but given the significance of the event, one hoped for a lot more broader analysis of the effect that this heist had on the people and the world around it, given that it remains the biggest in history.
It’s watchable nonetheless, with a great performance from Taylor, who reminds one of a young Sharon Stone.
