Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 21, 2023

Mark Steven Johnson's "Finding Steve McQueen" (2019) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Momentum Pictures/Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the release is a podcast that examines the history of the United California Bank heist. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Some portions of the story that is told in Mark Steven Johnson’s Finding Steve McQueen are true. The key word here is some because they are pretty small.

In 1972, a gang of thieves from Youngstown, Ohio traveled to Laguna Nigel, California to steal $30 million of dirty money that they believed belonged to President Richard Nixon. Their target was the United California Bank, not the largest bank in the area but not a small bank either. The thieves rented a vacation home near the bank and waited until the weekend. At the right time, they disabled the bank’s alarm system with liquid styrofoam and then drilled a large hole through the concrete roof. Over the course of two days, the thieves managed to break open hundreds of different deposit boxes that contained jewelry and plenty of cash. The loot was smuggled back to the vacation home, carefully packaged, and then successfully transported to Youngstown. At the time, the United California Bank heist was the largest in U.S. history. However, FBI agents were able to quickly track down the thieves after they discovered several plates with near-perfect fingerprints at the vacation home.

All of the above did happen almost exactly as described, but Finding Steve McQueen adds plenty more to it that did not.

Hundreds of miles away from California, Harry Barber (Travis Fimmel) meets his girlfriend Molly Murphy (Rachael Taylor) in a small café and begins telling her that the man she has fallen in love with is a total stranger who has lied to her for quite some time. While they are waiting for her father, a veteran sheriff, to arrest him, Barber then reconstructs his past with the thieves and reveals how they robbed the United California Bank. At first, Murphy refuses to believe him, but then gradually changes her mind and vows to continue loving him.

The bulk of Barber’s recollections are the type of genre material that produces the humor in Marty Scorsese’s classic gangster films but without the wit. Some of this material also places a greater emphasis on the evolution of the romantic relationship between Barber and Murphy, which is pretty ordinary. Unsurprisingly, from time to time it begins to feel like Finding Steve McQueen is not entirely comfortable with its genre identity.

William Fichtner, Louis Lombardi, Rhys Coiro, and Jake Weary play the remaining members of the gang, while Forest Whitaker is the FBI’s main man in the area who must figure out their identities. These actors do not give award-winning performances but look good before the camera and make it easy to enjoy the film. However, Ken Hixon and Keith Sharon’s screenplay demands that they act in a film that wants to be cool and stylish, rather than a film that wants to accurately tell a true story.

It is possible that this might have been the only way to make a film about the United California Bank heist, but it seems unlikely. Johnson directs with the awareness of a man who knows the limitations of the production and does the best he can to maximize the resources that were made available to him. This is why Finding Steve McQueen can never be seen as anything else but a small independent film with a predetermined potential.

A couple of terrific classic tunes can be heard while Barber goes down memory lane: Eddie Rabbitt’s “Drivin’ My Life Away”, The Edgar Winter Group’s “Free Ride”, and T.Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”.

*Before the end credits appear, it is revealed what happened to the real Harry Barber. After he was caught, he was sentenced to seven years for bank burglary. A letter written by the sheriff and signed by the townspeople testified to his character and helped reduce his sentence to three years. At present, he is a handyman living in Southern California. Steve McQueen remains his favorite actor.

Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Finding Steve McQueen arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Momentum Pictures/Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

The entire film has the appearance of a contemporary all-digital production. It boasts very sharp and clean visuals with often impeccable depth. It has a stable, very nicely balanced color scheme as well. However, it is difficult not to speculate how much better the film would have looked if it was shot during the 1970s or 1980s because it would have had a very different organic appearance. I think that a lot of the period material in it begs to have precisely that type of appearance, too. Image stability is outstanding. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I am quite certain that the film has an all-digital soundtrack, so the 5.1 track should be an excellent replica of it. The dialog is very clear, very sharp, and always nicely balanced. There isn't a lot of high-octane action that produces outstanding dynamic contrasts. Only the short chase footage has a few special moments. I did not encounter any anomalies to report in our review.

Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Podcast - this podcat, which examines the real heist that inspired Finding Steve McQueen, was produced by the Southern California Group and reporter Keith Sharon. It features content with one of the guys that participated in the heist. In English, not subtitled. (34 min).

Finding Steve McQueen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Someone should have made a big film about the United California Bank heist during the 1980s, maybe even the 1990s. While I had a pretty good time with Finding Steve McQueen when its final credits rolled on my screen, I did not feel that it told the story of the Youngstown thieves as convincingly as it should have. I have researched this story quite a bit, and it is very, very good, possibly even brilliant, because what the thieves did and how they got caught is borderline surreal. I do not think that Travis Fimmel was the right actor to play Harry Barber either because he frequently transitions into a different romantic film where a lot is carefully scripted and does not look organic. William Fichtner and Louis Lombardi kept me entertained, but I expected more. If you decide to check out Finding Steve McQueen, I suggest you take a look at Bandit as well. RECOMMENDED.