I Am Steve McQueen (2014) User Reviews

Steve deserved better

[HrutkaPal · 6/10 · 18 July 2018]

As my favourite actor, I'm always interested in seeing retrospectives on his life, even though mostly I'm aware of his biography.

Interviews with his son and his ex-wives surely show an insight of his life as close as possible. Problem is, when like 1/3 of the movie is filled with talking heads, which have nothing to say. People like Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman might be classic actors, but never met McQueen. Gets even more absurd, when models like Marisa Miller or Zoe Bell talk about him. I honeslty hardly believe they watched more than 4 films of him,so what do I care about them talking about Steve?

Even bigger problem is what they talk, because it's as cliché as it might get. "He was the coolest / Nothing beats him / He wants to be the #1. / If you have 2 people on the screen, everyone watched McQueen etc. "

Get film historians, directors to talk about him, not some people, who might look good on the IMDB page, but have nothing to say.

Also his filmography was very rushed. We all know, his passion for racing was immense, but for me, it got way bigger screen-time as needed.

There are better documentaries about McQueen out there, watch this at the end.

I Am Steve McQueen

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 18 July 2021]

This was part of a trend of TV-made documentary films from Network Entertainment celebrating popular movie stars who passed away too soon. Basically, this film looks back at the life and career of American actor Steve McQueen, aka the "King of Cool". Friends and family that knew him best talk about his early and popular films and his roles, his relationships, his personal interests, and his sad death in 1980 from a heart attack. With clips and discussions of his films, including: Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958) (TV series), The Blob (1958), The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Sand Pebbles (1966) (Oscar nominated), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), Le Mans (1971), On Any Sunday (1971), The Getaway (1972), Papillon (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), and Tom Horn (1980). It also goes into detail about his interest in fast cars (many models of his are worth millions today), car and speed racing, his difficulties with actors and filmmakers, and his many relationships. Narrated by Robert Downey Jr., with contributions from Zoë Bell, Pierce Brosnan, Norman Jewison, Chad McQueen (Steve's son), Molly McQueen (Steve's granddaughter), Neile Adams McQueen (Steve's former wife), Barbara Minty McQueen (Steve's widow), Steven R. McQueen (Steve's grandson), Ali MacGraw (Steve's former wife), Gary Oldman and Robert Vaughn. It is a shame that McQueen died aged only 50, but this makes you appreciate how good an actor and an icon he was, it is an interesting documentary. Good!

Good For McQueen Fans; However...

[Easygoer10 · 7/10 · 4 May 2021]

(May 4, 2021) As a massive fan of Steve McQueen when I was growing up (and still am), I enjoyed watching this film. However, many people will not like it. I'll make it simple. Pros: It has hard to find family film footage, interviews with contemporaries like friends, actors, directors, media reviews, his 3 wives, his son and many things I wasn't aware of. Cons: It has numerous interviews with actors who are fans like me and goes too far with comments about how cool he was (which are true). This is not interesting to people who weren't alive at the time. He was not the greatest actor in the world. However, in addition to attending the Actor's Studio, he experimented with cameras to see what worked the best. He also chose roles very carefully; those which fit his personality and life experiences. What I do know is this: He had enormous screen presence, sexuality, physicality and charisma. Not like a Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise (who are both terrific actors). There is no actor today as iconic as McQueen was in his day. In the 40+ years since he died, there is no one who can (or could) communicate what he was thinking and feeling without speaking as well as he did. He used his face, body language and (especially) his eyes. In short, better communication with less dialogue. Director Robert Wise said McQueen could do more with a prop than any other actor he ever saw. Considering Mr. Wise's entire body of work, that is colossal praise. It is also true. I think Ali MacGraw (his second wife), described him the best: "Every man wanted to be like him, every woman wanted to sleep with him, and every kid wanted to be mentored by him."

Very Good Look at What Made McQueen

[Michael_Elliott · 6 June 2015]

I Am Steve McQueen (2014)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining documentary taking a look at the man Steve McQueen and the movie star Steve McQueen. This documentary tries to show people what made McQueen so special to so many people and what impact his early death had on them. We get a lot of interviews here with his friends, admirers and even his children and grandchildren. Among the people interviewed are Ali MacGraw, Norman Jewison, Katherine Haber, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Zoe Bell, Robert Vaughn, Ben Mankiewicz and Chad McQueen.

If you're a fan of McQueen then you're certainly going to want to watch this documentary narrated by Robert Downey, Jr.. I think fans of the actor are going to enjoy hearing all of these stories from some of the people who were the closest to him because they give you a great idea of what the actor was like away from the camera. At the same time, those unfamiliar with the actor are probably going to be the ones most entertained by this because it really does give them a great explanation as to why McQueen has become an icon. There are clips shown from all of his major movies and we hear about his love of doing stunts as well as his need for speed. His racing career also gets a lot of screen time.

I AM STEVE MCQUEEN is certainly a highly entertaining film that manages to show what made the actor so special.

he was so cool, yes, really, very, very, very cool

[christophspielberger · 1/10 · 13 July 2018]

For everyone who likes Steve McQueen, this film is a giant pain in the a**. A random bunch of people reruns for 90 minutes the same message over and over again, how Mc Queen was so cool, the best, so cool, the hardest, so cool, the most lustful, the king of cool. Hectically narrated, with nonmusical editing, this flimflam looks like a extended king of cool- commercial gone wrong.

I Am Steve McQueen

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 2 February 2020]

If you took a swig of the hard stuff each time someone mentioned how cool Steve McQueen was in this documentary. Your liver would give up by the time this documentary finished.

Produced in conjunction with the McQueen family. This was a hagiography. Steve McQueen was cool, he loved racing. His son Chad mentioned the drug taking, no one mentioned his bad temper and the wife bashing although his first wife came close. Not cool.

You have McQueen's grandchildren telling the viewer how wonderful he was. They were all born after he died. They never met their grandfather and this was only alluded to at the end of the documentary.

McQueen was a star, he made some great films. I remember being shocked as a kid when he died. I thought guys like Steve McQueen do not die at the age of 50.

I thought this would be an examination of McQueen and his movies. Norman Jewison had directed him. Robert Vaughn had appeared with him in several films and they contribute here. Actors such as Gary Oldman and Pierce Brosnan are fans.

McQueen states in an interview that he injected his own characteristics in his film roles. The rebel, the lone wolf, the racer. That does not make him a great actor. It is telling that only when he appeared with Dustin Hoffman in Papillon, he made an actual effort to act.

This documentary was just an overview of his life and movies. There was little here that was new and seen elsewhere. It was also too fawning.