By James Wolcott
"Steve McQueen bonded with metal, making steel an extension of himself. Sports cars, guns, motorcycles - he handled them as if they were wedded to his fingertips, his sure control infused with charisma through a daredevil zeal for speed, tight corners, and sudden catapults. Other movie stars have imitated McQueen’s risky nerve behind the wheel and trigger, but none has matched his fine-tuned attention between action bursts. Cleaning his weapon in Don Siegel’s war drama, Hell Is for Heroes, playing chess in The Thomas Crown Affair, he did small things with an X-Acto knife of concentration, segmenting spare time into tiny rituals and maintenance routines. The movies recognized the lean discipline and tight springs that formed the spinal column of his rebel persona."
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