When he died in 1988, Phillip Hutchinson was only 24 years old.

Born in Virginia, Phillip Hutchinson served in the U.S. Marines before he was discharged for desertion.  He went on to become a career criminal and a violent one at that.  By the time he was 24, he already had a long criminal record.  In Texas, he was convicted of aggravated assault and ended up with a life sentence.  He escaped from prison by stealing a truck.  (It was his third escape attempt.)  Fleeing Texas, he eventually ended up in Denver.  He is alleged to have robbed four banks in Denver before holding up the Rio Grande Operating Credit Union.  The 18 year-old teller was able to set off a silent alarm and Hutchinson ended up leading police on a chase through Denver.  Following Hutchinson in the air was a news helicopter.  At one point, Hutchinson crashed into an unmarked police car, killing Detective Bob Wallis.

After crashing his own car, Hutchinson continued to run on foot.  Eventually, he reached a trailer park.  He took John Laurienti as a hostage and forced the 73 year-old man to drive him past the police in his pick-up truck.  When the men in the news helicopter realized that the police didn’t realize that Hutchinson was in the truck, they dived down and blocked the truck from moving forward.  The cops, realizing their mistake, surrounded the truck and opened fire, killing Hutchinson while the cameraman in the helicopter continued to film.  John Laurienti escaped from the truck, uninjured.

Phillip Hutchinson really had no one but himself to be blame.  If he hadn’t robbed the credit union, he would have had the cops chasing him to begin with.  If he hadn’t rammed into the unmarked car and killed Bob Wallis, it’s possible that the police would have been more willing to negotiate before opening fire on him.  You can wonder what led to someone, by the age of 24, becoming a hardened criminal and that is something that should always be investigated.  In the end, actions do have consequences.

Phillip Hutchinson is one of those criminals who would probably be forgotten today if not for the fact that his death was not only captured on camera but also broadcast across the television airwaves.  Hutchinson has gone on to have a significant afterlife in various “documentaries.”  Remember World’s Wildest Police Videos?  (I’ve also read that the shoot-out is a popular video on various “forbidden” and “dark” websites but I’m not going to look to find out.)

1991’s The Chase was a made-for-television movie about Phillip Hutchinson and his final ride.  Casey Siemaszko plays Phillip Hutchinson as being a psycho redneck, which is probably not the far from the truth.  Siemaszko gives a good performance as Hutchinson but the majority of the film deals with the people who came into contact with Hutchinson on the final day of his life.  Ricki Lake plays the teller who set off the silent alarm.  Ben Johnson gives a moving performance as the old man who Hutchinson took hostage.  Barry Corbin plays Bob Wallis.  Megan Follows plays a drug addict who narrowly escapes Hutchinson.  Robert Beltran plays the man in the helicopter.  They all give good performances.  At the same time, for a film called The Chase, the Chase itself doesn’t actually start until we’re 70 minutes into the movie and it’s over pretty quickly.  If you’re watching this film for the action, you’ll probably be disappointed.

This film was written by Guerdon Trueblood, who also directed one of my favorite grindhouse films, The Candy Snatchers.  Trueblood’s script follows the standard disaster formula, in that there are a lot of subplots and filler leading up to the big event.  In other words, The Chase isn’t a film for everyone.  I’ll admit, though, that I teared up a little at the end.  Phillip Hutchinson may have been a violent criminal but his death brought a community together.