Sunday 19 November 2023

The Gauntlet (1977 Clint Eastwood)

An annoying film, written by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack. In one way it's a great idea - a dumb, alcoholic cop is sent to Vegas to bring back a witness to Phoenix - she's a hooker with more brains than him, and she starts figuring out that they're never going to get back alive, and the police force itself is corrupt. So far so good, and in a scene where she phones her mum and tells her she's fallen for him, very sweet (the highlight of the film, in fact).

Excess comes early in scene where house is shot so much it collapses; then a car; then in the climax a bus. There's a great moment where they pinch a biker's bike and elude the police - how is it then in the next scene a helicopter know exactly where they are? The helicopter scene (one filming another pursuing a motorbike) is technically well done but the marksman is a terrible shot and the scene is pointless.

In the climax, why on earth does Clint drive the bus so slowly through the ranks of shooting police - stupid! And none of the fifty thousand cops shoot the tyres? And at the very end, the Police Commissioner shoots Clint, and none of the millions of cops surrounding them do a thing - stupid.

So, an appealing couple - Clint and Sondra Locke were a real couple them - in a lively and potentially great film let down by some real daft bits. With Pat Hingle (Clint's buddy), William Prince, Bill McKinney (dumb Vegas cop).

You have to admire the perfect timing of this shot


Good jazzy score from Jerry Fielding, with Art Pepper and Jon Faddis as soloists. Photographed by Rexford Metz, edited by Ferris Webster and Joel Cox. Stunt coordinator Wayne Van Horn isn't Buddy's son - he is Buddy. So that clears that up.

No comments:

Post a Comment