Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business!

5/19/2016

Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business!

♥♥♥

One of the more curious 1970s phenomenons, James Fargo's Every Which Way but Loose

QUICK REVIEW:

Philo Beddoe is a truck driver, who is good at fist-fighting and lives with his orangutan Clive. He falls in love with a country singer, (Sondra Locke (Death Game (1977))), whom he pursues with bikers and the police at his heels!

Every Which Way but Loose is something of a crazy hillbilly comedy. It has something in the neighborhood of 400 fights in its, including Clint Eastwood (A Fistful of Dollars (1964)) beating a man with a fish. Our hero also hitches Clive up with a lady orangutan.
In a way this film is deeply speculative, cashing in on our fondness of our Simian friends, - but on the other hand, - why the hell not?!? It is also original and charming as few other films. Ruth Gordon (Jimmy the Kid (1982)) is a hoot in one of the film's many funny supporting parts as Ma, who takes her driver's license again and again. Clive is, by the way, played by orangutan Manis, who probably had the time of his life on the movie, after which he returned to life as a show monkey in Las Vegas.
The ending of the film is as untraditional as the rest of it: SPOILER Eastwood loses his grand fight and also doesn't get the girl.
Every Which Way but Loose is written by Jeremy Joe Kronsberg (Going Ape! (1981)) and directed by James Fargo (The Enforcer (1976)).

Related review:

Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 5.2 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 106 mil. $
= Blockbuster
[Every Which Way but Loose was released December 20 and runs 114 minutes. Eastwood went against numerous advice from his production and agent teams in doing the film, which was shot from April 1978 in California, Colorado and New Mexico. The film was panned by critics but became Eastwood's biggest hit at the time and the second highest-grossing film of the year. It is reportedly still among the 200 highest grossing films of all time (adjusted for inflation.) The film opened to a 10.2 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it grossed 85 mil. $ (80.2 % of the total gross). It got a sequel in Any Which Way You Can (1980). 28,071 users have rated Every Which Way but Loose 3.1/5 on Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

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Ivan Reitman has passed away

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5/19/2016

Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business!

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