Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)
Johnny Depp's Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness (2024)

12/29/2020

The Gauntlet (1977) - Locke/Eastwood cast sparks in corny shoot-em-up

♥♥

 

A hot and smoky, very sexual comic book style poster by Frank Frazetta for Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet

 

An unpopular Phoenix cop gets send to Las Vegas to escort a mob witness prostitute back, but it turns out that both the mob and the corrupt police are willing to do anything to off her - and him!

 

The Gauntlet is written by Michael Butler (Brannigan (1975)) and Dennis Shryack (Flashpoint (1984)) and directed by Californian master filmmaker, director/star Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)), whose 6th feature it is.

It is an action-thriller with a romance attached that's exciting if marked by formula and routine. Eastwood and Sondra Locke (Death Game (1977)), - lovers off camera at the time also, - have good chemistry, and especially Locke has sparks flying here. The Gauntlet has its good share of action, albeit of the predictable kind. SPOILER The ending, in which the couple drive to court in a grotesque rain of bullets, seems like an over-kill, while it also, (rather unusually at least to this extent), cries out US police departments as deeply, deeply corrupt - and stupid!

 

Related posts:

Clint EastwoodSully (2016) - Eastwood's miracle landing biopic is inert and overrated 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Gran Torino (2008) - Eastwood's actor persona comes full circle in absolute smash (co-producer/director/starring actor)
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story
 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Letters from Iwo Jima/硫黄島からの手紙 [Öjima Kara no Tegami] (2006) - The Japanese side of Eastwood's remarkable WWII two-parter   

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving 

Blood Work (2002) - Eastwood churns out uninspired thriller adaptation (producer/director/starring actor)
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (starring actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (co-starring actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (starring actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (starring actor)

Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (starring actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (starring actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (starring star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud (director/star)

High Plains Drifter (1973) - Eastwood cleans up red town in great western (director/star)
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (starring actor)
 
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (starring actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (starring actor)
 
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Leone ends his poncho trilogy with certified classic (starring actor)
For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (co-starring actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (starring actor)




 

Watch a short German VHS teaser for the film here

Cost: 5.5 mil. $

Box office: 35.4 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 6.43 times its cost)

[The Gauntlet premiered 17 December (Japan) and runs 109 minutes. Shooting took place in Arizona, including Phoenix, and in Las Vegas, Nevada from April - June 1977. The action sequences cost 1 mil. $ of the budget and included thousands of explosive squibs. The film grossed 26.1 mil. $ (73.72 % of the total gross) in North America. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Eastwood returned with Bronco Billy (1980); as an actor he returned in Any Which Way But Loose (1978). The Gauntlet is fresh at 75 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of The Gauntlet?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)
Ridley Scott's Gladiator II (2024)