Year of Eastwood #5

City Heat (1984)

Starring: Eastwood, Burt Reynolds
Directed by Richard Benjamin

In the 70s it was Clint and Burt’s world, we were just living in it. There were no two bigger stars in the world. Clint had Dirty Harry and Every Which Way But Loose. Burt had Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit. It was only natural that these two cosmic forces would some day combine forces and the results would be the greatest blockbuster ever to be captured on film … well not exactly.

First of all, City Heat wasn’t released until 1984 - so some of the shine was off the apple. Clint had some ups and downs and Burt’s career was pretty much taking a nose dive. Still the matching of these two stars received quite a bit of attention before the film was released - then it pretty much bombed.

The movie starts out promising - Clint is a by-the-book police lieutenant, Burt is a wise-cracking private eye. They both worked on the force together, but now tensions run high between them. The film begins in a diner where Clint is enjoying a cup of joe and Burt struts in and is soon confronted by a couple of goons. Punches are thrown, Burt gets out a couple of one-liners, Clint calmly takes another sip. And then somebody spills his coffee. Now it’s time for Clint to kick some ass. Turns out that during filming Burt was injured in the fight scene and had his jaw wired shut for the rest of the shoot.

The rest of the movie is pretty under whelming. Even though the movie only runs about an hour and a half, it was pretty boring. The film tries to walk that fine line of mixing violent action and comedy (or a “vomedy” if you will). Obviously this can be done successfully (most notably Pulp Fiction) but City Heat kinda plods along with Burt involved in some plot dealing with gangsters and bookkeeping - Clint just pops in from time to time to shoot somebody. Interestingly, Clint got top billing in the movie.

So how do the two megastars measure up? Both started out in TV Westerns (advantage: draw). Burt often teamed up with Dom DeLuise - Clint never really teamed up with anybody (advantage: Clint). Burt was linked romantically with Sally Field and Lonnie Anderson - Clint was involved with Sondra Locke (advantage: Burt). Clint had his trademark sneer - Burt was rockin the ‘stache (advantage: Burt). Clint went on to serve in local politics - Burt was tabloid fodder during his break up with Lonnie (advantage: Clint).

So the deciding factor is their film careers after City Heat. Clint went on to be an Oscar-winning director - Burt pretty much couldn’t get a job at his own dinner theatre in Florida. Advantage Clint - except for a little film call Boogie Nights. Burt gives a fantastic performance as the adult film producer who serves as a father-figure to a ragamuffin group of pornsters. Burt was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his performance. He lost (to Robin Williams no less) which I consider one of the two most outrageous errors in Academy Awards history. It just so happens that the other Oscar f*ck up happens to involve a different Clint-directed film - but more on that later…