Year of Eastwood #39

Tightrope (1984)

Starring: Eastwood
Directed by Richard Tuggle

Lookout, Clint’s a cop on the edge! By day, he’s a caring single father but at night he’s some kind of pervert trolling the dirty streets of N’Orleans looking for cheap hookers. Ok, I don’t know for sure that they’re hookers - because I’m sure Clint has never had to pay for it.

But the fine line (some might say a tightrope) between work and pleasure is blurred when Clint gets assigned to a new case tracking down a serial killer. It seems Clint and this mysterious killer in Sketchers (along with the ominous music) must be hanging out at the same clubs. Crime scene after crime scene, Clint shows up only to find that the dead woman is someone he had only just recently schupted. Is it just a coincidence or (gasp) is Clint the killer?

In the 70’s, Clint was the swinging bachelor. Dirty Harry had the women lining up outside his door. He’d use them up and then toss them aside - but these women knew there was no taming the Clintster. But in the 80’s, attitudes about sex changed and now someone with Clint’s pattern of behavior is perceived as some kind of deprived sicko. Sure he likes to watch naked women wrestle in a tub of oil. And the anonymous sex. And maybe every now and then he likes to use those handcuffs for non-official business. It seems like pretty tame stuff but everyone knows that handcuffs are just a gateway drug…

We know pretty early on that Clint couldn’t be the killer … because, hey, it’s Clint we’re talking about here (plus they show the guy’s face). But like so many of these serial killers in movies, the real killer enjoys the cat and mouse game and begins to torment Clint. He tries to kill Clint’s new girlfriend - but he gets away. He tortures Clint’s two daughters - but he gets away. Finally, Clint chases him down in some funky warehouse full of Mardi Gras floats.

A lot of thought goes into the location of the final showdown. In some of Clint’s previous films, we’ve seen deserted Carnivals, airports, and water treatment plants. It must be tough coming up with a new and original location. Let’s see … how about a tractor pull or a Wiggles concert?

I don’t know who this director guy Richard Tuggle is, but this movie feels like a Clint-directed film. The pace of the film, the use of jazz music, the pan shot of the city as the credits roll. Feels like this Tuggle might just be made up.

Tightrope offers a side of Clint that we hadn’t seen in too many of his cop films. His character is flawed. Lonely, drinking himself silly each night, and banging chicks he doesn’t even know. Again, behavior that might not be that far removed from Dirty Harry, but in the 80’s the euphoria of free love had worn off - and thanks to the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Senate pages, sex was kinda sleazy.

Clint received a lot of Oscar buzz for his performance, but when the nominations were announced, Clint’s name wasn’t on the list for Best Actor. But Tightrope did signify a turning point in Clint’s career, where his films would be begin to receive critical notice for their accomplishments.