Year of Eastwood #45

The Gauntlet (1977)

Starring: Eastwood, Sondra Locke
Directed by Eastwood

After the cluster of ho-hum crime dramas from the recent Clint films, it’s refreshing to break out of the funk with a tried and true action bust ‘em up from the vault of Clint‘s heyday. The year was 1977 … the country was just settling into the Jimmy Carter Presidency, Star Wars was breaking records at the box office, and the Laff Olympics were pitting the Scooby Doobies against the Yogi Yahooeys. And Clint was making movies with Sondra Locke.

Clint is a cop with attitude problems. Sondra is a wise-cracking witness to some mob crimes. Clint is a booze hound who has lost his way. Sondra is a high-price call girl with a heart of coal. And when they get together, the sparks fly. Nothing much new here, so we might as well shoot up as much stuff as we can. On three separate occasions, there’s enough gunfire for complete and total obliteration … be it a car or a bus or even a house. One time on Myth Busters, the dudes tried to debunk the belief that a machine gun could mow down a tree … let alone knock down an entire house.

Let’s see, what else? Hmm, Clint and Sandra fall in love - but I guess that’s to be expected. And the police chief that Clint trusted ends up double crossing him. Clint’s partner gets shot and killed. And the final climax, down the streets of Phoenix, pits Clint driving an armored bus against hundreds of Arizona cops lined up on the streets firing thousands of bullets at Clint (and each other?).

Clint’s career has basically come down to three successful phases: the Spaghetti Western (which led to many other successful westerns, culminating in Unforgiven), Dirty Harry (which led to a string of anti-hero cop-types, culminating in In the Line of Fire), and Play Misty for Me (which stretched Clint as a director in genres that were atypical of his usual style, culminating in Million $$$ Baby).

Of course, there’s been a multitude of ongoing Clint themes in this Year of Eastwood: the sneer, the young ladies, and Clint’s aversion to marriage. But the one element that can be found at the heart of almost every Clint film is redemption.

Clint’s characters are always flawed. His inability to follow authority. He drinks too much. He’s too old to change his ways. He’s just not a very good pig farmer. But during the course of the two hours that audiences sit in a darkened theatre being entertained with the ‘splosions and the orangutans - they are witness to Clint being transformed into a better person. Usually bloodied and beaten, but strong enough to prevail in the end.

Clint has never been the Tom Hanksy everyman or have the Jimmy Stewartish purity but he remains a likable spirit despite all of his downfalls … and in the end, crowds root for him to succeed. Clint has connected with the American public desire to be the good guy, the strong but silent type - who can be kicked down and dragged around, but can only stands it for so long … and then watch out when he comes out swinging.

So, even though he hooks up with Sondra in the end, Clint has regained his self respect after surviving the Gauntlet by proving everyone around him wrong who assumed he would be the weak link. And he did it to prove to himself that he could do it against all odds … plus it’s got a kick-ass poster (and I’m running out of clichés).