Gauntlet

60%

Rather self indulgent Clint Eastwood movie in which the director and star both take potshots at their own onscreen tough guy persona. This is a tale of redemption and political corruption about a slow witted Arizona cop told with great wit in a carefully written screenplay that wants to entertain as well as inform.

The set pieces are well done but over the top but Eastwood is making ironic commentary on the violence of White America, the violence of American Cinema and of his own previous portrayal of Dirty Harry. So long as you take it in the spirit intended, this is good fun, especially as Sondra Locke makes their onscreen relationship work by imbuing it with a secret sense of what their offscreen relationship was like. Solid political and sexual satire that refuses to take itself too seriously.


Article copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved. Frank TALKER is also the author of Sweaty Socks: A Treatise on the Inevitability of Toe Jam in Hot Weather (East Cheam Press: Groper Books, 1997) and is University of Bullshit Professor Emeritus of Madeupology.