THE GAUNTLET

Did you know that the best way to overcome an obstacle is to squint at it? Yeah. No word of a lie. Just ask the very macho detective featured in the following 109-minute film released in 1977. It was directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Clint with Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, and Pat Hingle.

The Gauntlet


THE STORY:
Ben Shockley (Clint Eastwood) is a detective from Phoenix, Arizona, and all he has to do is travel to Las Vegas, pick up a crook called Mally (Sondra Locke) from custody, and then bring this fiend back home to give evidence in a Mob trial.

Simple – right? That's why Commissioner Blakelock (William Prince) gave him this simple assignment to begin with. An assignment his partner, Maynard Josephson (Pat Hingle), thinks he can also accomplish, which is why he asks him to dinner for the following day.

Nope - they're both wrong. Because once Ben goes to Las Vegas, he starts to realise that things are not what they appear to be.

For a start, Mally is a woman prostitute who has dubious ties to some dubious underworld factions. Next, Ben figures out that there is a ‘book’ running that insinuates he will not be able to complete his assignment. And finally, when Ben and Mally are in transit, their vehicle is shot at by both police officers plus a couple of assailants in a nondescript vehicle.

Sh*t!

So what can Ben do now? Take Mally to her shack and call Commissioner Blakelock to tell him about the situation he is in? Yes - he does that. But in so doing, some more police officers arrive and shoot up the place, just before they escape.

What if they try to accost a stray cop (Bill McKinney) and force him to call Commissioner Blakelock to set up another rendezvous with the Phoenix border patrol once they're out of town? Yes - they do that too. But again, guess what happens? Correct - BOOM-BANG-A-BANG!

Listen, I am sure that you can start to see a pattern emerging here, and so does Mally. And thankfully, she gets Ben to see the light, thus guiding them both by foot, by bike, and by train, from one side of Phoenix to another.

Still, I suppose that is why what next transpires is a right gauntlet. As buses are primed - plans are timed - shot are chimed - and justice is a tower that is eventually climbed.

THE REVIEW:
I have watched 'The Gauntlet' quite a few times now, and in my opinion, it is not what I would call the best ‘Clint Eastwood movie’ I have ever seen. However, upon closer inspection, I have come to realize that I was right in some ways, whilst wrong in a lot of others.

You see, this film is sort of an amalgamation of many other Clint Eastwood films. Not only does it share the same pretext as 'Pink Cadillac', but the main character also seems like a blueprint for Clint’s 'maverick cop' archetype, including the lonely man aspect from 'In the Line of Fire', along with the one man against those in positions of power as seen in 'Absolute Power'.

Oh! And I best not forget, Sondra Locke's character had the same cold-to-hot transition in this film as she does in another film, 'Bronco Billy'.

Still, does any of that make ‘The Gauntlet’ a good film? Well, it's a bit hit and miss, really.

HIT: What worked for me were those scenes that were used as character pieces. The first scene that I can mention that does this very well was the discourse between the Sondra Locke and the Bill McKinney characters in the car. It was biting, revealing, and quite provocative, too. Then there was the penultimate scene between Clint and Sandra in the hotel room, as it gave a lot of backstory and depth, and did it in a very nice and quiet way to boot.

MISS: I found some of the action scenes kind of top-heavy, with the amount of gunshots deployed within scenes quite excessive at times, especially at Mally’s shack and during the conclusion.

As for the secondary characters? Well, William was a great malevolent villain for the film, and Pat – even though only in a few scenes – did a great job as Clint’s ally.

While I'm on the subject of Pat and Clint, did you know that it was once rumored they were both going to be cast in a seventies Batman movie together? Granted, this was only a rumor that floated around at the time, one I picked it up from an old ‘From the Den’ letter column from Detective Comics. Clint was supposed to be Batman, and Pat, like in the Tim Burton movie, was supposed to be Commissioner Gordon.

Still, enough about the rumor, what about the film? Well, it’s well worth the watch for any Clint Eastwood fan, and you do get to see Sondra Locke’s tits too. Plus, on a personal note, I found that – if anything – it has improved with age – just like Clint has.

THE RATING: B