The Gauntlet (1977)

Clint Eastwood is a down-and-out cop who is sent on a routine mission to pick up a witness and deliver her to the Phoenix courthouse. Sounds easy until he realizes he's been set up by the man who gave him this simple assignment. The interplay between Eastwood and the witness, a clever prostitute played by the actor's former girlfriend, Sondra Locke, is tough and playful. They obviously had strong chemistry. The story is highly implausible at times, but the action sequences are satisfying. Eastwood directs The Gauntlet very much in the style of his Academy Award-winning Western Unforgiven. Although the body count is surprisingly low for an Eastwood action film, a house, several cars, and a large bus get shot through with more holes than a big wheel of Swiss cheese. For Eastwood fans, this is the laconic hero at his prime. --Richard Natale Amazon.com

clint in an over the top cop movie

Anyone expecting this to be another Dirty Harry type movie will be shocked and surprised--this is an outlandish, over the top action movie!! Eastwood and his then girl friend/mistress Sondra Locke create a chemistry which sustains this film even in its quieter moments when the gunplay has died down. If one can over-look some of the outlandish plot twists, you'll enjoy this wild, crazy action thriller!! Clint plays an alcoholic loser/cop who is redemned in more ways than one by an hooker (Locke) to the local authorities who turn out to be very corrupt and have other plans for Clint & co. I really enjoyed how Eastwood used jazz musicians like Art Pepper, Jack Sheldon & Pete Jolly for background music and also part of the "Sketches of Spain" score made so famous by Miles Davis & Gil Evans for the suspenseful conclusion of this no holds barred actioner!! Recommended for Eastwood fans and lovers of the off-beat!! August 13, 2008

Wrecked by overkill

Okay, I am going against one of my own review tenets, and rating this movie very subjectively. This is a two-star feature, at best. I have watched the film a few times, because certain parts of it I enjoy. However, the considerable overkill (literally and figuratively!) almost wrecked the film for me, and I am a dyed-in-the-wool Clint Eastwood fan.

The sarcastic and graphic banter among Shockley, the errant and unfortunate Vegas cop, and "Miss Malley" was funny as heck, but the three most prominent "gunfight scenes" were just too far over the top for even me. Totally shredding the house in Vegas with gunfire was really ridiculous, but looked totally plausible when compared to the various impossibilities surrounding the assault on the bus in Phoenix. Ever see what an M-16/AR-15 round will do to an engine block? Now review a gauntlet of cops, on opposite sides of a porous bus, blazing away and turning the bus into a veritable sieve, without wiping out everyone who participated?

Nope, the story line was okay, the scenery was fine, the cast was excellent, and to a point it was enjoyable. It must be something about a quest for reality that got to me. :) June 11, 2008

Fun movie....but....

Very poor transfer from VHS to DVD. Very grainy. Otherwise, the movie content itself is 'mindless entertainment' (fun). May 12, 2008

Thrilling!

I was fortunate enough to have lived in Phoenix, AZ, when this movie was made there. I have always found The Gauntlet to be one of the most exciting and thrilling "rides through cop land" ever put on film. Clint Eastwood is excellent as the dupe and the action is non-stop. February 13, 2008

8 million bullets, 3,000 cops, no one hit a tire?

So, so story rendered totally unbelievable by the climactic scene in the bus. All they had to do to stop him was shoot out the tires, but not a single cop in the entire police force could figure that out, not to mention with the amount of ordnance they expended, statistically all the tires should have been shot out accidentally anyway. It really is pretty insulting, when you realize you're supposed to be able to suspend disbelief through the scene. September 7, 2007

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