Tightrope

The formula is something I'm well used to. Clint Eastwood is playing a cop - a detective, Wes Block. He'd just come off of playing Inspector Harry Callahan in the fourth Dirty Harry film the year previously, Sudden Impact. He'd recently played a cop in The Gauntlet. He'd play cops and secret service agents in the future. There's something different about the cop he plays in Tightrope though, and I hesitate to try and explain what it is. Let's just say Block has a fondness for the swinging lifestyle which he often manages to combine with questioning witnesses and checking leads in this film. He is, I think, the horniest character Clint Eastwood has ever played. I'm used to hookers propositioning detectives in movies - it happens all the time - but I'm not used to the detectives lapping it up like Wes Block does. It gets him in deep as well, for it turns out a serial strangler is killing the ladies he's sleeping with (and he's sleeping with many.) Somehow, there's a love interest as well, and two daughters to juggle in this fun Eastwood caper.

Block is a New Orleans detective, divorced with a soft spot for stray dogs. The killer has left another victim, with some of the evidence he leaves behind - traces of the sneakers he always wears, red fibers, glass residue and barley. He took his time with the kill, before raping the victim and establishing the fact he has an O blood type. Advising Block on the case is Beryl Thibodeaux (Geneviève Bujold) who runs a rape prevention program - someone Block slowly begins to trust and then get to know on more intimate terms. Also helping is his colleague Det. Joe Molinari (Dan Hedaya). The killer has taken note of who's on his scent though, and starts to taunt Block with notes and cryptic clues - killing a gay man he set Block up with, before Block can get to him and complete the play. It becomes a personal game with Block having to fear for the safety of his daughters Amanda (Alison Eastwood) and Penny (Jenny Beck), and his own career when many of the women he's questioned and had sex with turn up dead - possibly averting suspicion onto him. If Block can't bring this guy in soon, something disastrous is going to befall Block and his family.

I have to admit there's some fun to be had here. When Beryl teaches her self-defense class, she uses a crude mannequin with tennis balls as it's most sensitive spot. When she kicks it in the balls (literally) the eyes light up and the figure gives a mechanical groan. In the meantime, Block catches one of the balls which bounce right at him. One of those films where you start making mental notes - "Well, it has that in it." I was only a little disappointed that while there is a payoff to that scene, it's not as gratuitous or funny. Richard Tuggle (or Clint Eastwood, who apparently took over from Tuggle early and directed most of the flick) wanted a more serious tone for most of this movie. Another fantastic recurring gag is Block's younger daughter not knowing what "hard-on" means. When Block explains that it's something that happens when a man really likes a lady she delights in shouting "You can have a hard-on anytime you want!" in front of everybody when Block tells her about the growing romance he's having with Beryl. Funny, funny moment.

The more serious stuff - which is really the majority of this film - boils down to the fact that it's subject is as sobering as it gets. There's nothing explicit - this isn't Irréversible territory - but obviously rape and rape prevention isn't something that can be dealt with flippantly. It was nice to see that there was room here for a strong female character being proactive, and relying on herself and her skills when confronted. There were too many Clint Eastwood films during the 1970s that veered quite hard in a misogynistic direction - to the detriment of the films, making them hard to enjoy. It seems that Eastwood himself was growing as a person - he does seem to be the kind of person to have learned and improved himself throughout his life. He was starring in and making a movie here where he could be proud to share screen time with his daughter, aside from the fact that in it his character sleeps with various hookers, strippers, swingers and such. I'm sure he'd have described it as a "phase" the divorced Block was going through to anyone questioning.

Anyhow - the movie finishes with a great chase sequence, and the procedural aspect of the film about this investigation is also strong - evidence being gathered, crime labs doing their work and detectives following leads. It's never confusing, but concise. Dirty Harry cinematographer Bruce Surtees was behind the camera - he'd been with Eastwood since The Beguiled in 1971. That night sequence with the helicopters pointing their spotlights at Block and the perp running were fantastic. Jazz composer Lennie Niehaus gets into his best New Orleans mood and the score is dripping with sexy sax melodies - I appreciated the film going in this direction and not simply phoning in your usual cop-story fast-beat music we'd usually hear if this were set in Manhattan. That sax and clarinet music had an exceptional feel to it - it was just a little different from an ordinary score. All sex for Tightrope - one of Eastwood's loosest and rowdiest. Niehaus would form a firm working relationship with Eastwood after this film, and they'd work together often. They'd first met serving together in the U.S. Army at Fort Ord during 1952 - 1954.

So, I have a lot of praise for this film - but all in all it still was what it was. Another Eastwood cop movie - a little different from the others, but not exactly La Strada or Citizen Kane. It gets an extra half-point from me because I think if I had to choose, I'd probably choose this one over the others. It was so refreshing to see Eastwood play a guy who has a little too much of a weakness for sex - it's nearly his undoing. I loved the strong female character. The daughters. The procedural aspect - and how damn tough the villain was when cornered. This was Eastwood trying to turn a corner after a half-dozen or so average films from the late 70s to the early 80s - something he'd do with Pale Rider the very next year. This was him starting to make amends after years of being a semi-jerk and misogynist for so long. Tightrope wasn't as great as some of Clint's past classics, but it may have just been his most likeable movie - one that saw him start to age like a fine wine. His best was yet to come.