I got very sad about the news of Sondra Locke's passing last year. She had a very energetic, unique presence in every movie she's was in. Sure the characters she played tended to be over-the-top, but that's often what made them so funny. I still have Deep Impact and The Outlaw Josey Wales left, but my favorite performance of her right now is The Gauntlet. She gets so many great lines that she almost steals the show from Clint Eastwood himself.
The entire scene where Ben, Gus and the perverse constable are in a car is amazing. You have the constable asking all these sexist questions (which themselves are hilarious because they're so ridiculous) and Ben is about to explode while Gus just keeps calm. Then after he's finally finished, she starts playing the same game with him by humiliating him with her taunts and then adding extra insult to injury with "And does your wife know you masturbate?" Both her delivery of the line and the constable becoming such a nervous wreck he drives off the road made me die with laughter. One of the best long built-up punchlines I've ever seen.
My second favorite is Bronco Billy. She's torn from a disastrous marriage with her husband John Arlington (played by Geoffrey Lewis, who ironically appeared in two more movies with Eastwood and Locke, but this time as a super likable endearing guy), which makes it very hard for her to connect with someone else. When she tries to express love, all that comes out is hate. It's not until she has a heart-to-heart talk with Lorraine Running Water that she realizes her true feelings for Bronco and starts easing up on him a bit.
When it comes to Every Which Way You Loose and Every Which You Can, I found her a lot more likable in the sequel (in Loose her character was way too high-strung, even by Locke standards), but she was still good in both of them. I've never been bored or disinteresting with a Sondra Locke performance. I think she's a very underrated and funny talent.
The entire scene where Ben, Gus and the perverse constable are in a car is amazing. You have the constable asking all these sexist questions (which themselves are hilarious because they're so ridiculous) and Ben is about to explode while Gus just keeps calm. Then after he's finally finished, she starts playing the same game with him by humiliating him with her taunts and then adding extra insult to injury with "And does your wife know you masturbate?" Both her delivery of the line and the constable becoming such a nervous wreck he drives off the road made me die with laughter. One of the best long built-up punchlines I've ever seen.
My second favorite is Bronco Billy. She's torn from a disastrous marriage with her husband John Arlington (played by Geoffrey Lewis, who ironically appeared in two more movies with Eastwood and Locke, but this time as a super likable endearing guy), which makes it very hard for her to connect with someone else. When she tries to express love, all that comes out is hate. It's not until she has a heart-to-heart talk with Lorraine Running Water that she realizes her true feelings for Bronco and starts easing up on him a bit.
When it comes to Every Which Way You Loose and Every Which You Can, I found her a lot more likable in the sequel (in Loose her character was way too high-strung, even by Locke standards), but she was still good in both of them. I've never been bored or disinteresting with a Sondra Locke performance. I think she's a very underrated and funny talent.
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Last edited by mattiasflgrtll6; 12-26-19 at 12:22 PM.