The Gauntlet

This film reeks of grit and grime. Right from the start, when Clint sets the wheels in motion, you can sense someone’s going to unleash their fury on him. And he's a cop. Despite that, Clint’s filmmaking doesn’t suffer, nor does his role — he’s as cool and brutal as ever. However, it lacks the tension I was hoping for, and the finale is a bit of a stylish overkill with Clint pushing the macho ending a bit too hard. (22/03/2023)

Playing a drunkard cop, Clint Eastwood is given the mission to escort an important witness from Las Vegas to Phoenix, and like in other movies of the genre, they immediately become a target for the mafia and corrupt cops. At the time and possibly to this day, the most naive—or dare I say most stupid—Eastwood film I have ever seen, almost falling in the category of overblown high-budget rubbish in which everyone first fires, then asks questions, and where thousands of bullets fly above the central duo as to avoid giving the viewer too much time to think about the screenplay (you still get to decide for yourself if the final scene and the “resolution” of the whole situation is calling for a solid laugh or rather for you to get mad at the TV and smash the remote control—I laughed). For me, Eastwood is charismatic enough to be 100% fun, even in weaker productions, so I enjoyed The Gauntlet and would watch it again anytime. (24/05/2020)