When the two main characters are on the run, Eastwood hands Locke his gun. Could this be Eastwood’s dumbest character ever? And, for some reason, even though everyone else knows it, Eastwood can’t work out it’s his boss that’s stabbing him in the back until someone explains it to him. Even more stoopidly Eastwood keeps ringing his boss to tell him his exact whereabouts even though he knows he’s being set-up. And it’s decidedly stupid.įor starters, the first half of the film has Locke hiding facts from Eastwood even though there is absolutely no reason to. But it all feels like a collection of ideas without a ‘whole’ to bring it all together. He’s not yet the accomplished director of Unforgiven, or later Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, and he’s lumbered with Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack’s imbecilic script that beggars belief with every gun shot – and there’s A LOT of gun shots!Īdmittedly, it’s a fun movie – fast-paced, humorous here and there Sondra Locke is fittingly vivacious, Clint Eastwood is assuredly macho. Fazetta’s artistry is amongst my favourite film artwork along with famed poster designer Drew Struzan.īut other than the poster there isn’t a lot to recommend about Eastwood’s 1977 film. Designed by the late artist Frank Fazetta, the poster depicts heroic alpha male Clint Eastwood protecting pretty blonde prostitute Sondra Locke from a haze of bullets. One of those cartoon-like depictions of a very un-cartoon-like film. If I was to give any credit to Clint Eastwood’s action-thriller The Gauntlet it would be for its poster.

Released: 1977 / Genre: Action-Adventure / Country: USA / IMDB Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney

Written by: Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack

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