{"id":19607,"date":"2011-09-14T09:30:57","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T16:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19607"},"modified":"2022-05-11T15:52:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:52:07","slug":"gauntlet-the-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19607","title":{"rendered":"Gauntlet, The (1977)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You see, we&#8217;ve got a problem, you and me: we don&#8217;t like each other much, but we have to take a trip together.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-19610\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Poster.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA cop (Clint Eastwood) is tasked by his superior (William Prince) with escorting a key witness (Sondra Locke) back to headquarters &#8212; but he soon finds himself and his feisty charge under fire at every turn.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clint Eastwood Films<\/li>\n<li>Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Pat Hingle Films<\/li>\n<li>Police<\/li>\n<li>Road Trip<\/li>\n<li>Strong Females<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary argues that much like &#8220;John Ford became disenchanted with the military, as his later films indicate&#8221;, <em>The Gauntlet<\/em> &#8212; Eastwood&#8217;s sixth outing as a director &#8212; represents his &#8220;growing disenchantment with cops&#8230; because they will happily turn on one another if ordered to do so&#8221;. Indeed, this film is far from policedom&#8217;s finest moment, given that it presents all cops as either under-performing (Eastwood), hopelessly crooked (Prince), smarmy (Bill McKinney, in an effective supporting turn), naive (Pat Hingle as Eastwood&#8217;s partner), and\/or brainless (i.e., the hundreds of faceless automaton cops opening fire on demand). As Peary notes, &#8220;the picture isn&#8217;t altogether successful&#8221; (there are plenty of silly sequences &#8212; such as a lame encounter with motorcyclists in a gorgeous Nevada desertscape), but &#8220;the infighting between Locke and Eastwood is interesting primarily because she&#8230; proves to have more street smarts than he&#8221;. He further argues that director Eastwood &#8220;proves to have a true understanding of Locke&#8217;s talents, letting her run the gamut of emotions&#8221;, noting that &#8220;she can be impressive&#8221; &#8212; which is true. <\/p>\n<p>However, I disagree with Peary&#8217;s assertion that there are &#8220;too many action sequences featur[ing] thousands of bullets being shot at structures&#8221;. It&#8217;s these over-the-top, utterly implausible, but undeniably rousing shoot-em-up scenes &#8212; such as the early scene in which so many bullets are fired at Locke&#8217;s house that it eventually collapses onto itself; cool! &#8212; that quickly turn our protagonists into sympathetic characters.  Eastwood and Locke are on the run from forces clearly so much larger and stronger than themselves that they can&#8217;t help but eventually be propelled into each others&#8217; arms. After all, you can only face imminent death so many times without starting to feel <em>something<\/em> for the person you&#8217;re fighting for your life with, can you? <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sondra Locke as Gus<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-19613\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Locke.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Plenty of exciting (if utterly implausible &#8212; but who cares?!) action sequences<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-19614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gauntlet-Action.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s certainly recommended for one-time viewing, and a must for Eastwood fans. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0076070\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1977\/12\/22\/archives\/screen-eastwood-gauntlet.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/the-gauntlet-1977\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/gauntlet.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=764&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-gauntlet\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You see, we&#8217;ve got a problem, you and me: we don&#8217;t like each other much, but we have to take a trip together.&#8221; Synopsis: A cop (Clint Eastwood) is tasked by his superior (William Prince) with escorting a key witness (Sondra Locke) back to headquarters &#8212; but he soon finds himself and his feisty charge under fire at every turn. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Clint Eastwood Films Corruption Pat Hingle Films Police Road Trip Strong Females Response to Peary\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19607\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19607"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84009,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19607\/revisions\/84009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}