Rent Clint Eastwood: Tightrope (1984)

Early Eastwood - Clint Eastwood: Tightrope review by JD

This 1984 film was released in 1985 as a DVD, I think 2005 must be a typo. If you're expecting early Dirty Harry, it is not as violent and the main character is not as heroic. I thought it was pretty good generally but lacked suspense. The background music was clichéd and the pictures of training shoes walking ominously, although an Eastwood trademark, was not as sinister as usual. Walking around houses looking for baddies in the dark is a little unlikely (just turn the lights on) and should only be done once in a film for impact, I lost count of the number of creeping scenes.

Some interesting character development does little to make this a compelling watch - Clint Eastwood: Tightrope review by Timmy B

Tightrope is a film which was released unashamedly to play up the image of Clint Eastwood after the massive success of the Dirty Harry film trilogy. Eastwood plays Wes Block, a cop who has gone through a messy divorce but also is committed to raising his two daughters as well as he can, whilst balancing his hunt to track down the stalker & killer of women.

Whilst it is interesting to see Eastwood playing against type, especially in how the film, in contrast to many others of it's time, shows the trauma & fear women have when they are being terrorised whilst trying to go about their daily lives, it is also quite boring. I have to be honest and say I did fast-forward through some parts of it, which I just didn't find interesting, although it must be said the end chase makes extremely good use of locations & jump-cuts. Marco St. John is also an intimidating & horrible screen presence as well.

It was extremely well-reviewed for it's time and probably for good reason, but I also am not a massive Eastwood fan, so it was probably lost on me.