Tightrope

Clint Eastwood's horniest, sleaziest movie is also his best film of the 1980s. Tightrope is fascinating for a number of reasons. For one thing, it's dark. Not that the megastar of Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, and High Plains Drifter was any stranger to grim material, but more than any Eastwood film since The Beguiled, Tightrope delves deep into the seamier side of masculinity, as well as sexual fetishism and fucked-up '80s police culture. By the 1980s, Clint had held steady as one of the top five male movie stars of multiple decades, and he was one of the few who chose material based strictly on what interested him as opposed to what best served his image. Here, Clint plays divorced homicide cop Detective Wes Block, who is drawn into the tortured psychology of a rapist-murderer with a penchant for sadomasochism. As the investigation progresses, Block is drawn more and more into the many temptations of the Red Light district, developing a fascination for the world of S&M that borders on obsession and experimenting with sex of all kinds, including, it's implied, with men. The case becomes even more personal when the killer starts to prey on prostitutes whom Block has slept with and then trains his eye on victims even closer to the detective, including his daughters and the woman who runs a rape prevention program who has been advising him on the case.

This is by far the most sexed-up Clint Eastwood picture, but it's nobody's idea of an erotic thriller. The more Det. Wes Block gets laid, and the grizzlier Tightrope becomes. It's almost comical, especially when he starts attending female mud-wrestling matches and sleeping naked with the dog his daughters rescue from the street. But the tone never dips into anything farcical or campy. You've gotta admire Clint for the risks he often took with his tough guy image. He was interested in exploring the secrets lurking behind the typical macho man persona. These themes and the setting are ultimately more intriguing than the plot of Tightrope, but it's still a solid and satisfying picture. Geneviève Bujold (Coma, Murder by Decree, Choose Me) is a terrific change of pace from Sondra Locke, who'd been Eastwood's de facto love interest in a few too many pictures by this point. The French Canadian Bujold has always been game for taking on roles most of her peers wouldn't even consider (she would star in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers four years after this, playing the actress who gets involved with both of Jeremy Irons's fucked-up identical twin gynecologists). Bujold has an inner strength that sets her apart from most of the victims and potential victims in this picture, who wear toughness and savvy on their sleeves.

Clint's daughter Alison Eastwood, who had small roles in his Bronco Billy and Any Which Way You Can, takes on a more substantial part in Tightrope, playing the older of Det. Block's two daughters. She gives one of the most naturalistic child performances of the decade, lending needed credibility to the way Block is written as both a warm and responsible single parent and a promiscuous cop who often crosses moral lines. Eastwood's ease at playing a loving father was surely helped by working with his off-screen daughter. One can only imagine what it must have been like for the twelve-year-old Alison to be directed by her dad in such a disturbing, provocative thriller where her character's life is placed in jeopardy, but she seems to have come through it fine and has gone on to appear in many more of her pop's pictures—most notably a prime role in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The other notable character actor in Tightrope is Dan Hedaya (Cheers, Blood Simple, Running Scared, Freeway, Dick, The Hurricane), who makes a great Clint Eastwood sidekick.

Richard Tuggle's screenplay was inspired by newspaper articles about a San Fransisco serial rapist. Since Dirty Harry was based on the real-life Zodiac Killer, whose victims were also from the Bay Area, the setting was moved to New Orleans, which adds to the picture's looser, seedier vibe. So much of this movie is shot with red lights that one could easily mistake it for a Giallo! The cinematography from Clint's usual DP, Bruce Surtees, is even darker than the typical Eastwood movie. There are some shots where all you can see is Clint's arm, yet it still conveys all the information the scene is meant to impart. The lack of cinematic flash here was becoming increasingly distinctive of Eastwood movies.

This would be the last time Clint worked with a director he didn’t control. He'd already run afoul of the Director's Guild of America by using his star power and the fact that his personal company was producing a movie to fire a director and take over. After he did this to Phil Kaufman on The Outlaw Josey Wales eight years prior, the DGA imposed a new clause in all contracts, known as "the Eastwood Rule," which prohibits an actor or producer from doing just that. Clint ran up against this rule on Tightrope, as he felt Tuggle's directing was too slow and meticulous. He essentially did the very thing the Eastwood Rule was meant to prevent, just without actually removing Tuggle from the set or replacing his name on the credits. Clint, who joined the DGA in 1970, would go on to win several directing awards from the union, including its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. But the DGA still enforces the Eastwood Rule more strictly now than ever. Clint would have more director troubles during his next film, the Buddy Picture City Heat, which he made with Burt Reynolds after firing screenwriter Blake Edwards off of his own project before the cameras rolled.

Tightrope stands out in the Eastwood filmography. It's one of Clint's most fascinating characters and bold yet still seemingly effortless performances. This rather fucked-up cop drama went on to be the fourth highest-grossing R-rated film of 1984 and was lauded by critics and audiences alike. I've always felt the common refrain you hear from so many people now of, "You couldn't make that film today," is a stupid thing to say since anyone can make any kind of film today. And if what people mean when they say that is, "Hollywood couldn't make that film today," well, Hollywood can't make pretty much any of the kinds of films they used to. However, there's no deigning that Tightrope is unmistakably a picture from the mid-80s. And no, they haven't made movies like this in quite a long time.