The Gauntlet (1977)

Credit: Warner Bros.

This seems like a lesser known film amongst the resume of Clint Eastwood, though I can't see why with a movie poster like that. It's as if the posters for Star Wars and Escape From New York were merged into one bad ass masterpiece. Just one look at it will put hair on your chest! As a side note, if there's one thing that bugs me most about today's movies, its the severe lack of creativity when it comes to movie posters. I don't know if they would rather not spend the budget to commission artwork like this poster for The Gauntlet or Hollywood doesn't have faith in it's audience to tell who's the star of a movie if they don't slap their face onto a simple "photoshopped" poster.

As for The Gauntlet, it's poster does indeed sum up everything you'd want in an action movie, and Clint Eastwood delivers the goods. Not only does he star as Ben Shockley, he also steps behind the camera and into the director's chair. As Ben Shockley, he is given the task of transporting a witness for a trial from Las Vegas to Phoenix, which unfortunately for him it turns out to be a difficult assignment. Fortunately for us, the viewers, we're treated to several shoot-outs, an exploding car, high-speed chases, even a helicopter firing from above as Shockley rides a motorcyle. Clint's signature dry wit is present but he doesn't hog all the great lines for his character; his feisty female co-star gets some great lines, as well as a cop that Shockley holds at gun point to transport them to the airport. His female co-star is not just that, she was also Clint's love interest at the time, Sondra Locke. I have a feeling their chemistry in real life is much like in this film; if Clint overcooked her steak, she probably slapped him with it.

Do you know how action movies always feature a million bullets whizzing through the air yet none of them ever hit their target? I feel like this is the movie that started that trend, as the movie's climax features a bus that is turned to Swiss cheese; wait, scratch that. It's more than cheese as it literally becomes a giant-sized cheese grater after the bad guys are done with it. I'm surprised that this movie was sitting in the bargain bin and isn't mentioned in the same breath with Clint's classics movies like Gran Torino, Dirty Harry, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. We're doing this movie, and also Eastwood, a disservice by not including it with other classic action movies. I think I'm going to end this review now and start surfing the web for a replica of The Gauntlet's movie poster to proudly display on my wall.