All of TVGuide.com Videos Only

The Gauntlet

1977, Movie, R, 110 mins

The Gauntlet: Review

Eastwood does a reprise of his "Dirty Harry" character here, only this time he's working for the Phoenix, Arizona, police department. His superior, Prince, orders him to Las Vegas to extradite a prisoner, Locke, who is to testify in a trial. Eastwood, an alcoholic cop with little hope for promotion let alone a pension, goes to Las Vegas and picks up Locke. She tells him that they will never get back to Phoenix, that they both will be killed before she gets into court to testify against high-ranking police officials in Eastwood's department. He scoffs at her, but when a bevy of cops unleash a fusillade against the bungalow where they are staying temporarily, he quickly comes to believe she has a point. They flee by taking a cop hostage and having him drive his squad car toward Phoenix. On a dark road, the couple get out of the squad car, which is then blasted to bits by an army of cops, killing the driver. Hiding out in a desert cave, Eastwood and Locke grow friendly toward each other in a hostile sort of way. The cop interrupts a motorcycle gang the next morning as they stop to get their bearings and smoke some pot. Eastwood commandeers a cycle and sends the gang packing. He and Locke again proceed to their destination as a machine gun-firing helicopter tries to strafe them. Eastwood then takes over a bus and has it plated with armor, and he and Locke climb aboard, intending to drive into Phoenix and confront Prince, the head of the police department who has set them up and is the person Locke will testify against. Prince, who is told by Eastwood that he is coming, sets up an incredible police gauntlet, hundreds of cops who riddle the bus as it roars into the city. But Eastwood and Locke survive to drive the battered vehicle onto the steps of Prince's grandiose office building. Prince races through the scores of cops surrounding the couple and orders them killed, but the cops refuse. When he tries to kill them, Locke shoots him to death. The couple then go off to face the music together. THE GAUNTLET is thoroughly unbelievable hokum that any 10-year-old will dismiss as nonsense. Eastwood sleepwalks through his role, and Locke is simply repulsive as the feisty hooker. The production is expensively mounted and returned $17 million plus from the pockets of diehard Eastwood fans. The violence is bloody, nonstop, and as pointless as the script. leave a comment