In the 1970s films became more violent. No doubt about it. And The Gauntlet is unquestionably a violent film. Buildings are reduced to rubble, vehicles are shot to pieces, people are pumped full of lead, and plenty of blood is spilled.... all in the name of entertainment! This noisy Clint Eastwood vehicle is good fun, with lots of exciting sequences, though thoroughly unbelievable pretty much from the start.
Honest, hard-working Phoenix cop Ben Shockley (Eastwood) is sent by Comissioner Blakelock (William Prince) to bring in a prostitute who may be able to provide key testimony in a high profile trial. But from the moment Shockley meets Gus Malley (Sondra Locke), he suddenly finds himself in the firing line.... and it's not the usual bad guys who are after him, but the cops. Seems Malley's testimony could implicate a major police figure in sleaze and scandal, and the man in question is none other than Shockley's boss Comissioner Blakelock. Shockley attempts to get his witness back to Phoenix, despite the fact that every cop on the force has been ordered by Blakelock to gun the pair of them down.
The climactic sequence, in which Eastwood and Locke head for Phoenix City Hall in an armour-plated bus while sharp-shooters try to blast the living hell out of the vehicle, is truly astounding. As a destructive set piece not many sequences can rival it even to this day. The film contains many similarly noisy, destructive, memorable scenes. Admittedly, there are times when believability is markedly lacking (e.g the bit where Clint and Sondra are pursued by a helicopter while aboard a motorbike - and the sniper aboard the helicopter repeatedly fails to gun them down). However, on the whole The Gauntlet is good fun. Switch your brain down a gear or two and enjoy....
Honest, hard-working Phoenix cop Ben Shockley (Eastwood) is sent by Comissioner Blakelock (William Prince) to bring in a prostitute who may be able to provide key testimony in a high profile trial. But from the moment Shockley meets Gus Malley (Sondra Locke), he suddenly finds himself in the firing line.... and it's not the usual bad guys who are after him, but the cops. Seems Malley's testimony could implicate a major police figure in sleaze and scandal, and the man in question is none other than Shockley's boss Comissioner Blakelock. Shockley attempts to get his witness back to Phoenix, despite the fact that every cop on the force has been ordered by Blakelock to gun the pair of them down.
The climactic sequence, in which Eastwood and Locke head for Phoenix City Hall in an armour-plated bus while sharp-shooters try to blast the living hell out of the vehicle, is truly astounding. As a destructive set piece not many sequences can rival it even to this day. The film contains many similarly noisy, destructive, memorable scenes. Admittedly, there are times when believability is markedly lacking (e.g the bit where Clint and Sondra are pursued by a helicopter while aboard a motorbike - and the sniper aboard the helicopter repeatedly fails to gun them down). However, on the whole The Gauntlet is good fun. Switch your brain down a gear or two and enjoy....