{"id":3512,"date":"2009-06-30T20:01:11","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T01:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.regrettablesincerity.com\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2011-11-09T20:35:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T00:35:55","slug":"tightrope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/?p=3512","title":{"rendered":"Tightrope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vlcsnap-1749155\"There\u2019s nothing more menacing than a serial killer into S&M who completes the picture by wearing a stolen pair of Mr. Rogers\u2019 sneakers*. Ok, maybe I\u2019m just making up that last part. There\u2019s no reason to think he stole the shoes, Mr. Rogers might have lent them out to him.<\/p>\n

Anyway, 1984\u2019s tawdry Tightrope<\/em>, a Clint Eastwood police procedural that, by the standards of today, with even studios making movies like 8MM<\/em>, is quite quaint. Obviously Clint intended Tightrope <\/em>as a departure from his Dirty Harry<\/em> roles. The fourth in that series, Sudden Impact<\/em>, had been released only a year earlier. This, because the close-mindedness and homophobia that is standard for Harry, where just being a lesbian is reason enough to take a beating, has been replaced by Wes Block, a cop into handcuffing prostitutes and having sex with them. When Wes is challenged that he might try sleeping with young boys, he replies to the goading gigolo, \u201cMaybe I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"vlcsnap-1754856\"These sorts of diversions overcome the standard killer stuff, where Clint and the mystery man have similar interests. And so the suspicion falls on Wes, which carries no tension at all, because the killer’s identity was revealed in the very first scene. Perhaps as compensation for the lack of surprise, the movie throws in all sorts of goofiness, at least guaranteeing that Tightrope<\/em> won\u2019t be completely forgettable. Whether it be his young daughter\u2019s questions about erections or when one of the victims is found rotating in the washing machine, visible through the window, or the amusement park size heads of famous politicians hidden in a warehouse, or the brilliant final confrontational moment (after a dull and endless chase sequence who\u2019s only purpose seems to be <\/span>to fulfill Clint\u2019s motif of having <\/span>his characters always running<\/span><\/a><\/span>), Tightrope<\/em> is always trying to make sure you\u2019re awake.<\/p>\n

\"vlcsnap-1750087\"Director Richard Tuggle (reportedly in-name-only as Clint did most of the actual<\/em> directing) tries to keep the movie very low-key, partially by turning into a travelogue of the seedier parts of New Orleans. These are dealt with in a matter-of-fact way. As is the refreshing handling of Wes\u2019 relationship with a rape counselor played by Genevi\u00e8ve Bujold. While it is clear they will eventually get together, there\u2019s an actual development in their relationship — not just the immediate antagonism transforming into sex — meaning that Bujold has the rare female role in an Eastwood film that isn\u2019t totally thankless and perfunctory.<\/p>\n

Especially well done are the scenes where he tries to flirt with her to create a staccato banter, and Tuggle\/Eastwood lets his quips that he thinks are clever just die. You can see how his awkward, cocky charm might have worked on her, building on their initial platonic innuendo (\u201cI\u2019ll take you bowling.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t like bowling.\u201d \u201cMe neither.\u201d). It helps the viewer get past the stacking of the deck by having Wes Block be a single father whose wife left him with two adorable blond moppets to run off with her rich boyfriend (it sure makes sense to leave your kids with your cop ex-husband who’s never home). The children are obviously there as juxtaposition to Wes\u2019 lascivious interests. But it only provides groans, not just because the younger looks exactly like the Poltergeist<\/em> kid. But it gives the killer someone to kidnap and\/or attack when Wes is out of the house trying to find him.<\/p>\n

\"vlcsnap-1749418\"And while there are plenty of other clich\u00e9s, dated or otherwise (check out that nerd masseuse!), there\u2019s also a midget refereeing two women wrestling in oil. It kind of makes me wish that he\u2019d taken a similar approach to spicing up his adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Think about it. Clint. Meryl. Midgets.<\/p>\n

\"*

* The walking instruments in question<\/p><\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing more menacing than a serial killer into S&M who completes the picture by wearing a stolen pair of Mr. Rogers\u2019 sneakers*. Ok, maybe I\u2019m just making up that last part. There\u2019s no reason to think he stole the shoes, Mr. Rogers might have lent them out to him. Anyway, 1984\u2019s tawdry Tightrope, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4725,5188,4726,420,4719,79,4527,2340,3464,4040,277,2533,4720,639,1777,1146,1715,1427,3930,4723,933,221,4600,4724,1654,763,4717,91,4722,2443,4377,1667,3449,1160,310,1900,4721,5189,4718,4716,1776,1418,1316,2500,651,2410,3948,3946,3931,3949,1574,3442,1162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}