Bullet Points: The Gauntlet

I’m a sucker for movies that fit in unique categories. I’m talking about movies that wouldn’t normally be grouped together except they all have punctuation or numbers in the title or movies that have city names in the title even if it is not referencing the city, but one category that goes back the longest for me is movies that have the same name as American Gladiators events. I told you it was unique. There is one such movie that was the genesis for my American Gladiators enjoyment and even though I enjoy The Eliminator, Hit and Run, Cannonball!, and Vertigo just to name a few, The Gauntlet will always be my favorite (movie not event). Will The Gauntlet become champion in your eyes? Luckily, I have some Bullet Points for the 1977 Clint Eastwood action thriller in tonight’s competition.

• Malibu – A sad sack Clint Eastwood is not something you expect when going into a Clint Eastwood action movie (especially one also directed by Clint Eastwood), but that is exactly what Ben Shockley is. It is not as if Ben Shockley is a bad member of the Phoenix PD, it is just that the booze has more control over what he does. That is why it is such a surprise when Shockley is tasked with transporting a criminal who will be testifying as a nothing witness in a nothing case, or at least that is how Shockley’s superior Blakelock refers to it. Shockley needs to go to Las Vegas to pick up Gus Mally and return him back to Phoenix.  
• Lace – First thing we learn is that Gus Mally is not a him but a her and is really Augustina Mally (Sondra Locke). Oh boy, things just got interesting, and Mally takes no guff from anyone. I have never seen someone so excited to know something that someone else doesn’t know than the Las Vegas prison guard who relishes that fact that Shockley didn’t know Mally was female. That prison guard was way too excited to tell Shockley there were no men in the prison named Gus Mally only to let Shockley know there was a Gus Mally in the female prison as Shockley was about to walk out the door. Mally does not want to go with Shockley because she is worried for her life as there is a hit out on her and Shockley. A hit that even has a betting line in the casinos, classic Vegas.

• Nitro – Shockley may prefer his booze, but he is good at his job and is not going to let the fact that there is a hit out on him stop him from getting Mally back to Phoenix, and this is where the action picks up. If you want to see cars getting blown up, an entire house shot to smithereens so much that it collapses, and a helicopter v. motorcycle chase with some pesky power lines than you will be in for a treat and it made even more enjoyable due to the animosity between Shockley and Mally. I wonder if the pair will eventually grow on each other?
• Zap – Does anyone else think there is something rotten in the Phoenix PD? I do and it is made even more evident when we meet some of the higher ups in the department. Take a look at Pat Hinge as Josephson, William Prince as Blakelock and Michael Cavanaugh as Feyderspiel and tell me that two of those fools don’t look crookeder than a dog’s hind leg. It is nice to have such despicable characters because when they eventually get theirs it is very satisfying. Much obliged to Shockley for sussing out what is rotten with the help of Mally in discovering the mob is also heavily involved, classic 70s movie.

• Gemini – I love how The Gauntlet turns into a biker movie about three quarters of the way through with multiple scenes of some dirty bikers. You can put Clint Eastwood rousting bikers in any movie and it would instantly make it better. However, the real reason I come back to The Gauntlet is for the final scene with Shockley and Mally piloting an armored bus down the streets of Phoenix with what seems to be the entire police force attempting to waylay the bus… or in other words, literally running the gauntlet. It is without a doubt the greatest piece of cinema ever filmed in Phoenix.

There is a reason The Gauntlet is my favorite movie that has the same title as an American Gladiator event and that is because of the chemistry between Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. I suppose that makes sense because the two were together for a long time in real life along with many films they did together. Sorry, that is a lie, not about Eastwood and Locke, but the reason I love The Gauntlet. It is because of the end bus scene. There is plenty of great action leading up to it but it is the orgy of gunfire at the end that gets me every time. Something you may not get every time are some Bonus Bullet Points, but I am feeling generous.

• Deja Vu – If you like Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Pat Hingle in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood you probably would also like Sudden Impact.
• “That Is a Bad District Attorney” Quote – “He Couldn’t convict Hitler.”
• Real and Fake – The reason the final scene had so many police officers is because the production used real members of the Phoenix PD. However, the purported police department is actually the Phoenix Symphony Hall.
• Best Insult – “On a scale to 10, I would give her a 2 and that is only because I have never seen a 1 before.”