Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney

Director: Clint Eastwood

Summary: Tough action story in which Clint Eastwood stars as an Arizona cop who must protect a key witness from killers on both sides of the law.

Clint Eastwood plays an alcoholic, dim-witted cop, Ben Shockley, who has to escort an irate prostitute, Gus Mally (Sondra Locke), from Las Vegas to Phoenix so she can testify in a mob trial. Gus immediately warns Ben of the danger that they're in, but he doesn't believe her. He eventually figures out that his superiors want Gus dead and chose him for the job because they thought he'd fail. The two spend most of the film eluding the trigger-happy cops. The banter between Ben and Gus, who initially despise each other, is just as brutal and entertaining as the action set pieces. And when the two finally warm to each other, it's surprisingly effective. Eastwood and Locke made many films together, but THE GAUNTLET features what may be their strongest collaboration. Literal-minded critics may malign the film for its over-the-top explosive action, but it's clear that Eastwood was aware of how outrageous and preposterous the action in the film is. As Jan De Bont would later do with another wildly entertaining and implausible film involving a bus, SPEED, Eastwood here has stripped down the action movie to its bare essence. THE GAUNTLET is a fun ride.

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Clint Eastwood is a down-and-out cop who is sent on a routine mission to pick up a witness and deliver her to the Phoenix courthouse. Sounds easy until he realises he's been set up by the man who gave him this simple assignment. The interplay between Eastwood and the witness, a clever prostitute played by the actor's former girlfriend, Sondra Locke, is tough and playful. They obviously had strong chemistry. The story is highly implausible at times, but the action sequences are satisfying. Eastwood directs The Gauntletvery much in the style of his Academy Award-winning Western Unforgiven. Although the body count is surprisingly low for an Eastwood action film, a house, several cars and a large bus get shot through with more holes than a big wheel of Swiss cheese. For Eastwood fans, this is the laconic hero at his prime. --Richard Natale

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Access
Subtitles:	Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Year:	1977
Release Date:	August 23, 1999
Runtime:	104 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 011083
Keywords:	Action, General, Wide, Screen, Gauntlet, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure