Originally released in 1984, at a time when he was riding high on the success of the fourth DIRTY HARRY offering, SUDDEN IMPACT (1983), Clint Eastwood ventured outside his comfort zone to play a more flawed and troubled detective in a similarly left-field way as he did playing Ben Shockley in THE GAUNTLET (1977)
Written and directed by Richard Tuggle, who adapted the J. Campbell Bruce book ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ for the 1979 film of the same name, directed by Don Siegel, TIGHTROPE tells of New Orleans detective Wes Block (Eastwood), a recently-divorced single parent to Amanda (Eastwood’s own daughter Alison) and Penny (Jennifer Beck)
Their lives revolve around playing American Football in their street, whilst dealing with a seemingly ever-increasing penchant for picking up every stray dog in the neighbourhood.
However, Block is first and foremost a detective – and duty calls when he is assigned to a number of sexually-motivated murders of women in the city. His investigation is jumped on by local Rape Crisis centre head Beryl Thibodeaux (Genevieve Bujold), who is determined to make Block be more responsive and responsible for his actions.
Complicating matters a little further, however, is Block’s own nocturnal tendencies as he looks deeper into the case, a perspective that might just be a little more sleazier than your average police case….
Fans of Eastwood from his work in the DIRTY HARRY films and PLAY MISTY FOR ME know that his themes are often dysfunction and darker tones when it comes to the harder characters and this is another step away from what most people would expect, although the climax is vintage Eastwood action.
In these enlightened post #MeToo mindsets, TIGHTROPE is actually a more solid film and very reflective of gender attitudes, thanks in part to Bujold’s ability to hold her own against Eastwood, who gives a measured and occasionally more emotive performance than what people often expect.
Eastwood (making her debut in films, around the same time her actor-turned-jazz musician brother Kyle had his in HONKYTONK MAN the previous year) showed tremendous promise in a career that has seen her feature in other films by her father, most recently in THE MULE, again playing his daughter. Beck acted according to online sources until 1991.
TIGHTROPE is also to be applauded for its’ visuals of New Orleans, a city not used like a Chicago, LA or New York in this type of film – and the difference in location helps raise the film to a bigger level – and one of Eastwood’s best thrillers, a police procedural that fits perfectly today in these CIS series on TV.