Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!mcnc!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: "Tightrope" and Dirty Harry Message-ID: <1013@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Wed, 5-Sep-84 02:04:23 EDT Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.1013 Posted: Wed Sep 5 02:04:23 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 03:07:26 EDT Organization: UCLA CS Dept. Lines: 66 "Yep, it's another "Dirty Harry" look-alike ..." Terry Laskodi I can understand not liking "Tightrope", though I did like it a lot. It is not really accurate to criticize it as a "Dirty Harry" lookalike, though. Let's take a look at similarities and differences: Similarities: 1. Clint Eastwood stars in both. 2. Both are about cops. 3. Both cops are divorced. Well, that's about it for similarities, and I've included the similarities of style and tone as well as those of plot. Now for other side. Differences: 1. Dirty Harry movies are all extremely violent. The purpose of these movies is to give Eastwood as many chances as possible to blow away scum who obviously don't deserve to live. To make their worthlessness clear, show more violence, with the scum killing other people. "Tightrope" has a fair number of dead bodies, but the only explicit violence is at the very end. 2. Dirty Harry is a loner without any emotional ties, except maybe to his partner. Block, in "Tightrope", is a father who obviously loves his kids very much and loved his wife very much, too. 3. Dirty Harry operates in complete contempt of the law. He'll get the bad guys any way he can; if he has to break some laws to do it, tough luck. Fans of these films would say he prefers justice to law. Opponents say that what's really operating is revenge. Block is pretty much by the book. Any laws he breaks have little or nothing to do with solving the case. Even under extreme provocation, he doesn't go out by himself to kick some ass. He follows procedures. 4. A few teases in "Sudden Impact" to the contrary, Dirty Harry isn't really interested in sex. It takes out too much time which could be spent blowing holes in people. Eastwood's character in "Tightrope" is extremely interested in sex. 5. Dirty Harry's partners are marked for death the moment they get assigned to him. Block doesn't have a partner as such, and the cops he works with aren't set up just to get knocked down. 6. Dirty Harry lives in a simple, black and white world. Block doesn't. I could go on, but I guess you get the point. "Tightrope" is not really an action thriller. It's rather more psychological. If you don't like that, OK. Personally, I think that it's a much better film than any of the Dirty Harry pictures (with the exception of the first one, which benefited from fine direction by Don Seigel). At any rate, it isn't trying to be a Dirty Harry type film, and it seems unfair to judge it as such. By the way, it made $20 million in 10 days, which is the best opening for any Clint Eastwood picture. I guess someone else likes it, too. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher