The Clint Eastwood fans already know what fun action they can expect, for those people yet unknown with Clint Eastwood, one can expect shoot-out after shoot-out. The story is about a corrupt police chief trying to kill a witness before she can testify to his corruption.

The good: terrific action, however silly and over the top, it is still incredibly enjoyable. Great role by a lovely Sandra Locke, who provides a bit of budding romance. And there is an excellent bad guy as well. What more could I wish for in a dirty cop action movie?

Any bad? Well, the story is completely NOT credible up to RIDICULOUS, because at many moments it makes no sense whatsoever. For those who want a realistic story, pass this one by. For those (like me) who first most want to see full blown fun action, this is definitely worth the watch...

The Gauntlet is the second of six films that Clint Eastwood did with Sondra Locke, an amount that certainly qualifies them as a screen team of note. They were for 15 years a team off the screen as well.

The Gauntlet casts Locke as a hooker who is being subpoenaed as a witness in an organized crime case. She's in Las Vegas where if you'll recall prostitution is legal and apparently she's learned some interesting information. More interesting than she realizes because there are some people who want to make very certain she does not reach Phoenix where the Maricopa County District Attorney has her for a witness.

Assigned to the case is Clint Eastwood who is characterized by himself as a tired old time server of a cop. He's not by reputation with the Phoenix, PD a Harry Callahan. But to the regret of forces who want to see Locke dead and consider him an incompetent and expendable, Clint fools them all.

As a film The Gauntlet goes at a good clip and the suspense from the first attack against Eastwood and Locke does not let up for a second. The dialog between Eastwood and Locke is crisp and entertaining and the action sequences well staged. The two leads get good support from Pat Hingle as Eastwood's luckless partner and William Prince the corrupt Chief of the Phoenix PD.

I'm not sure whether Prince wants Locke dead for her testimony linking him to organized crime or for the fact she can testify to some alternate sexual practices he favors. Either way Prince is absolutely manic about making sure they never get to Phoenix alive.

For fans of Clint Eastwood, The Gauntlet is one of his best films, one of my favorites of his, and something not to be missed.

A generic action film with Clint Eastwood, featuring more action and less plotting than most of his other cop films from this era. The story, which involves Eastwood's cop and a star witness going on the run from both the police and the mob, seems to have inspired countless other action films from the '70s and '80s, but I didn't find it anything special about it. Instead the film seems to focus and revel in superficial, larger than life stunts and set-pieces while forgetting to give us much heart at its core. Hell, even Stallone's COBRA had more of a plot than this!

Still, the movie isn't all bad and I found it difficult to really dislike. Eastwood and his love interest Sondra Locke were together in real life, so their chemistry is for real. The laughs, mostly stemming from Eastwood's deadpan humour and the bizarre situations in which he finds himself, are solid, and there are good supporting turns from actors including Pat Hingle and ex-peplum star Dan Vadis as a biker. The action scenes are impressive, although there's an overwhelming feel of macho overkill in scenes in which a house and bus are absolutely destroyed by hundreds of rounds. I would have preferred a more suspenseful and realistic feel to these sequences, but this is far from Eastwood's best as director.

The lengthy motorbike-chased-by-helicopter sequence, for instance, requires an absolutely massive suspension of disbelief and has a too-obvious outcome on top of that. I've made THE GAUNTLET sound like a bad film, and it isn't, not really; the climax, for instance, is highly memorable and sets a new precedent in over-the-top showdowns. It's just that I've come to expect so much from Eastwood as both actor and director, and this light-hearted vehicle doesn't come close to the quality of the DIRTY HARRY films.