The Gauntlet by Michael Butler - 6 out of 10

The Gauntlet by Michael Butler
6 out of 10


On most levels, this is a ridiculous, flawed, in this age even outrageous motion picture.

It has been said that we have to look at various films, plays with tolerance, considering what was appropriate at the time, without the critical eye of people from the age of MeToo.
However, there are quite a few aspects that are repellent in this feature, most importantly, the violence and abuse perpetrated against the main female character, including by Ben Shockley aka the republican Clint Eastwood.

What is more infuriating and serious is the fact that Ben Shockley is not the villain of the film, so that we could say that his horrible actions are not a good example, for on the contrary, he is the hero and as such teenagers and others in the public could feel that they should copy this supposed role model.
Eventually, the protagonist learns to behave better, to esteem Gus Mally aka Sondra Locke, but he still has the manner of a macho, sexist figure who keeps telling his companion "nag, nag" and seems to treat her with condescension and superiority.

Ben Shockley is a policeman assigned to escort a prostitute from Las Vegas to Phoenix, where she is supposed to testify, but from the start this appears to be a cumbersome task, for the woman does not want to leave the cell.
Gus Mally has even mixed cigarette ash with her coffee to fake an illness, she then insists that they want to kill her and there are bets on her demise, all to no avail, for the cop does not believe her.

Especially given that she doesn't know who "they" are and why would they want to kill her, for a case of no consequence- this is anyway what he has been told by the police commissioner, Blakelock.
The hero does find that there is a bet on a non existent horse, Mally no Show and the odds keep increasing, but he is not convinced by the incredible story, until they drive towards the airport.

From an apparent police car - one in a series - killers start shooting at the hero and his prisoner, there is an explosion and the woman finally makes the cop understand that gangsters want her dead and Shockley will be eliminated as well in the process.
The policeman and the woman find refuge in a house, he talks to Blakelock and explains what happened, he is told to wait for official support.

More than twenty police and local law enforcement cars arrive at the scene, where, instead of helping Shockley and his companion, they start shooting so much as to demolish the wooden construction, as Mally escapes through a tunnel and the hero after her.
With his gun, he forces a local cop working for the sheriff's office to take them away, Ben talks to his superior again, who plans a meeting at the Nevada Arizona border.

If it is feminist in any way, the motion picture does present Mally as more emotionally intelligent than the cop, for she is the one who sees that there is something wrong with the trap set at the house and therefore Blakelock might well be more interested in their oblivion that their wellbeing.
She is soon proved right, for albeit reluctantly, the cop decides to get off the car and thus they both see the messengers from Blakelock killing yet another man.

There follows an absurd chase between a helicopter and the couple of now fugitives on a motorcycle, through open terrain, with the sniper unable to shoot them for very long, agonizing minutes - infuriating, because it made no sense- yes, the superhero must survive, but give it a drop of credibility for God's sake.
As if this was not enough, there is an aggravating, long attack on a bus within which there could have been no survivors, if that long scene made any sense, plus, it would have been such a no brainier to shoot at the tires and then end of story.

In other words, if some ingredients could have been tolerated in this rather strange mix of Dirty Harry, The Guns of Navarrone - at one point, it feels like an Army division has opened fire and yet, nothing happens, expect for some broken windows and chairs.
The intelligence of the viewer is insulted, or, it is just the way films were and we just can't remember that and perhaps the fact that special effects were available now for Fast and Furious XXII, Avatar and other productions were the imagined and false seem so real.