Book Review: Another Run Through The Gauntlet

Film historian Toby Roan’s latest book examines Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet in a thoroughgoing study that supports his belief that it is a great and important film.

When Eastwood starred in, and directed, The Gauntlet he was at the height of his cinematic powers.  Three successful films in the Dirty Harry series and his self-directed westerns High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales preceded The Gauntlet.  Its box office take exceeded $35 million against a budget of less than $6 million.  However, the critics, for the most part, dismissed the film as silly and overdone, while moviegoers came away with misgivings as to the outrageous scenes.

The book isn’t merely a review of the film.  Roan gives us information on its origin, its background, its development, and its execution.  We learn how much Eastwood changed the script, his approach as both an actor and a director, how his auteurist approach to the film is part of the movie’s overall significance.  The book offers us the films history, aesthetic, initial impact, and how well it had held up over time.

Some of the most fascinating passages include capsule bios on all who were involved with the project, and the conceptual development of the film.  And as for its status as a film in the Clint Eastwood filmography, Roan states:

Director Eastwood gives us likable characters, puts them in a series of exciting situations, and does it all at a pace that creates its own knucklehead logic. If we groan at how ridiculous one sequence is, we’re still eagerly awaiting the next amped-up obstacle….

Another Run Through The Gauntlet is an impressive, enlightening look at a much-discussed Clint Eastwood film of the 70s from which we learn a great deal.  The book is available at this link:  GAUNTLET