Rakesh's movie talk
Every Which Way But Loose (1978)













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Directed by James Fargo
Written by Jeremy Joe Kronsberg
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Geoffrey Lewis, Ruth Gordon and Sondra Locke
















everywhichway.jpg
Enough Clyde, people talk you know.

One critic called this movie as innocuous. Maybe he is right. I chuckled and stroked my eyebrows seriously. Okay I admit it, I went to dictionary.com and did a search. Innocuous means:

1: not injurious to physical or mental health [syn: harmless] [ant: noxious] 2: unlikely to harm or disturb anyone; "harmless old man" [syn: harmless] 3: not causing disapproval; "it was an innocuous remark"; "confined himself to innocuous generalities"; "unobjectionable behavior" [syn: unobjectionable] 4: lacking intent or capacity to injure; "an innocent prank" [syn: innocent]
And they give another example: "Where the salt sea innocuously breaks. --Wordsworth"

Dang! I got myself a Wordsworth quote in this commentary. You must be wondering why I am going to these extends in writing an, err..innocuous comment on a simple movie. Well, I just want to intellectualise it, like most other reviews. Guess I am just a biased Eastwood fan after all.

Coming to the point. The script was written originally for Burt Reynolds, then riding high with the success of his redneck comedies like Smokey and The Bandit and Cannonball Run. Eastwood was looking for a light material after 'rough'ing it up with the likes of three Dirty Harry movies and some grim westerns. He thought it would be nice to just poke his head in his pal, Reynold's territory - low-brow comedies. And this baby scored US 100 million.

This movie has the following: Eastwood as a regular, truck-driving, beer-drinking, fist-fighting, simple minded Joe. Wait, his name is Philo Beddoe in it. At least it rhymes. Then there is his pal, Orville (Geoffrey Lewis) and Clyde, the orangutan, foul-mouthed old lady Ma (Ruth Gordon), the aging, balding, Black Widow motorcycle gang, some dumb cops and Sondra Locke who plays Philo's love interest Lynn Halsey-Taylor. Or so, he thinks.

Most part of this movie is spent on Philo tracking Lynn down. I didn't care for that. What happens in between makes up for otherwise what could have been dumb and dopey romance. There is a lot of knuckle-fighting and antiques from Clyde, Ma and the motorcycle gang. They are not roaring, roll-over-the-floor funny, but good chuckles. Fans of country and western music will be delighted with the onslaught of tunes unleashed in this movie. I am a rocker at heart, so I didn't care much for them.

All in all, Every Which Way But Loose helps to kill boredom, and that is specifically what I did during the weekend. I watched this film and its sequel back to back.

So, innocuous it is. The humour does not offend, especially to kids these days who are exposed to Eminem and Linkin Park. The brawls are not violent. They allow a bit of blood to drip from the side of the eyes or mouth and that's it. There are many references to sex, especially that of Clyde's but we are talking about the whole generation exposed to the National Geographic. I think I am getting grouchy here. See you in the sequel commentary.

Final verdict? Innocuous. Hope I got the spelling right.
















Check out the sequel commentary:

Any Which Way You Can (1980)