Ok, now hear me out. If the above photo didn't already alienate you, give me a few more sentences. Please, promise you'll continue reading after the next sentence and allow me to explain... This blog is about "Every Which Way But Loose" and I'm going to argue it's artistic merits.
Yes, that movie; the Clint Eastwood/orangutan film. You hear orangutan buddy comedy, and I understand how it might be easy to dismiss. It's a goofball movie now as much as it was in the 70's, except if you watch it all the way through and allow yourself to look a little deeper -- it's daring, experimental, and surprisingly profound, even more so, since it was a 1978 pop-corn flick. But in the 70's, Hollywood studio films had guts -- even the 70's human-orangutan buddy movies.
The title originates from Zora Neale Hurston's classic 1937 novel "Their Eye's Were Watching God." According to Wikipedia.com:
the main character Janie's husband Tea Cake tells her about a fight he had with a man who had a knife, where in the fight Tea Cake "turned him every way but loose", i.e. fought him but did not let the man stab him.
Clint Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe. He's a blue collar auto-mechanic who's been unlucky with women his entire life, until he becomes smitten with Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sandra Locke), a traveling, up-and-coming country music singer performing at the local honky-tonk. Lynn leads him on then skips town. Philo decides to chase her across the west, his best friends Clyde (the orangutan) and Orville (Geoffrey Lewis) tagging along for the ride. Meanwhile, Philo crosses a pair of police officers and a motorcycle gang (the "Black Widows") who pursue him for revenge. Actually, it sounds pretty epic once you summarize all of it like that...
The vintage 70's trailer describes the movie pretty well. "Hey babe, what do you think of Clint Eastwood?..."
The film is experimental in many respects; unique in it's approach to comedy. In the following scene Philo feeling lonesome without Lynn, takes Clyde out on the town. The great Charlie Rich sings "I'll Wake You Up" over the montage. Skip ahead to 0:43:
Both Philo and Clyde look at the stripper, share a few words, and take swigs of their beers at the same time. What a moment. Clint Eastwood hanging out with an orangutang... in a strip club... drinking beers. It's played completely straight, with a wistful song in the background. There are laughs, but it seems the director intended the scene to be more about the characters' relationship. It's a clue that there's more here than the sole formulaic cheap gags and over-stuffed quick laughs indicative of many of today's comedies.
On top of everything else, Philo hustles as a bare-knuckle fighter -- it's how he won/rescued Clyde. He earns money on the side, fighting throughout the film. All the while he finds himself compared to the legendary, undefeated "Tank Murdock." This is where the movie gets really interesting.
Philo finally catches up to Lynn, but instead of that cinematic love-prevails-moment we're conditioned to expect -- especially after this Hero's journey west -- the film goes in the other direction.
He finds her in a bar parking lot with another man she just met, setting him up just like she did Philo at the beginning of the movie.
She spots Philo, her eyes widen. He approaches them. (Abridged scene:)
Lynn: It's your own goddamn fault. Who asked you to follow me?
Philo: I just thought --
Lynn: You thought? [...] I've been trying to get rid of you practically ever since the first night we met!
Philo: You do this all the time?
Lynn: Yeah I do this all the time, and you and me had our time. So how come you don't know when to disappear?
Philo: I'm just not too smart, that's all. 'Cause up till now, I'm the only one dumb enough to want to take you further than your bed...
Lynn slaps and punches Philo, who stands there and takes it. She knocks off his hat, bloodies his nose and his lip, and collapses crying. When it's over you can see it in his eyes; Philo is stunned, rejected, and heartbroken. He walks off.
Face still bloody Philo shows up to fight none other than Tank Murdock in a stockyard packed with Tank's fans and admirers.
Once again, Tank Murdock isn't the unbeatable legend you visualize in your mind over the course of the film, nor the rival you'd expect for Clint Eastwood's final challenge. Tank is fat and over the hill. Another nice touch: the man wears his old letterman's jacket from high school. He takes it off for the fight.
Tank Murdock (Walter Barnes)
Tank taunts Philo for his bloody nose and lip, "Looks like you've had a go at it already! You sure that face won't hurt too much to fight?"
Again challenging our expectations as an audience, Tank proves to be no challenge for Philo, and the crowd starts turning against Tank. Philo picks up on it and then does something extraordinary. He drops his guard and lets Tank knock him down. Instantly Tank's admirers return. Philo stays down for the count.
This is supposed to be a popcorn movie. A goofball comedy orangutan movie. Yet our protagonist is humiliated and outright rejected by the woman he pursues, he loses the final fight, he even loses all his money betting on himself for the fight. This film has the audacity to say you don't always walk away a winner. In fact, winning is such a rare thing, it's nearly a crime to take it away from someone who's whole life revolves around being looked at as a winner. Philo throws the fight and walks away a loser, because he didn't get the thing he wanted most in the world, and he didn't want to take the same away from "the great" Tank Murdock.
Show me a "serious" film that does as good a job of exploring this idea... how about any single other film that dares to lose, the way we lose in real life.
Yet the movie STILL somehow ends on a happy note, when we cut to this scene -- no music until the credits role:
Life goes on. If you've still got your friends and your best buddy, it can't all be that bad.
Every Which Way But Loose proves that even "stupid" goofball movies can be meaningful, which is a hell of a thing for a film to establish or achieve. An orangutan movie, no less.
According to imdb.com:
None of the advisors to Clint Eastwood wanted him to do this film. They did not think it was funny or that audiences would get it
Well, the experiment worked. "Every Which Way But Loose" was the second highest grossing film of 1978 and his biggest opening until "Gran Torino"was released in 2008.
If I could have a moment of Clint Eastwoods time, I'd ask him if he had any influence on how most of his movies have ended, even one's he hasn't directed, like "Every Which Way But Loose." Eastwood has an uncanny ability to be in films that have profound/unexpected/offbeat endings. You'll find them throughout his career, whether you're talking about "Mystic River," or "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot."
Every Which Way But Loose is unique. "Any Which Way You Can," the sequel, has none of these admirable qualities (it's a funny movie at least). In fact, it only flies in the face of everything I'm saying here. For example, Sandra Locke shows up in the first 10 minutes begging Philo's to take her back -- yeah right.
More films should play with genre, the viewer's expectations, and dare to be smart. These are virtues and we should give films that dare, the proper respect. ...Maybe it's just easier to call something "stupid."
Charles Rhoads
Clint Eastwood can pretty much make anything awesome. If this film were done today it would consist of an animated ape who would be dancing around singing "who let the dogs out". The 70's and 80's were such a great era for film. The turbulence of the late 60's gave birth to a cinematic age of virtual freedom. The mold had been broken and now daring yet enchanting films splurged the market. Also the special effects of the day were limited so more focus had to be put on character plot and cinematography. The 80's had better special effects yet still held true to the actual art of telling a story. Once Jurassic Park came out in 93 the birth of the summer blockbuster bombed art into the underground... thus the rise of indy films. The same effect happened with LOTR.. though LOTR and JP are great films they both spawned an age where special effects ruled over story and structure.
ReplyDelete- Bobby
Well said Bobby! Agreed!
ReplyDeleteI went and got the Clint Eastwood Comedy collection. A DVD set of 4 films: "SPACE COWBOYS", "HONKEY TONK MAN", and both "EVERY WHICH WAY" films. They had to package 'em somehow, so I guess comedy is as good a label as any because they're the lightest, or most light-hearted, or "romps", or whatever, of Clint's stuff.
ReplyDeleteI think you're both right though. None of these (except maybe Space Cowboys) is really an outright comedy. I like that. Instead of making a song, film, or book tailored to fit a specific marketing bin, make the damn thing and sit back in amusement while watching the accountant twidgets figure out what to make of it all.
I'm all for the business side, but I like to separate that as a phase apart from the creative phase. If we write to a business model, we'll censor ourselves before even penning the first letter of the screenplay. We can always tweak it to fit later, and then only if we must.
One more thing--and this is kinda funny: I remember the trailers for these films from when I was a kid. I'd be watching T.V. and it'd come on, "...Clint Eastwood: Any which way...". I didn't know Clint was the dude's name. I thought it was a verb. Imagine what a 2nd or 3rd grader processes. "Clint Eastward, any which way you can". Well, okay I'll "clint" eastward with my feet, I guess. I'm clinting like crazy. But why?
Keith
Great review. Very insightful. however Philo Beddoe was not an auto mechanic he was a truck driver. also know where in the movie except in his relationship to Lynn Halsey was it indicated that he had bad luck with women. at the very beginning of the movie he kisses one Secretary on the lips and winks at another one as he's leaving indicating that he's very familiar with the women he works with. yes he does run into a real prude at the country and western bar, but she seems to be an anomaly in that area as she is only there to do a college paper and she's a plot device for us to get a laugh
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