Tightrope (1984) User Reviews

Flawed but fascinating film noir & Eastwood pushes to the limit his star status...

[Bradford_Galt · 7/10 · 4 June 2005]

...in a dark and unsettling psychological thriller. Directed by Clint's protégé Richard Tuggle (who wrote the screenplay to the earlier Siegel-Eastwood classic ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979), the film's first half is uncertain and suffers from clichéd (albeit well staged and visualised) New Orleans locations - shady whorehouse dives, red light tinged bars and over officious police procedural rooms and locker-room banter.

The plot itself is functional but nothing special: a serial killer with a penchant for young, pretty blondes, is terrorising the city by disposing of prostitutes by strangling them and dumping the bodies all over the city. The twist in TIGHTROPE is that the killer is also dogging the footsteps of kinky cop Detective Wes Block (Eastwood), a lonely divorcée with two young children. Block eases off the shackles of a tough day job by frequenting the very same sleazy dives that his thoroughly unpleasant nemesis does.

A predictable game of cat and mouse ensues, but the film's stock film noir origins are transcended by Eastwood's continual playing with his own star status and by a very interesting exploration of his character's private obsessions and genuinely touching relationship with his two young daughters. Special mention here for real-life daughter Alison Eastwood, quite superb as the older and more perceptive girl, who clearly suspects her troubled father is up to more than just "looking for something" on his late night travels through New Orleans's seamier districts.

The more conventional opening section of TIGHTROPE is distinctly misleading, largely because about half way through, the film's most interesting character (played by the truly excellent GENEVIEVE BUJOLD) comes much more to the fore. As the feisty and fiercely intelligent Rape Crisis Center head Beryl Thibodeaux (nice use of Bujold's French-Canadian heritage here for a movie set in New Orleans!) Bujold's sharp dialogue exchanges with ultra macho Detective Wes Block-Clint Eastwood are a constant joy, and, of course, edge us deeper into film noir territory as Block's kinky sexual practise and failed marriage become the focus of the investigation.

Tuggle does a generally excellent job of keeping the material visually interesting, although he pays less attention to the minor characters, wasting a great character actor like Dan Hedaya for the role of Block's sidekick on the investigation. Overall though, this is an underrated film in the Eastwood canon and worthy of your attention. It's a slick genre piece with a surprising ability to probe the areas of Eastwood's star persona not normally explored in the Dirty Harry series.

A better-than-you-think Eastwood vehicle of the 80's.

[lost-in-limbo · 7/10 · 25 August 2005]

Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) is a New Orleans Homicide detective who's investigating a series of sex murders involving prostitutes and the further he delves into this seedy world. He finds out his own impulses are just like that of the killer's. This is when the killer starts to play around with Wes and he starts to believe he is his own chief suspect in these murders.

Totally different territory for Eastwood in this very slow and sordidly, dark thriller. It's maybe nothing new (and been repeated quite a bit) in its genre, but because of first-rate performances and it being sinisterly edgy. For me it lifts the film above the rest. Or maybe it's just my Eastwood fan-boy nature kicking in? Anyhow, this lowlife thriller is (extremely) HIGH on atmosphere, with it having an overwhelming sense of glum and intrusion. This is because most of the picture takes place during the nightlife, amongst the sleazy locations of New Orleans with indistinct lighting and prowling figures hanging around in the shadows. There's a great eye for detail in capturing the seedy lifestyle, with a lot of sexual desire, tension and gratuitous nudity flowing. Where our protagonist becomes attached to this lifestyle to compensate for his loneliness and heartache for companionship. This is because the more he gets close to the killer, the more he slowly learns they have much in common and the sleazy ways start to get the better of him. It sounds like we've been down this road before, with the cop getting closer to the killer, who's stalking and playing around with the detective. But hold on, what made the difference was the rough, raw and biting dialogue and the appealing characters were fleshed out rather nicely. Well, maybe with the exception of the killer. A lot of the story's focus, is more on Eastwood's character spending time with his daughters or fighting his lustful temptations. While, the killer uses that to his advantage, rather than actually delving into the killer's psyche, which I actually wanted to learn more about.

The cast are at the top of their game. Eastwood plays a laid back detective / dag of a dad. He brings to his character a man that's fighting the two different traits of his life. Eastwood portrays this insecure character superbly that you truly care for him and feel his pain and effort to be a perfect father figure to his two girls after the divorce. Genevieve Bujold is excellent as a crisis counsellor Beryl Thibodeaux. There are strong support roles from the likes of Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood and Jenny Beck also.

Story wise; some holes show up in the plot and it kind of falls by the wayside towards the end, but the excitement levels don't. At least the cracking finale was incredibly well-staged. For most part, it's incredibly taut and it never drifts away from being sombrely downbeat, well maybe with a couple exceptions involving family (with clichéd) moments, but saying that, it also had some of those moments that made you squirm in your seat. It's not-so graphic or hard-hitting in showing the killer's actions, which it could've been and probably gain more if so. It kind of stuck to just showing us the aftermath, with one murder investigation after another. But the material and the striking performances had some disquieting effect on me, even if it did feel like it was copping out and became your standard fare during the second half of the film. Unsettling moments occurred, but again nothing that graphically shocking. Backing it all up is a tantalising score that buzzes with such urgency and tensity. Also helping the mood is a jazz soundtrack that oozes with exoticism. Cinematography was well-arranged and its skewed and gliding angles went in hand-to-hand with the ill-natured style, though there was a lot shots focusing on the characters shoes.

Starts off, good enough, but you could say it probably does goes on for too long and head into familiar territory. It doesn't reach any great heights, but hey, I kept on watching and I was rather entertained. So, it did its job. In my opinion it's an above average, on the edge thriller, despite it's formulaic plot.

Not as tight as it could be.

[son_of_cheese_messiah · 6/10 · 19 October 2010]

TightRope is a very accurate name for this picture, the most interesting aspect of which is Eastwood's attempts to balance his duties as a responsible and loving father with his taste for deviant sex. This latter he shares with the serial killer he is pursuing. The killer has a penchant for strangling his victims with ribbons which I guess is another meaning for "tight rope".

Eastwood's character is very well fleshed out and his desire to provide a safe and normal home life for his daughters and later to establish a relationship with a rape defence adviser he is attracted to, is very believable. While this is happening, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the dark world of bondage and sado-masochism and there is for a long time some doubt as to which way he will fall and even that he may know more about the killings than he admits.

All this is very compellingly handled.

Unfortunately the villain is straight out of central casting. A one-dimensional cardboard cut-out who the film makers attempt to give some mystery to by having him wear masks. Yawn. Unlike Eastwood, this villain is poorly drawn and apart from an uncharacteristic appearance at the start, is completely silent. He just swans around in the shadows a-la the phantom of the opera and has little of the sense of personality even of Scorpio in Dirty Harry.

There is no real reason why he should be masked, actually, since he is an undistinguished looking character, and stalking around with an assortment of facial coverings is more likely to draw attention to himself if anything. One must believe that this oddly disguised person can enter and leave buildings (such as brothels - highly security conscious in the real world) without anyone noticing. Or perhaps he goes in unmasked and whips out his disguise later? Who knows? If the latter, why bother with the disguise at all? It certainly has not been thought out and is a very cheap attempt to create a sense of intrigue and danger.

Its a pity because the constant appearance of this silly villain actually detracts from the menace and darkness of this film. Without him, there would be real doubt as to whether Eastwood was really the killer himself, for instance. I do not think I give anything away in saying this, since the clunking villain is seen stalking Eastwood from quite early on, hovering behind him or looking in the skylight, so much so that you feel like shouting "He's behind you!" in a pantomime sort of way.

Other details do not ring true, such as Eastwood telling a young male hooker to go to a warehouse to be paid by the killer then going there himself to find (surprise! Surprise!) the hooker hanging by his neck. Cheap and unrealistic writing like this add to the schlock horror feel.

All this leads to a routine and unnecessarily gory finale. However, a touching moment with his girlfriend shows that the film makers do understand subtlety.

A cop gets a little too close in his case.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 1 March 2002]

Inner darkness is out of control in this thriller set in New Orleans. A veteran cop(Clint Eastwood)is put in peril when evidence links him to the serial murders he is investigating. Genevieve Bujold co-stars. Twelve year old Alison Eastwood plays one of the cop's two daughters, and surprisingly holds her own. This shady thriller is worth your time. The pace is a little slow, but very intense. Some pretty cool sets and mellow jazz. Don't get too relaxed.

Squint For Clint

[ReelCheese · 6/10 · 4 September 2006]

TIGHTROPE is a decent, though not entirely flawless, dramatic thriller. Clint stars as a hard-nosed detective (does he play any other kind?) trying to figure out who's behind a string of murders in New Orleans. But these aren't just any murders, as the female victims were all part of the wonderful world of kinky sex. Our hero's mean squint gets even squintier when it becomes obvious the women are being targeted because of their kinky relations with him.

Released in 1984, TIGHTROPE was a reasonable success in terms of revenue and critical acclaim. Maybe you just had to see it when it first came out, because watching it today, it seems like a fairly formulaic cop thriller. That doesn't mean it's bad; far from it. It's reasonably paced, not entirely predictable and nicely buffered with some cute (sometimes hilarious) father-daughter moments (Clint's real-life offspring, Alison, plays one of his two girls). Add an extra star if you're a fan of the big C.

a change of pace for Clint

[dtucker86 · 7 October 2003]

Clint Eastwood is a truly amazing man. More then just a mere actor, he has become one of our national icons. Even President Reagan quoted his famous line "make my day". In Tightrope, Eastwood really went out and took a chance playing a cop, but not like Dirty Harry. A movie critic who reviewed the film commented that Eastwood had really grown as an actor and that maybe we should call him Redwood! Wes Block is a troubled single father who is really human with human frailties. He is drawn into a seamy murder investigation, but in doing so it is like he is looking into the dark tormented mirror of his own troubled soul. Every time a prostitute is murdered, it seems like it is one that he was just with. Watching this troubling film, there were more then a few occasions that I wondered if Clint was going to be revealed as the true killer in the end! It was a chilling thought to me watching this portrayal of a cop on the edge and wondering what would happen to push him over. Clint was finally nominated for an Academy award for best actor for Unforgiven, but this to me is one of the best "acting" jobs that he ever did. His real life daughter Allison plays his daughter in this movie and does a fine job, just like his son Kyle did in Honkeytonk Man. Genevieve Bujold gives a wonderful performance as the rape counselor that he falls for. She is a wonderful actress and more then holds her own. She was in my favorite Disney film The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark. Eastwood usually directs himself on screen, but in this case Richard Tuggle (who worked with Clint in Escape From Alcatraz) does a commendable job with the direction and the screenplay. The most disturbing part is where Eastwood tears a room apart in a fit of rage when he realizes what he has become. In a sense, he is no better then the pervert he hunts. Its like the dream scene where he is attacking the woman he loves. The ending of the film is like Dirty Harry where he finally gets the bad guy, I guess they cop out in the end, but Eastwood showed a lot of daring and guts when he took on this challenging role and he really rose to the occasion in my view. However, I would rather see him as Dirty Harry or No Name.

Just call him Kinky Harry.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 14 April 2017]

"Tightrope" is indicative of how veteran star Clint Eastwood has so often been willing to take chances with his film vehicles. Here Clint plays Wes Block, a New Orleans detective investigating the case of a sexual predator. The case gets more personal when both cop and killer realize that they're not so different. Wes, you see, does like to frequent after hours joints, and he's a known customer to some French Quarter ladies.

While not altogether successful - it lacks the style and tension to make it something truly special - it is, at the least, a fairly interesting character study, of a character who's not squeaky clean. We see Wes' happy home life - he's a single father to two girls, and owner of several dogs - contrasting with the less appealing aspects of his existence. Writer / director Richard Tuggle, who'd scripted the earlier Clint vehicle "Escape from Alcatraz", does his best to give us a film that attempts to take a look at the "dark within all of us". There's even a line to that effect, spoken by a minor character played by Janet MacLachlan.

We do see the psycho (character actor Marco St. John, "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning", "Thelma & Louise") in the act of stalking a woman right from the get go, so there's no mystery about what he looks like. That does put a crimp in the suspense.

Clint does well in this unconventional hero role, doing solid work as always. He co-stars with his real life daughter Alison, and Jennifer Beck, as his kids, the typically excellent Dan Hedaya as his partner, and Genevieve Bujold as a tough talking counsellor at a rape centre, who naturally places herself in harms' way by becoming involved with Wes.

Where the film is its strongest is in its depiction of N.O., capturing the night life in an American city known for its atmosphere.

Not a great film by any means, but worth a look for Clint fans.

Seven out of 10.

The Dark Side of the Moon of Marquis de Sade

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 1 April 2002]

Wes Block isn't really seedy in this movie. He ambles about and speaks tiredly, as if he were on blue bombers, but seediness implies defeat, and Clint Eastwood isn't actor enough to project such a state, anymore than John Wayne was (with the exception of his final scene in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"). The plot is full of holes but, if you can suspend disbelief effectively enough, it still works. Just don't think about it too hard.

And it suffers too from one cliché after another. How often have we seen the good guy and the bad guy mano a mano, and one of them has a pistol, and the second guy grabs the first guy's wrist and manages to keep the pistol from being pointed in his direction, and then the gun is knocked out of the first guy's hand and there's an insert of it skittering across the floor, to be followed after a few more tumbles by a shot the Western version of which Vladimir Nabokov referred to as "the pinned hand groping for the Bowie knife." It's night time and Block is searching his house for a hidden murderer, creeping through dark rooms, boards creaking underfoot, danger around every corner -- and he does not TURN ON THE LIGHTS. He carefully opens a closet door and a dog jumps out. That sort of thing.

Pauline Kael nailed the film for hiding the antagonist's face until the very end, since his appearance is unimportant anyway, but she was wrong to do so. The whole theme of the movie is the venerable one of the Doppelganger. The Doppelganger is somebody a lot like us, but representing only a part of our personalities, one we'd rather not acknowledge. In Poe's "William Wilson", the Doppelganger represented Wilson's conscience, or superego if you like. In Stevenson's "Doctor Jeykll and Mr. Hyde," the latter was clearly an id figure. In this film the villain is definitely in the second category. And Kael was mistaken to criticize Block's final confrontation with his Doppelganger on the railroad tracks because when Block rips off the killer's ski mask, it reveals a demonic face that is distorted as it howls with an infrahuman rage, and Block draws back, his own face twisted with the shock of recognition. It's the most powerful moment in the film.

There are other good moments as well, particularly Block in a paroxysm of anger, trashing his bedroom and cursing sulfurously after his daughter has been assaulted. Eastwood let himself go for that scene, suggesting the kettle boiling within the sleepwalker's body. The movie is mostly dark, even in the most unlikely settings, such as hospital rooms. It's filled with close ups of scary faces, many of them on plastic Mardi Gras floats. The director probably meant the warehouse scene to be no more than that, the sort of thing that might frighten children, but one wonders if he realized exactly how surreal that journey through the darkness and frozen turmoil of our subconscious really seemed on screen.

It's spooky, true, but maybe not for the reasons Eastwood intended. He gets good support from the other players here, and makes effective use of locations, except that on occasion they come to take on a tourist's eye view of the Crescent City. The Mardi Gras scene looks shot on the cheap. When was the last time a movie was set in a New Orleans that didn't have a Mardi Gras going on? "Panic in the Streets"?

Shared Tastes

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 10 February 2010]

When Clint Eastwood was making his Dirty Harry films we never did get to see too much of the private life of Harry Callahan. In Tightrope playing New Orleans detective Wes Block that lack is more than made up for.

Clint's a family man in this one raising two small girls one of them played by his real life daughter Alyson on his own. But he's also indulging himself with a lot of prostitutes who can give him a bit of variety in turn-ons. But then these same women keep winding up dead in some terribly gruesome manners and of course Eastwood is starting to think he could be the ultimate target.

Director Richard Tuggle kept an even tighter rein on Clint's emotions than normal. Only at a certain dramatic point that I won't reveal do we see Clint revert to a Dirty Harry type character. In the end it's really the minute details found in forensic science that identifies the killer, but even with that the killer does not go down easy. In fact the final struggle between Eastwood and the perpetrator ends quite unforgettably.

Clint's leading lady is Genevieve Bujold who plays a rape crisis counselor who believes in a pro-active type of counseling with her victims. It's by no means certain these two will get together in the end though they both spark some interest in each other.

In Tightrope the accent is on suspense more than action, though when the action comes it explodes. There is by the way one very good reason for this killer to be so tough for the police to take down, but you'll have to see Tightrope for that. Clint Eastwood's legion of fans should be pleased enough with this film.

Charles Bronson did better movies than this

[davemccrea-1 · 6/10 · 8 July 2011]

This movie was CHOCK FULL of clichés. The writer appeared to suffer from a real lack of imagination and freshness. Clint Eastwood plays a stoic cop who's divorced and can't take his daughters to the New Orleans Saints game because he keeps getting a beep about a new murder case. But he looks at a framed photo of his ex-wife at night, remembering the good times. How many clichés is that so far? Now let's throw in a scene where Clint questions a tattoo artist which leads him to a strip club. Then the killer starts to target Clint. Wow. If you like exploitation 80s flicks about serial killers and strip clubs, Charles Bronson made 3 or 4 movies of that genre better than this movie. At least Bronson knew he wasn't a great actor

A primal Effort

[gottogorunning · 5/10 · 16 August 2005]

Clint Eastwood plays the typical tough cop this time around in New Orleans but has secrets. What starts as an interesting crime case and a question of Clint's character drags into an overlong boring venture as the same thing that happens at the beginning continues after 90 of the 115 minutes. TIGHTROPE may add a new dimension to the typical Clint Eastwood character, but it is anything but beneficial.

A girl from the red light district is murdered. As night cop and detective, but supporting single father of two, Wes Block is on the case, but his weaknesses may also tie into the murder as the bodies are starting to pile up.

Exploring the dark side of human nature is a natural thing in Hollywood. A cop on the edge as much as Block is is a basic and easy way to convey the message. Very little to no artistic quality or direction in TIGHTROPE. The dark settings and scenery are reminiscent stuff of the early 80s (THE TERMINATOR, BLADE RUNNER). If TIGHTROPE was far more straight to the point it might be a bit more watchable than it is.

A primal effort by Eastwood to act in something besides an oater or shooter. Sadly the "available light" photography left much of the movie in the dark -- literally. It scored a plus in the shock-horror department with a shot of the housekeeper's body inside the clothes dryer. Suspense builds around the prospects of Eastwood's daughter being kidnapped by the killer.A not particularly memorable film, but it got him to New Orleans.

One Of Eastwood's Darker Films

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 25 November 2005]

Here is a very, very tense thriller about a New Orleans cop (Clint Eastwood) finding a serial killer.....and vice-versa.

This is a very dark (literally) film with a big film-noir look and feel. Neo-noir, I guess, is what they call post-1950 gritty crime films like these.

Eastwood's character in "Tightrope" is a complex one. On one hand, he's a wonderfully loving father of two sweet girls (one played by his actual daughter, and played well), and yet he is a weak man when it comes to prostitutes. But, whatever side he shows - light or dark - he's interesting, as always. So is the female star of this movie, Genevieve Bujold, a woman with a very intriguing face and just a trace of her French accent. Dan Heyada contributes strongly in a low- key performance.

Yes, this film is a bit too much on the seedy side for my normal tastes, definitely sordid, but very well done. It's a story that grabs you early and locks you in all the way.

The Dark Underbelly

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 22 July 2017]

During what I have come to think of as his "early period" in the sixties, Clint Eastwood was best known for acting in Westerns, but by his "middle period" in the seventies and eighties the Western genre was in decline so (with a couple of exceptions such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Pale Rider") he was forced to reinvent himself. During this period he was probably best known for cop thrillers. He made no fewer than five featuring his iconic "Dirty Harry" character, but also played a detective in several other films.

Eastwood tried hard to make each of his characters an individual in his own right; they might also be police detectives but that does not mean that they are simply Dirty Harry under another name and transferred to a different city. His character in "Tightrope", Wes Block, is quite different not only from Harry but also from Walt Coogan, Eastwood's "cool dude" cop in "Coogan's Bluff" or from Ben Shockley, the washed-up alcoholic he played in "The Gauntlet". Block is a divorcée whose wife has left him to bring up their two daughters Penny and Amanda. (Amanda is played by Eastwood's real-life daughter Alison). He is hard-working and conscientious and is devoted to his two girls, as well as to the family's numerous pet dogs. He is often seen with a drink in his hand, but his drinking is not made a plot point as it is with Shockley in "The Gauntlet". As we shall see, however, he also has a dark side.

The action takes place in New Orleans. A serial killer is preying on the city's vice girls, and Block is assigned to the case. He has, however, something more than a purely professional interest in the case. He is himself a user of the services of prostitutes, and some of the dead women were personally known to him in the course of their profession rather than his. (It is implied that he only began using prostitutes after his wife left him and that this was not the reason for the break-up of his marriage). As the story progresses we also discover that the killer has a personal interest in Block, and that not only Block but also his daughters and his new girlfriend Beryl are in danger. (But then we could have guessed that from the start. It is one of the unwritten rules of Hollywood that in any police procedural involving a serial killer the villain must have a personal grudge against the detective, or take a sadistic pleasure in playing psychological mind-games with him, or both).

The film is perhaps overlong, and the plot is occasionally obscure, making it difficult to work out exactly what is going on. One thing that is never explained is why Block's superiors never took him off the case when they realised that he had a personal involvement. (In a high-profile homicide case like this one he would not have been working alone but would have been part of a team). Director Richard Tuggle, however, manages to generate an atmosphere not only of suspense but also of seediness and moral corruption. Although New Orleans is one of America's most photogenic cities, we do not see much of its glamorous touristic side, only its dark underbelly. Eastwood also gives a good performance, making Block someone we can sympathise with despite his flaws. The film is not in the class of the original "Dirty Harry", but it is considerably better than the weaker entries in that franchise, such as "The Dead Pool", or the ludicrously improbable "The Gauntlet". 6/10

Could have been fascinating...but now it's deadening.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 26 October 1999]

"Tightrope" could have been a fascinating character study. Eastwood plays a somewhat kinky cop who has almost nothing in common with Dirty Harry; he is a much more believable character here, and his performance is superb. Unfortunately, the direction lacks the necessary vigor - it fails to increase the level of tension as it should - and the film becomes more sleepy as it approaches its end. Even with Clint at his best, this film's second half is almost deadening.

Well-made psychological thriller.

[chrstphrtully · 24 February 2000]

Of all of Clint Eastwood's performances, this is probably my favourite. In this part, Eastwood gives his character enormous depth and vulnerability, and touches on the insecurities and weaknesses that drive an otherwise normal man into sexual deviance. All of this he does in the guise of one of his most well-worn characters -- a police detective out after a psychopathic killer. Unlike the "Dirty Harry" pictures or "The Gauntlet", in which Eastwood only suggested the existence of human weakness, here that weakness is interwoven with the plot (in which the psychopath knows and manipulates the detective's weakness for deviant sex), heightening the tension.

What makes the film all the more impressive is that it doesn't dwell exclusively on the deviant side of Eastwood's personality. That would be the easy way out. Instead, it counterbalances that aspect of his character with some nice family moments, making sure to let the audience know (and convincingly at that) that this is a man who truly does have more than one side to him.

The acting from the supporting players is fine, although most of them (namely, Genevieve Bujold and Dan Hedaya) are given little to do. Perhaps the most surprising discovery from the film is the performance of Eastwood's daughter Alison, who gives an exceptional performance as the detective's daughter, who senses something is not quite right with her father, but loves him just the same.

The film is not without flaws -- Tuggle's script skips a couple of grooves in the plausibility category (namely, when certain characters have to be killed off), and there are a few gaps in the script. All told, however, Tuggle's direction is strong, using dimly lit sets for more than just noirish effect, and building up to a very strong finale. Moreover, his scriptwriting flaws can be excused because of the strong and full character he creates.

This is a film in which Eastwood creates a character not unlike that in his superb performance in "In the Line of Fire." All the same, it is a performance that in a weaker Oscar year might have been worthy of an Oscar nomination.

On Edge

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 24 April 2006]

***SPOILERS*** Interesting psychological film-noir thriller with Clint Eastwood playing New Orleans police detective Wes Block who's attraction for what's weird and strange in women that he occasionally picks up in the city's red light district, to have a romp in the hey with. This leads to him suffering from a very bad case of guilt when the very same women that he has sex, as well as S&M sessions, with end up brutally murdered.

Divorced and living with his two young daughters Amanda & Penny, Alison Eastwood & Jenny Beck, Wes seems to have developed this behavior after his wife left him and has a hard time trying to keep it from both his children and fellow policemen that he works with.Being put on the handcuff and red lace serial murder case Wes slowly begins to notice that the killer somehow knows, or is observing, him. As almost all of the women that he has relations with, streetwalkers and call girls, end up being strangled to death with the same type of lace. It's as if the killer is trying to leave a massage to the New Orleans Police in general and Det. Wes Block in particular.

Your, as Det. Block, kept guessing to who and what this maniac is really all about and we keep getting clues all throughout the movie about him and what Wes had to do with his murders. It's not until almost at the end of the movie "Tightrope" Wes learns that he had an encounter with him years ago that put him behind bars for eleven years. Now out of jail he's obsessed to reap havoc on not just Wes but his family as well as Wes' new girlfriend the supervisor of a local rape prevention center in the city Beryl Thibodeaux, Genevieve Bujold,

Always a step ahead of the police and Det. Block the killer attempts to kidnap Wes' daughters and gets as far as murdering their nanny Mrs. Holstein, Margie O'Dair, and almost strangles Wes whom he takes by surprise. Wes is saved by one of his, and Amanda and Penny's, four dogs who rips a piece of flesh out of the killers leg. Wes then seems to come apart when he feels that he let both himself and his family down almost tearing his entire bedroom apart in a wild fit of anger.

Knowing that the killer will strike at Wes girlfriend Beryl next since, with the exception of his daughters, she's the closest person to him the police and Det. Block set a trap for him. This is a challenge that the killer eagerly accepts murdering three policemen who were on petrol outside of Bryal home. It's Wes who comes to the rescue, after Beryl escaped from his grasp by stabbing him, and has it out with the deranged madman at the railroad yard with the killer ending up either dead or a replacement for the one armed man in the TV show "The Fugitive".

Unusual Eastwood action/thriller with him being a man with his share of fears and hang-ups that makes him far more interesting and human then the almost robotic and unfeeling "Man with no Name" of "Spaghetti Western" fame or the dead eye .44 Magnum killer with ice water for blood in his veins the San Franciso police inspector Harald "Dirty Harry" Calahan.

Intriguing and violent thriller with Clint Eastwood pursuing a killer of prostitutes in New Orleans

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 21 August 2021]

Good thriller set in New Orleans , Louisiana , and casts disturbing Detective Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) along with a cop colleague (Dan Hedaya) and a counselor (Geneviève Bujold). This homicice inspector for the New Orleans Police Department gets his latest assignment : to track down a Jack the Ripper-style sex killer . All of this contrasts with his home life as a single and separated parent with two young girls (Alison Eastwood , Jenny Beck) . Then on the case, he meets Rape Services Counselor Beryl Thibodeaux (Genevieve Bujold) , with whom a relationship possibly offering some easiness begins to develop . Nevertheless, his enquiries go wrong , leading him to dark sides where he is no stranger off-duty and resulting in fateful consequences .

This is a taut suspense thriller , though really sordid , sleaze and sisister , in which Clint Eastwood gives a terrific acting as a cop on the edge who's leading an investigation into a sex murderer who is raping and murdering women . But this case hits disturbingly close to home in more ways than one . It shows efficiently New Orleans' French Quarter , including sightseeing and spectacular parades , but also into the seedy side of town . The picture is notable both as a suspense thriller and as a riveting vehicle for Eastwood who experiments with an unsettling portrait of a police inspector with some peculiarities of his own . Eastwood in well accompanied by a good main and support cast providing acceptable interpretations , such as : Genevieve Bujold , Dan Hedaya , Marco St John , Jamie Rose and his own daughter : Alison Eastwood . A strong film being rated R for profanity , sex , sleaziness and violence .

Well written ad directed by Richard Tuggle with important collaboration by the great Clint Eastwood. Tuggle wrote the successful Escape from Alcatraz by Don Siegel with Estwood himself and made another movie : Out of bounds with Anthony Michael hall . While Clint Eastwood was in a nice period in which he often used to play to direct competent thrillers during the 70s and 80s , such as : The Gauntlet , Dirty Harry , Magnum Force , Sudden impact , The Black Pool , City Heat , Escape from Alcatraz , Thundelbotl and Lightfoot , Pink Cadillac , Firefox , among others. Rating : 6/10 . Decent thiller that will appeal to Clint Eastwood fans . Well worth watching .

"What happened to the rest of the sandwich"?

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 7 October 2011]

I couldn't help but think that this was an unsatisfying attempt at a thriller by one of my favorites, Clint Eastwood, in a role that held promise to live up to it's title but ultimately didn't measure up. It might have worked better if the psychological angle involving Eastwood's character was explored more intimately, pushing the envelope on whether he could have been the killer he was stalking in a case of dual identity. The only duality that worked here was Wes Block's conflicted role as both a burn the midnight oil homicide detective, and devoted father of two young girls who's not around as much as he'd like to be.

As for the killer, who WAS he? The reveal at the end told us nothing after all the intrigue provided by the build up. Yes, he was a rapist Block put away thirteen years earlier, but without a face to go with the name, the showdown didn't carry as much weight as it could have. In fact, even though the villain put away around a half dozen victims in the first half of the story, his toying with Block was strictly amateurish. He reminded me of all those movie Western villains who have the drop on the good guy and then just fold like a cheap suit. Block should have been a goner when the killer invaded his home, and then in the cemetery after getting the shovel in the face. You just don't walk away from something like that. And what's with the police helicopter arriving right on cue? How did that happen? But at least Eastwood's character got the killer in the end; for that, you have to give the man a hand.

Dramatic, melancholic Eastwood detective flick set in New Orleans

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 8 March 2019]

A divorced detective in New Orleans (Clint Eastwood) juggles raising two daughters, pursing a serial rapist/killer, cultivating a romantic relationship (Geneviève Bujold) and dealing with his own dark side, which he realizes is too close for comfort to the killer.

"Tightrope" (1984) is another Eastwood detective flick, but it's not as entertaining and compelling as his Dirty Harry films or "The Gauntlet" (1977). It's darker, more dramatic and brooding, not to mention a tad sleazy. This may bring to mind the original "Dirty Harry" (1971), but the subdued tone is closer to "Blood Work" (2002).

The title refers to a person walking the tightrope between his/her good side and bad side.

The movie runs 1 hour, 54 minutes and was shot entirely in New Orleans.

GRADE: C+/B-

Tightrope

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 10 January 2009]

I am sure I had seen this film before, because so many of the images looked familiar, maybe I did but I forgot to comment, but anyway, I've seen it now. Basically a string of sexually-related murders are taking place in New Orleans, and Capt. Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) is the detective investigating. At the same time he is struggling to raise his two daughters, Amanda (Alison Eastwood, Clint's real daughter) and Penny (Jennifer Beck), and a relationship is growing with tough rape prevention officer Beryl Thibodeaux (Geneviève Bujold). The tightrope by the way is the fact that the killer shares the same sexual preferences/tastes as Block, e.g. bondage, masochism, you can tell this when he finds one of his interviewees murdered. Also starring The First Wives Club's Dan Hedaya as Det. Molinari, Marco St. John as Leander Rolfe, Rebecca Perle as Becky Jacklin, Regina Richardson as Sarita, Randi Brooks as Jamie Cory and Jamie Rose as Melanie Silber. This wasn't completely what I expected, even if the material did look familiar, and to be honest, I can see why it is underrated, it is quite dated in my opinion, but worth a look. Good!

Didn't do anything for me

[r96sk · 6/10 · 31 January 2022]

How is this not super entertaining?

'Tightrope' should have all the ingredients to make the viewer be on the edge of their seat, and yet I really didn't care much for it. Clint Eastwood, who apparently took over unofficially as director from Richard Tuggle during filming, gives a solid performance and the bond with his character's children is cute.

However, the story just didn't do anything for me. It's not particularly unnerving, despite a dark on paper story, and it's rather predictable - the villain... well, the villain I've already forgotten about and I only finished watching about an hour ago.

Not terrible, but not good.

I wanted Dirty Harry. I got Sleazy Harry.

[axlrhodes · 4/10 · 22 July 2012]

I entered into this expecting to have a Dirty Harry style experience, but what's actually on offer is more like a neo-noir Sleazy Harry. It's a cop on the hunt of a serial killer thriller that plays out like a middling episode of 'The Equalizer', only about sixty minutes longer (yawn). Naturally, Clint or 'Wes Block' as he's called here, is our cop while the killer in question is a mask wearing Scooby Doo escapee who we never really see until the end reel. Now i don't have a problem with that, but some things make the criminal comical when i'm sure that wasn't the intention. Twice in the film we see the murderer mere yards away from Wes, at the crime scene seemingly taunting our hero, but really you just want to shout 'He's behind you!', in true panto spirit. Tonally, writer/director Richard Tuggle goes dark. It's a near humourless, straight up affair that depicts Wes on one hand a devoted father, and on the other an arrogant, sex obsessed womaniser. There's a few light-hearted and amusing moments between him and his two young daughters but none of much really stacks up to a great deal and inevitably it all falls flat with a series of predictable murders, plodding pacing and a laughable finale.

"There's a darkness inside all of us ..."

[callahan2211 · 9/10 · 8 January 2005]

I truly consider Tightrope to be by far one of Eastwood's best acting performances. He definitely DID deserve, that year, at least an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. And don't be mistaken, Wes Block has nothing to do with Dirty Harry ... true, these two cops both have their "dark side" -an aspect that Eastwood has learned to exploit in a number of his pictures, BUT Wes Block appears to be much more "human" than Harry. This single father is struggling with his own demons, persuaded that until now he has screwed up about everything in his life, beginning with his marriage ... he's trying real hard to be a good father, as well as a good cop, that is until this killer comes along and threatens all he's been fighting for to preserve.

Here we get to know a guy who's extremely vulnerable, hurt, un-self confident, haunted and whose relationship with women remains ambiguous, based on control, kind of as if he was afraid of them, of what they could do to him, seeing them as a threat ... hence his resort to the services of prostitutes and his use of handcuffs on them.

As usual in Eastwood's movies, we wanna know what's underneath this front his characters put on ... -like in Pale Rider, Josey Wales, The Bridges of Madison County ... the silences, the puzzling, haunting, deep looks, that tell us far more about a character than any word would. "Less is more" is definitely a guideline of this movie. Most of the time, Eastwood's characters reveal themselves through their silences, and it's particularly true here.

I believe there's a line in Tightrope that sums up pretty accurately what Eastwood's movies are really about: "I'm not sure how close I wanna get ..." They're about very private men struggling with life.

This movie is simply one of his best.

Weak ending

[Kevw1 · 7/10 · 29 December 2005]

So, the killer is crushed by a train and Block is left holding his arm? Almost laughable. Were they over budget and rushed for time? They should have examined more the relationship between Block and the killer who he arrested years before for 2 rapes as stated in the later part of the movie.

Good acting by Alison Eastwood. The New Orleans skyline looked spectacular.

I am a huge Eastwood fan, but this ranks toward the bottom. Very predictable, and seemed to drag in some parts. Why the Wes Block character anyway? I kept waiting for them to refer to him as "Callahan" the whole time.

WTF Was That?

[doug1717 · 3/10 · 13 February 2008]

Interesting premise, the "tightrope" all people walk between normal life and their darker sides. But there is no real script. There is no plot, and the whole disjointed mess needs to be edited down so that it can make sense. Poorly written and clumsily executed. Who was that guy at the end? We just see a pair of runners all movie, and the end, he's revealed as the killer but who the hell was he? Bujold's character was awful, a ball breaking man hater who swoons for Clint's misogynistic sweaty balls as he exercises hovering his crotch in her face at the gym. His "I wanna lick the sweat off your body" line delivered over oysters in his "Go Ahead, make my day" inflection set her heart and panties aflame. Yeah, that happens a lot. It would have been a better film if Clint WERE the killer. Then we'd have a person in a responsible job, maintaining the facade of an upright father in order to hide his violent kink. Very poor writing throughout. The choking severed arm at the end is just icing on a half baked idea. There's a lot of nudity delivered in a very dark and nasty feeling style, so that's a plus for the film, but the whole film needed a writer and an editor.