Tightrope (1984)

Director: Richard Tuggle

Writer: Richard Tuggle

Composer: Lennie Niehaus

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Genevieve Bujold, Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood, Jenny Beck, Marco St. John, Rebecca Perle, Regina Richardson, Randi Brooks, Jamie Rose, Margaret Howell

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A cop on the edge...

Plot: Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer whose victims are young and pretty women. The killings are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe in twenty or so years.

Right, the only thing I really didn't dig about this is the sometimes slow pacing.  It's close to two hours long and it feels longer.  Now, the good stuff is all over the place.  It's a neat story with Eastwood playing a detective with a sexually deviant side to him, and in no way do I mean to imply it's wrong or dirty - perhaps to mainstream vanilla types.  Having grown up with seeing this guy's movies it's a bit odd seeing him in a role like this where he crosses the creepy line but it's only a little creepy to me because I've never seen him do that before and he usually is at odds with that type of character.  The New Orleans setting with Niehaus' score is fantastic and even more so as it's set around Halloween.  It's not a great film but it's a good one and it's probably one of Eastwood's most overlooked films, one that folks should see. The Warner Bros. DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen presentation and the sole extra is the anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer.