Tightrope (1984)

Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer. His victims are young and pretty women, which he rapes and murders. The murders are getting personal when the killer ... See full summary »

Director:

Richard Tuggle

Writer:

Richard Tuggle (screenplay)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Geneviève Bujold, Dan Hedaya

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Wes Block
Geneviève Bujold	...	Beryl Thibodeaux
Dan Hedaya	...	Det. Molinari
Alison Eastwood	...	Amanda Block
Jenny Beck	...	Penny Block (as Jennifer Beck)
Marco St. John	...	Leander Rolfe
Rebecca Perle	...	Becky Jacklin
Regina Richardson	...	Sarita
Randi Brooks	...	Jamie Cory
Jamie Rose	...	Melanie Silber
Margaret Howell	...	Judy Harper
Rebecca Clemons	...	Girl with Whip
Janet MacLachlan	...	Dr. Yarlofsky
Graham Paul	...	Luther
Bill Holliday	...	Police Chief

Storyline

Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer. His victims are young and pretty women, which he rapes and murders. The murders are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | rape | detective | serial killer | sex | 

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Taglines:

A cop on the edge...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 August 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Wolf hetzt die Meute

Filming Locations:

Bourbon Street, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Gross:

SEK 8,108,638 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Malpaso Company, The, Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Clint Eastwood's twelfth film for the Warner Brothers studio.

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Goofs

Obviously fake lightning flashes twice near the end of the movie.

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Quotes

Wes Block: Twenty-eight years ago I borrowed 40 dollars from my father, packed up an old, beat up suitcase, took a bus and came here. I was seventeen at the time. While I walked through the French Quarter, I looked out over the Mississippi and swore I'd never leave.
Beryl Thibodeaux: Ever come close?
Wes Block: Only once. When I looked down and saw that the suitcase was missing.

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Connections

Featured in Eastwood on Eastwood (1997)

User Reviews

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

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.