Set in an underdeveloped New Orleans, the film begins and ends at night; but the beginning is frankly disheartening. How many times have we seen a girl go home alone in the middle of the night crossing totally deserted streets, chased by a maniac? Luckily this time she manages to escape, so that the sequence can be read as an ironic quotation. The rest of the film, however, does not have a great rhythm: the modest director Tuggle limits himself to following the policeman Eastwood in an orderly manner in search of an inveterate serial killer of women (the reason for such ferocity will not be known). The environments, often sordid, are described without exaggeration, perhaps for fear of censorship; and as in "Dirty Harry", it is suggested more than once that the killer represents the other face of the policeman. To conclude, a small observation: we see Genievieve Bujold attacked and almost killed by the maniac: hadn't we known her as a female self-defense instructor?
Review of Tightrope
