Every Which Way But Loose (1978) starring Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D'Angelo, Walter Barnes, Hank Worden, Ruth Gordon, Manis directed by James Fargo Movie Review

Every Which Way But Loose (1978)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Clint Eastwood as Philo Beddoe in Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

Philo & Clyde

Even die hard fans of Clint Eastwood will say some of his movies were really not that good and one of those is "Every Which Way But Loose". Now before you say what, let me explain as whilst "Every Which Way But Loose" is entertaining, it made money and lead to a sequel it doesn't really have much of a storyline and really relies on Eastwood's likeability to make it work. In fact it almost feels like Eastwood saying I just want to do a movie and have fun, I wanted to have some comedy brawls, some banter and enjoy myself messing about with an Orang-utan.

Truck driver Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood - The Gauntlet) is an easy sort of guy, he enjoys mucking about with Clyde the Orang-utan he won in a bet, having a drink with Orville (Geoffrey Lewis - High Plains Drifter), trying to pick up women and making some extra money through fighting. But when he meets and falls for country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke - The Outlaw Josey Wales) that all changes especially when one morning she suddenly disappears and leads to Philo, Orville and Clyde hitting the road to find her, getting into scrapes with angry cops and a biker gang along the way.

Clyde and Geoffrey Lewis in Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

To say that "Every Which Way But Loose" is light on story isn't a word of a lie as it basically all about Philo trying to track down country singer Lynn because he loves her and doesn't realise she is scamming him. We may get the subplots which see a couple of cops on Philo's trail as well as a biker gang but they don't really add anything to the story. And that is basically it Philo, Orville, Clyde on the road trying to find Lynn and getting into a few scrapes along the way.

Now the various scrapes are fun as we watch Philo get into a few punch ups and chases many of which have a little element of creativity about them. But they are also serious daft the sort of comic book scraps which can bring a smile to your face but also groan. And that is the strange thing about "Every Which Way But Loose" it is a movie which should make you groan, from the fights to the friendships it all has a groan factor yet it is also fun.

And the simple reason why it is fun is down to a very relaxed Clint Eastwood just having a good time playing a simple character in a simple movie. He makes you smile when he tries to chat up a woman and even more so when he's messing about with Clyde and it's because he just seems to be having fun, not acting just having fun. It is the same with Geoffrey Lewis who seems to be having just as much fun as Orville as does Beverly D'Angelo as Echo the young woman he picks up on their travels. And whilst Sondra Locke has more of a character to play as Lynn there is still the sense that she was enjoying playing the character.

What this all boils down to is that "Every Which Way But Loose" is not technically a good movie, it has a slim storyline, slim characters and not much else. But because it is all about the fun, about a relaxed Clint Eastwood messing about with Clyde or having fights it becomes stupidly entertaining.

Tags: Boxing Movies


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