Every Which Way But Loose (1978) (NTSC)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Filmographies-Cast Listing-Cast & Crew Production Notes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	114:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4	Directed By	James Fargo
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Sondra Locke Geoffrey Lewis Beverly D'Angelo Ruth Gorden
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Every Which Way But Loose is the first of two movies that featured Clint Eastwood playing alongside an orang utan called Clyde (Manis). The second feature was Any Which Way You Can, and primarily featured the same cast as this movie, most notably Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke), Echo (Beverley D'Angelo), Geoffrey Lewis as Orville Boggs, and Ruth Gordon who played his mother, affectionately referred to as Ma Boggs.

    Originally, screenwriter Jeremy Joe Kronsberg sent the script for this movie to one of Eastwood's secretaries. His hope was that Clint would pass it on to his mate Burt Reynolds. In fact, Clint was so impressed with the script that he kept it for himself and, against the wishes of his attorney and several studio executives, went ahead with the project. When the executives at Warner Bros saw the unfinished film they thought it was almost unreleasable. Surprisingly, this movie was Clint's largest hit to date at that time, grossing almost $100 million back in 1979.

    In this particular episode, Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) travels around with Orville (Geoffrey Lewis) and Clyde (Manis) making money by taking part in (and winning) workplace fights. During a break between fights, Philo falls for a country and western singer called Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke). Philo is so taken by her charm that he believes every word that passes her lips and cannot see the fact that he is being taken for a ride.

    When Halsey-Taylor leaves town, Philo grabs Clyde and Orville and sets out halfway across the country to find her. What follows involves car chases, Harley bike clubs and the law.

Video

    This transfer is NTSC, and as such you should be certain your equipment can display NTSC before you try this disc.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is clear and sharp, but do not expect fine details, as these are limited throughout the feature. Shadow detail is well controlled and a typical example can be seen early on at 9:22 which shows no grain. There is low level noise, but it is not overpowering.

    The colours are starting to show the film's age, with a slight brown tint on the actors' faces and arms. Neon signs and bright lighting did tend to increase the impact of the colours in some sections and 65:34 was one area that I particularly noticed. Here you will be able to see a mixture of a deep black background with a neon sign in the foreground giving a good spread of colour. At 84:36 there were some colours flickering on the car door which was distracting and did not appear to be from a reflection off another nearby object.

    There were some MPEG artefacts in this feature. Aliasing is rare, and mild when it does occur. There is some pixelization which reduces the film's fine image details in some areas. Film artefacts are common with a large black object appearing very early at 1:00. Whilst the larger film artefacts are distracting, as mentioned before these are predominately during the opening credits. From then on in, the artefacts are smaller, and consist mainly of hairs and dust.

    There are English and French subtitles to choose from. The English subtitles appeared to be close but not exact to the spoken word.

    This disc is an RSDL disc with the layer change going unnoticed. Perhaps the main feature is contained on the one layer and did not require a layer change during playback.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Considering the Dolby Digital 5.1 track used here was originally mastered from mono audio, quite a remarkable job has been done of opening up all of the channels. It does, however, make quite heavy use of the front centre channel with specific scenes expanded to include the other channels. Whilst this will not be the title you use to show off your latest speaker purchase, it did have a natural and appealing sound considering it was made in 1978.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times with mild hiss in some areas.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on. There was an audio drop-out at around 16:30 which was brief but noticeable.

    There are plenty of songs used in this feature from such artists as Charlie Rich, Mel Tillis "Coca Cola Cowboy" and numerous others. The catchy theme song was written by S. Dorff, M. Brown and T. Garrett and is sung by Eddie Rabbitt. It is so catchy that it will stay in your mind for a while after watching. Now how did it go again? Every which way but loose . . . baby there's no excuse . . .

    The soundtrack shows its original mono heritage and for the most part the sound stays closely aligned with the front centre channel. Sound effects expand into other channels. For the most part this worked well, but at 6:50 when a beer can is opened the sound came from the front left speaker rather than the centre. The action sequences tended to have a mild echo in the surrounds and each fight scene had cheering and yelling emanating from all speakers. The only major criticism I have is that the music and songs could have been remixed so they moved somewhat away from the centre channel. One good example of sound moving across the front soundstage can be heard at 48:22.

    The subwoofer was used for scenes that required extra emphasis on the heavy notes. Most notably were rifle shots at 48:25 and during a song at 15:49. In the latter case, the predominant bass was supplied through the centre channel rather than the sub and this may cause mild sound coloration when played through small speakers.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Cast and Crew

    This extra shows the name of the main actors and their on-screen names. Unfortunately, only the menu item for Clint Eastwood is selectable and contains extra details. Once selected it merely contains 3 pages listing all of his film credits with no additional information.

Behind The Scenes

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Nothing

    It was great to see this title again.

    The video was good considering the film's age, but the transfer does contain film artefacts and grain.

    The audio has a heavy centre channel focus owing to its original mono heritage. Only the sound effects and some music expand on this to use the additional surround channels.

    The extras are inconsequential and had no appeal for me. Personally, I felt that some bloopers or missing footage would have been more enjoyable than simple static screens of text.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall