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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Gauntlet (1977)

The Gauntlet (1977)

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Released 18-Oct-1999

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action None
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 1977
Running Time 104:38
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (77:14) Cast & Crew
Start Up Programme
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Clint Eastwood
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Clint Eastwood
Sondra Locke
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $29.95 Music Jerry Fielding


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Italian
Dutch
Arabic
Spanish
Portuguese
German
English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement Yes, can of Tab on dashboard
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Clint Eastwood has been making movies for a while (starting in 1955, to be precise). He has starred in some very good movies (Unforgiven is an obvious choice), some mediocre movies (City Heat, for example), and some outright dreadful movies (Every Which Way But Loose, for example). He has established some movie icons: The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry are well-known.

    For a while he was with Sondra Locke (I thought they were married, but apparently not) - I wouldn't have minded, but he felt that meant he must include her in his movies, and she is not a talented actress. I tend to avoid Clint Eastwood movies with Sondra Locke in them, but when this movie came up for review I felt I really should give her a fair go.

    So, how is this movie? Well, unfortunately, Clint is not at the top of his form, and Sondra drags him down further. The plot doesn't help. The whole movie is one long set-up for the climactic scene; it's a long and tedious set-up, and the climactic scene is not all that good. Sondra plays a foul-mouthed, nasty-minded hooker who is being dragged against her will from Las Vegas to Phoenix so that she can testify in a trial. Clint is playing Clint Eastwood role number 2 - that's the hard-bitten cop (as opposed to Clint Eastwood role number 1, which is the hard-bitten cowboy). This time around, the cop has a drinking problem, his partner has just been promoted, and he's been selected to escort this hooker from Las Vegas to Phoenix. The mob is betting that she won't make it. He is determined that she will. I'm not going to say any more because you've probably deduced most of the rest of the plot already.

    Before you get the wrong impression, I must say that I really like Clint Eastwood movies, including all the good ones, and a lot of the bad ones. I just think he should avoid co-starring with orang-utans, and Sondra Locke (oh, the temptation of juxtaposing those two...). I'm really looking forward to seeing more of his movies come out on DVD, especially Heartbreak Ridge, but even Firefox.

    If you can switch off your discrimination, so you don't see the huge holes in the plot, then it is possible to extract some mild enjoyment from this movie, but there are a lot of other Clint Eastwood movies out there, and most of them are rather better.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This disc is presented in an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. This is the original theatrical ratio.

    The picture is not especially sharp, but it is good enough. The shadow detail is adequate. There is no low-level noise, which is impressive.

    Colour is washed out - probably a product of the film stock, but possibly a deliberate intention considering the desert settings of much of the film. I don't think there's a fully-saturated colour in the entire film. Even so, flesh tones look pretty reasonable - not at all hard to watch.

    There are relatively few film artefacts, but one of the few is a beaut! Have a look around 94:35 - there's a large white triangle on the picture under the marksmen - looks like a chunk out of the film. There's a large watermark on one frame over the car at 16:54, but that's less noticeable. There's almost no aliasing to be seen, which is surprising, but pleasant. There are no MPEG artefacts. All up, this is quite a clean transfer.

    The subtitles are available in eight languages, plus two hard-of-hearing streams - I sampled both English streams. The subtitles are white and placed under the picture in the black bar. They are in a simple, easy-to-read font. They are abbreviated, but well-timed.

    The disc is single sided and RSDL formatted. The layer change is at 77:14, hidden in a cut. It's invisible on some players, and just visible on others. Not a bad effort.



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

Audio

    There are three soundtracks. I listened to the English one. It is Dolby Digital 5.1. The closing credits list Dolby Stereo, so the 5.1 soundtrack must be a remastering.

    The dialogue is clear, and mostly readily understood, despite some background hiss.

    The score is loud and excited during the action sequences, with a fair bit of brass. It's composed by Jerry Fielding. There is some distortion in the music - listen at around 61:50 for an example.

    The surrounds are not heavily used, with nearly no directional content. The subwoofer is used for the many explosions.



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

Extras

    There are no extras. The back cover lists interactive menus and scene access - that's hardly "extras".

Menu

    The menus are static and silent.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 disc is missing:

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

    The two discs are pretty much identical, except that the R1 is single layer (suggesting more compression, and hence lower quality), and is packaged in a snapper case.

Summary

    The Gauntlet is one of Clint Eastwood's poorest efforts, presented reasonably well on DVD.

    The video quality is adequate.

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Thursday, September 27, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDArcam DV88, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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