Film Review: Every Which Way But Loose

I went into Every Which Way But Loose with a kind of youthful exuberance. I remember it from when I was a kid and it was on TV. Clint Eastwood was in it, he had an orangutan, there was a catchy title song - brilliant!

So it came up next as my next Eastwood film (I bought the Warner Brothers 35 Years 35 Films boxset at the start of December and have been watching one a week) I was quite looking forward to it, for what it was. Harmless family fun.

How wrong I was. This is a spoiler strewn run through of what happened in it.

Clint Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe who drives trucks and does bare knuckle fighting for money. His Mum needs to pass her driving test but doesn't like her glasses. He has a friend Orville too. And Clyde the orangutan who he won in a fight against four people. So the film starts and he already has Clyde.

One evening Philo is down the local bar and falls for a girl - Lynn Halsey-Taylor (played by then Eastwood partner Sondra Locke) who is singing in a country band. He buys her a drink and a romance blossoms.

Meanwhile some bikers throw a fag end at Clyde and Philo chases them. Angering the biker gang they are part of. Philo also starts a bar brawl and two of the people he punches are cops.

Clyde drives a vehicle a bit.

Then Lynn vanishes from the scene leaving Philo a short note saying sorry and goodbye. So he decides to track her down and follow her. At the same time the biker gang decide to follow Philo as he leaves to find Lynn. The cops from the bar fight decide to take some leave so they can go and kill Philo. Kill him.

So everyone is off looking for Lynn or Philo. Obviously the latter takes Clyde and Orville who pulls a girl working at a fruit stand even though he told someone she has the clap.

Oh yeah there is quite a few sexual references and swearing in this family romp.

Meanwhile we go back to Lynn time and again, and each time she is being chatted up by a bloke, and then they buy her a drink with the strong implication sex will follow. So you start to think - "Is she a hooker then? Because she mentioned a bloke she is 'with'" but then you remember she was with Philo and he would have noticed. So she likes sex with strangers, and has a really bad attitude.

The biker gang fail repeatedly to kill Philo, as do the off duty cops. Clyde flips them off a few times.

Philo finally tracks her down and they have sex. No money changes hands.

About the same time and in between more bare knuckle fights (Philo is looking to fight the bare knuckle champ Tank Murdock soon) time is found for our hero to break into a zoo with Clyde so he can get his monkey end away.

Anyway Lynn vanishes again and Philo sets about tracking her down which he eventually does and catches her kissing another (different) bloke. He confronts her. She starts going mental. Then a guy in a pimp suit turns up - she was the bloke she was with! He is totally dressed as a pimp! What is going on? Is she a goodwill hooker? Has Philo forgotten she is actually a prostitute? Neither it seems, she carries on losing it. Starts crying. Hitting Philio, bloodying his nose. She collapses into a heap at his feet, still crying.

We cut to the climatic fight with Tank Murdock. Who sadly looks like a fat nonce. Philo kicks the hell out of him, then for reasons that are never explained, decides to lose and goes down in one punch.

Then Philo, Orville, Orville's girlfriend and Clyde go home. End titles.

WUT?

We never find out what happened about either situation! It was totally messed up. It was like David Lynch directed it at times. Just made no sense. And the title! It was like they wrote a song and decided to do a film of it. Only not.

Anyway there is a sequel 'Any Which Way You Can' and Lynn is in the cast, and is referred to as Philo's "Gal" on the blurb! How did that happen exactly? Because if a girl starts crying and hitting, and finally has a totally has a nervous breakdown at my feet - WHILE HER PSEUDO PIMP WATCHES...I kinda cut my losses. Plenty more fish and all that.

Anyway director James Fargo went on to direct the equally baffling Chuck Norris film 'Forced Vengeance' (although that is my favourite Chuck film for personal reasons) and Clint somehow managed to emerge with his career and dignity intact.

No chance they will ever remake it though.

***

One of those films that you are baffled at every stage of the way. Nothing makes any sense, the apes hardly in it really considering he was the selling point and just features a really messed up romantic storyline which gets a bit awkward to watch by the end. Why 3 stars? I've been thinking about it all day and I'd watch it again. Plus I have the bloody song stuck in my head.