Tightrope

R

1984

1h 54m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

List

85%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

50%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A New Orleans police detective (Clint Eastwood) finds he has some of the same traits as a serial killer of prostitutes.

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Dhanu K

Tightrope keeps its audience on the edge of their seats with a stylishly presented Eastwood mystery that unfolds in a suspenseful neo-noir atmosphere.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/02/24

Full Review

steve d

should have been better with this cast.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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r 9

How is this not super entertaining? 'Tightrope' should have all the ingredients to make the viewer be on the edge of their seat, and yet I really didn't care much for it. Clint Eastwood, who apparently took over unofficially as director from Richard Tuggle during filming, gives a solid performance and the bond with his character's children is cute. However, the story just didn't do anything for me. It's not particularly unnerving, despite a dark on paper story, and it's rather predictable - the villain... well, the villain I've already forgotten about and I only finished watching about an hour ago. Not terrible, but not good.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Between 2.5 and 3 stars. It has the good ingredients for a good thriller, but it is not very subtle and sometimes focuses too much in sex and too little in the mistery.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

ronald h

_Tightrope_ is a tawdry sex thriller taking place in New Orleans, where detective Block (Clint Eastwood) is tracking a serial rapist / murderer whose victims are the same S & M prostitutes that Block himself routinely gets involved with---as a customer. But Block is no "bad lieutenant." He's a divorced dad who dotes on his two young daughters. He has several dogs, and he's just generally a good guy. So his sexual deviance is an anomaly, and it's not explained. Did it cause his wife to leave him? Of is it his response to that divorce? The latter is implied but not elaborated on. The film is mostly shot at night, so a lot of the scenes are dark and hard on the eyes. We are exposed to the underbelly of the Crescent City----the brothels and S & M clubs. There's a lot of jazz on the soundtrack (provided by Lennie Niehaus, who did the music for Eastwood's Charlie Parker biopic _Bird_. The police procedural aspect of the story moves slowly. The most interesting thing is Block's relationship with a woman who runs a rape crisis center, played by Genevieve Bujold. Eastwood has become such a respected icon as a director and an actor that it's strange to see him in such a sleazy movie, even sleazier than the Dirty Harry films of the 1970s. But _Tightrope_ was made was the 80's, when sleaze escalated to the max in Hollywood. DePalma and Lynch were hitting it big, and Alan Parker's despicable _Angel Heart_ was a huge success. Cultural rebellion against the Reagan era? Possibly. In one scene in a warehouse full of Mardi Gras paraphernalia, the camera briefly pans across a Reagan mask. The film makes good use of its setting, with lots of scenes on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, and the climactic scene takes place in one of the city's famous above ground cemeteries. It's suspenseful, for sure, but you'll cringe a lot. I like Eastwood a lot better in his later films. As he got older, he got more thoughtful and decent. By the way, if you've been to New Orleans, this film might make you nostalgic for Dixie Beer.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Tightrope is a heavy handed, substandard Clint Eastwood film. Poor supporting cast. Poor musical score. Poor cinematography. Most of the scenes were shot at night, so the audience must spend most of their time in front of a mostly dark screen. Clint Eastwood plays a detective in New Orleans on the case of a seral killer who's haunt is the local sex scene. Coincidentally, it is also where Clint's character likes to hang out. He is no Dirty Harry here, but rather more like the Jazz DJ in 'Play Misty for Me' with a badge. The female lead is a Canadian actress who sounds Hispanic, looks French, and acts like Pia Zadora. The professional movie critics liked this movie; the amateur audience reviewers generally did not. Chalk up a victory for the amateurs. Tightrope is truly a forgettable movie.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

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Richard Tuggle

Director

Clint Eastwood

Wes Block

Geneviève Bujold

Beryl Thibodeaux

Dan Hedaya

Det. Molinari

Alison Eastwood

Amanda Block

Jennifer Beck

Penny Block

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

A surprisingly tightly wound serial killer mystery.

Rated: B

May 4, 2005

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Tightrope may appeal to the Dirty Harry fans, with its sex and violence. But it's a lot more ambitious than the Harry movies, and the relationship between Eastwood and Bujold is more interesting than most recent male-female relationships in the movie.

Rated: 3.5/4

Oct 23, 2004

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David Elliott

Copley News Service

On an action fan's gut level, I like Eastwood. There's no other star who can pull off tense, John Wayneish moments so well.

Jul 19, 2019

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A sharp-edged slightly offbeat crime thriller for the masses.

Rated: B-

May 6, 2016

Full Review

Jon Niccum

Lawrence Journal-World

Rated: 3/5

Dec 14, 2005

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Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Eastwood took a chance at the height of his stardom to play a less-than-heroic cop in this gutsy serial-killer thriller.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 31, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

A New Orleans police detective (Clint Eastwood) finds he has some of the same traits as a serial killer of prostitutes.

Director: Richard Tuggle
Production Co: Malpaso Company
Rating: R
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2009
Runtime: 1h 54m

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