Tightrope (1984)

The opening sequence will have you thinking it's a Hitchcock film.

Tightrope definitely tries to be, deviating far enough from the Dirty Harry series to be diverse. Eastwood (despite looking no different than that other detective) degrades himself in a good way, in this murky 80s film that features some nice background locations and atmospheric touches. I would deem it the heterosexual Cruising, a ripe and splendid mixture of kinky, dark, spooky and adult themes with Clint Eastwood as a part-time sexual deviant, part-time frank detective, detached father and lonely man.

The dull parts, believe it or not, come with the standard cop thriller elements, e.g. trying to solve the case as a good cop, making due with scant evidence, a rising body count and balancing the "tightrope" of being a flawed but still likable protagonist. Yet as overdone and repetitive as they are, it is the sexually-themed and eerie sequences that offer the most refreshing qualities.

Overall, I'd been waiting a while to watch this one and finally gave it a viewing. It was worth it. The film isn't optimistic or poetic; it offers a bleak sleazy view on human (primal) nature with lots of nudity and darkness, in which the killer is always lurking. Tightrope offers a pleasant, risqué and working mixture that is missed in most of today's films.