Every Which Way but Loose (1978)

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D’Angelo, and Ruth Gordon
Grade: C+

I would have paid money to be in the room to hear the pitch of Every Which Way but Loose. Seeing the faces of those executives would have been priceless.

Summary

Truck driver Philo Beddoe (Eastwood) drops his truck off after work, kisses the secretary, and before leaving, he knocks on the window to get the attention of the other woman that works there, smiling at her before walking out. He drives his pickup truck straight to a bar he frequents, and the bartender has a beer waiting for him. He takes some peanuts from the bowl, and Big Al (Bob Golden) starts to get agitated because it was by him and he wanted it for himself. Philo finishes his beer quickly, gets up from his stool, walks behind Al, and grabs some more peanuts from over Al’s shoulder. Al tells him to put the peanuts back. He starts insulting Philo and calls him a squirrel, trying to get the attention of the bar while doing so. Philo crushes the peanuts in his hand and punches Al in the face. Al tries to fight him, but Philo ducks every swing and destroys him, knocking him out and into the jukebox. Little does Al know, Philo makes big money on the side as a bare-knuckle brawler.

Philo drives home and catches his best friend Orville (Lewis) before he leaves. Orville tells him that Ma (Gordon) is going to try again. He drives off in his tow truck right after, as he runs his own tow service. Orville drives Ma to the DMV while she worries about forgetting to bring her wig. Once they pull up, Ma still wants to go over her booklet, as she’s studying for her driver’s test. Orville hopes she passes this time because there aren’t too many DMV places they can go to that are left, as most of them know who she is now. At home, Philo grabs a beer and heads out to the barn to see his pet orangutan, Clyde. Clyde wrestles him to the ground. Next, he swings on the bars and kicks Philo into the door and back to the outside. Naturally, Philo doesn’t drop his beer. He lets Clyde have a swig of it and feeds him some peanuts. Back at the DMV, Orville tries to make Ma feel better about what happened. She passed the test, but they still told her she was too old. She blames it on her not having her wig. At night, Orville finds Philo under the car outside working on it and asks if he’s out there working on the car. Philo notes how that’s two dumb questions in a row that he’s asked while he stands up. With the car partially jacked, Philo lifts it up further and tells Orville to help him put the block under the car. Once he does, Orville says Ma is pissed. Clyde got out this morning, came over, and shit on everything. Philo asks how she got Clyde back in the barn, and Orville reveals that this is what she’s actually mad about. She had to bribe Clyde with all her Oreos. Philo promises to make it up to her. Orville questions if he has a fight tomorrow, and he confirms. Orville will be there. The next day at the fight, Philo stands alongside Orville, and they watch as his opponent Church (George P. Wilbur) warms up. It’s in a lot somewhere, and there are a bunch of blue-collar workers around to watch the fight. One guy takes all the bets from everyone and notes how Philo is good, but he’s no Tank Murdoch (Walter Barnes).

Philo is confident in his abilities however and tells Orville to take the bet. At the same time, Church swigs a beer and spits it out. Orville helps Clyde onto the truck to watch the fight, and Philo goes over to stand in the middle of the circle with Church.

Philo destroys Church, Orville collects their money to a stunned crowd, and Philo and Orville walk hand in hand with Clyde out of there. Philo jokingly comments that Clyde could have beaten the guy. At a western bar called “The Palomino”, Philo and Orville go and have a drink that night. While the band plays, the two seek out two women nearby and Philo goes and makes his move first, sitting down next to one of them. He’s nice with Carol, but she’s annoyed with him already. She talks about how she’s majoring in sociology at USC. She’s only there because she’s doing a paper on the country-western mentality. Mentally checked out, Philo comments how that blew five minutes of their conversation. Carol points out how he only asked if he could sit and said nothing about talking, prompting an annoyed Philo to ask who she’s mad at. She bypasses this and asks if he has a light. Since he doesn’t because he doesn’t smoke, she leaves the table momentarily. Agitated, Philo asks Orville for a set of false teeth, and he puts it in Carol’s soup. Once Carol sits back down, Philo asks Carol what the country-western mentality is. Carol states that it’s between moron and dull-normal, directing his attention to the lyrics of the song being sung. While she states this, she pulls the false teeth out of her food, yells at Philo for being disgusting, and runs out of there. Philo and Orville laugh to each other. The song finishes, and the singer brings the next singer onstage, Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Locke). As she sings, Orville wants to go, but Philo wants to watch her for a bit. During Lynn’s performance, Philo can’t keep his eyes off her. Once she’s done, she goes straight to the bar and gives the bartender her guitar to hold onto. Philo buys Lynn a drink and introduces himself, and she is quick to ask if he had a fight with his “girlfriend”, as she saw the spat with Carol. Philo tells Lynn that he only knew her for a minute, so she messes with him over it.

They discuss her song, how she didn’t write it but wishes she did, how it was a song her dad sang to her when she was little, and how Philo knew a girl from grade school that reminded him of her. She flirts a little more, so he suggests they go somewhere. She’s surprisingly down. Orville tries to use the same line on the girl nearby. In the truck, Philo drives Lynn, and she talks about how she decided there was nothing she liked doing more than singing. They get to the trailer park and kiss. Philo asks if she’s cool in letting him in. She is, but she reveals that she can’t on account of her boyfriend Schyler (Bruce Scott) being inside sleeping. Philo is taken aback, but she is quick to add that he wouldn’t mind.

If you need a red flag, there it is.

Put off, Philo says they can try some other time when Schyler isn’t around. Lynn kisses him again but is fine with it. The next day at a stoplight, a couple of bikers see Clyde in the passenger seat of Philo’s truck. There is Woody (Roy Jenson), who wears an eye patch he doesn’t need, and Dallas (Bill McKinney). He wears a Viking helmet. They make fun of Clyde and throw something at him, and it pisses off Philo. So, Philo chases them for miles. They go through a driving range, and the bikers even go through a car wash to elude him. Either way, Philo rides through it all to catch them. Eventually, the bikers crash after sliding on the wet street after a street cleaner is doing his rounds. Philo parks, throws the city worker out of the street cleaner truck, and chases after the bikers with the vehicle. They decide to go on foot to get to the train coming by. Philo gets off the street cleaner to run by the train while Clyde takes the wheel and crashes it into a market of sorts. Philo gets close to nabbing Woody but trips and falls. Clyde finds Philo on the ground and hugs him. At night, Philo is driving Lynn around, and he asks her why she stays with Schyler if she doesn’t like him. She admits it’s because he promised to get her the $7,000 she needs as a down payment to open her club back home in Denver. She’s going to call it the “Lynn Halsey-Taylor Drinking Fountain”, it’s going to be the name of her group too, and she’s going to have “Talent night” three nights a week. Philo wonders how much of the $7,000 Schyler has already, but she says that he won’t tell her. Philo admits the only thing he has of value is Clyde. Since she doesn’t know about Clyde, Philo explains how it’s his pet ape, and how he won him in a fight. Apparently, Clyde was brought over from Sumatra to make a baby. By the time Clyde arrived, the other male orangutan they had on hand had already done the job. Clyde got angry after that, so they sold him to a “desert zoo”, which is more of a side show attraction in the desert rather than an actual zoo. That’s where Philo won him. He bet his truck and two dirt bikes because he really hated seeing Clyde in that cage.

Lynn is surprised to hear that Philo fought 4 guys for him, but Philo actually fought them all at once. He used to love fighting more than anything. Lynn questions why he didn’t go professional, but he laughs this off because there’s too many rules in pro fighting.

Lynn jokingly refers to him as a “regular Tank Murdoch”, and Philo gets serious and asks if she knows him. However, she only knows of him because he’s a regular institution in Denver. Philo states that Tank is one man that he wants to meet up with. Lynn changes the subject by saying how she wants to meet Clyde. Philo says she will, but she’s going to meet Orville first because he’s waiting on them. At a diner, Lynn talks about how Tank was in the backseat of his car with this wealthy debutante and his buddy was in the trunk. The woman heard the movement in the trunk and started flipping out. The cops came, and Tank was trying to explain things, but no one believed him because everyone knew him. Eventually, Tank put 4 of the cops in the hospital and it took 12 to bring him in. Just then, bikers Elmo (William O’Connell) and Frank (Dan Vadis) pay for a beer and have the waitress send it over to Lynn. Orville turns his hat around because he knows where this is going. Philo takes the beer, looks at them, and takes a sip while he smiles. The bikers walk over and point out their tattoos to Philo and question if he knows what it means. He plays coy with Elmo, and Orville sneezes on the arm of Frank. They point out how they are tattoos of black widows and try to intimidate Philo and Orville, but they don’t budge. Philo tells Orville to pay the check, and he will go outside with them to thank them for the beer properly. Outside, Philo kicks the absolute dogshit out of both of them while Orville finishes his pie with Lynn. They leave right after, with Philo stealing their motorcycles too. At home, Clyde is taking down the clothes from the clothesline and washing them. Philo is working on something, and Ma interrupts him. She asks if Orville told him what happened. Assuming she’s talking about the driver’s license test failure, he says he’s sorry it happened. However, Ma is talking about Clyde. Philo promises Clyde won’t do it again, but she wants to know what Philo is going to do about it (“What? The crap or the Oreos?”).

She’s tired of having no privacy in her house. She walks over and yells at Clyde for him eating all the Oreos, and Clyde responds by kissing her. She’s disgusted and leave. Philo just walks by Clyde and jokingly does a finger gun gesture. Clyde responds by holding his arms up and dropping to act like he got shot. The Black Widow biker gang has a meeting at the leader’s house, Cholla (John Quade). He is mad Elmo and Frank got there late, but they are still in shock from the night before because they note how great of a fighter Philo was, likening him to Tank Murdoch. Dallas and Woody are there at the meeting too, among others. They make fun of Elmo and Frank for getting their asses kicked so handily. Still, Cholla stops them, realizing that some guy is making them look like fools and keeps collecting their bikes from them. He wants to find out who Philo is, but they don’t know where to find him. However, Cholla points out the obvious in that there aren’t many people driving around with an ape. That night, Philo leaves the bar with Lynn, and she notices the envelope sitting in his pocket. She asks what it is, so he has her open it. It’s the $7,000 she needs to open her club. Philo sold the bikes he took from the Black Widows and got the money. Later, he buys a new outfit for her. After another night at the Palomino, Philo walks her to the truck and asks her if everything is fine. She confirms it, though she’s short with him. As they drive out of the parking lot, a car follows them. The car starts ramming them and points a shotgun at them. Philo has Lynn get down, he rams the car, and the person fires the shotgun accidentally at their own windshield. Once they drive off, Lynn realizes it was Schyler. Apparently, he changed his mind about not caring. They get to the trailer park, and Philo is ready for war. However, Lynn pleads with Philo to not hurt him. Philo points out how Schyler just tried to kill him and didn’t even care that Lynn was next to him, but she insists Schyler was just trying to scare him. Plus, he doesn’t really know how to shoot.

Lynn asks Philo to let her talk to Schyler, so he relents. He tells Lynn to tell Schyler that she wants to stay with Philo from now on. Philo gives her the money. At home, Orville is working on the car, and Clyde finds a way out of the barn. He tries to steal Orville’s beer, but he won’t let Clyde have it. Clyde goes to the front of the truck and threatens to drop it on him while he’s under it. Philo gets home and sees what’s happening. Orville gets out from under the car before Clyde walks away from it and it drops down. Philo grabs the beer can, Clyde jumps into his arms, and Philo reminds Orville that he doesn’t want Clyde drinking beer, except for Saturday nights. The next day, Ma takes another driving test and fails. This time it was because she didn’t tell them she wore glasses, she didn’t wear them, and they told her she was too old. Meanwhile, Philo brushes Clyde and drives him out to meet Lynn. Upon getting to the trailer park however, Philo finds that Lynn’s trailer is gone. Confused, Philo asks the trailer court manager (Hank Worden) where they went, but he doesn’t know too many details (“I know it’s gone, goddamn it, but where’d it go?”). He just knows they had Colorado plates, and they left that morning. Philo drives straight to the Palomino, and the bartender gives him a letter written on a napkin. It’s from Lynn stating, “Dear Philo, I gotta go. I’m sorry”. Infuriated, Philo goes to leave and bumps into a guy named Putnam (Gregory Walcott). Near Putnam is his friend Herb (James McEachin). Putnam starts talking shit, but Philo isn’t in the mood and gives it right back. It turns into a fight, which results in a massive barroom brawl that includes everyone there. Even the band gets involved, with the lead singer bashing his guitar off someone. Not missing a beat, he just grabs another guitar that was there and continues with his verse. Philo is punching Putnam over and over again and comments to the bartender to call the cops, but the bartender reveals to Philo that they are the cops. Philo stops and runs out of there.

At home, Philo packs up the trailer for a road trip, but Orville isn’t sure about this whole thing. Philo doesn’t even know where Lynn is, but he is confident he will know. Orville questions if Philo is sure Lynn wants him to come looking for her, but Philo is sure of it. Clyde is going, so Orville wants to come to, and Philo is cool with it. As Orville goes to grab his stuff, Philo tells Ma what is happening. She’s not cool with them leaving her all by herself, and she’s still frustrated because she doesn’t have a license. Either way, Philo, Clyde, and Orville are headed east to find Lynn. At the same time, Putnam and Herb are on a beach with a metal detector and stop to dig, though Herb is the one doing the digging. Putnam is still mad about Philo, but they don’t know who he is or where to find him. However, Putnam is going to go on a two-week medical leave to dedicate all his time to finding Philo so he can beat him down. He tells Herb that he will spend the next two years looking for Philo if he has to. Meanwhile, Philo stops at a small food market on the side of the road. Echo (D’Angelo) deals with an annoying ass customer but tries to be nice. Orville spots the two and makes eye contact with Echo. He goes over and whispers something to the customer, and she runs away screaming. With this, Orville considers buying some cantaloupe before flirting with Echo. By the time Philo gets back to the truck, Echo is sitting there with Orville. Silently confused, Philo just rolls with it and starts driving. Now, the group is headed east. Unbeknownst to Philo though, the Black Widows AND the cops are going to the ends of the Earth to hunt him down.

My Thoughts:

As far as mainstream movies go, there is nothing more random or ambitious as Every Which Way but Loose, a hick action comedy focused on bare-knuckle brawling, romance with an aspiring country music star, and the existence of a pet orangutan saved from Sumatra. How they managed to get Clint Eastwood of all people to sign on to such an odd film is beyond me. Despite certain drawbacks and containing a sense of humor not necessarily suitable for all walks of life, the goofy, haphazard slugfest is a lot more fun than critics may have given it credit for.

Back in the 70s and early 80s, Hollywood was actively making films to appeal to southern, western, and country folk audiences. With plots and characters written with the location and type of people in mind, humor fitting of the locale, and a style familiar with the culture of the cowboy crowd, stars like Burt Reynolds thrived (White Lightning, Hooper, Smokey and the Bandit, etc.). In comparison, Clint Eastwood had a wider appeal as a star and had already won audiences over with his many westerns and serious action films. Even so, Eastwood’s choice to star in such an offbeat action comedy like Every Which Way but Loose was a wild swing to not only further his stronghold with the country crowd, but to broaden his appeal in general, showcasing a side of the actor never before seen on the big screen. As Philo Beddoe, the main character still possesses a lot of Eastwood’s main traits as an actor. He still has the scowl, is still a no-nonsense badass that kicks the shit out of anyone he comes across that tries to test him, he has a trash talking quip in the chamber when he needs it, and he still has time for the ladies. At the same time, Philo is everything we know a blue-collar worker to be. He’s a trucker, he drinks, he fights, and he doesn’t take shit from anyone. At home, he spends time moving around engine blocks and working on his truck. Even so, he’s a positive and likable friend and is still more of a lover than most hardened truckers might be, as evidenced by his infatuation with Sondra Locke’s Lynn Halsey-Taylor. What would usually be a one-night stand for Philo turns into a love affair due to Lynn’s persuasive ways. Despite her still staying with her boyfriend Schyler, it’s not long into her fling with Philo that he gives her the $7,000 to pay for her down payment for the club she wants to open, assuming he is staying in her life moving forward. Granted, he got the money from stealing the motorcycles of the Black Widows, so it wasn’t necessarily coming straight out of his pocket but giving out that type of money to a woman he hasn’t known for very long is an out-of-character gamble.

Then again, is it? It’s out of character in comparison to other Clint Eastwood protagonists who don’t trust a living soul, but Philo Beddoe is different. He can go toe-to-toe with any other Eastwood character in a one-on-one fight without question, but Philo’s flaw is that he has more of a heart than any of them. In one private scene with Clyde Philo speaks to him and assumes Clyde thinks he’s crazy for going across the country for a girl he hardly knows, especially since he’s not like Orville and it takes him a much longer time to get to know a girl. In this lone monologue, Philo shows his inner vulnerability when it comes to love, talking to his silent orangutan pet as he admits it takes a long time for a woman to get to know him. In a simplistic line that essentially explains the essence of his character, Philo comments “I’m not afraid of any man, but when it comes to sharing my feelings with a woman, my stomach just turns to royal gelatin”. When Philo is able to admit this in private to confirm the viewer’s assumptions based off of context clues, it makes us feel for Philo Beddoe more than ever before. Regardless of the daily beatings he hands out for money, he is softened by the prospect of love. Philo finally met someone he liked enough to chase across the country, assuming they were on the verge of building something there. At that point, nothing else mattered, and he was willing to go all the way to Denver because he thought there was something wrong with how fast Lynn left the area after everything was going so well. Just like any man, Philo is never outward about his innermost feelings for Lynn with Orville or anyone other than Clyde, as he’s still the tough trucker who refuses to concede any personal information. However, we know how much this all means to the hardened fighter. Sadly, Lynn saw his type from a mile away, someone who doesn’t understand goodbye. As soon Lynn is shown in Denver performing at another club and flirting with another random guy, the viewer realizes the reality of the situation.

Lynn isn’t the love interest that is going to make Philo’s life whole. She’s just another villain on the ever-growing list.

Lynn took Philo as a sucker and was right on the money. As tough as he is, she knew she could manipulate him and continue her plan in the next city because the selfish, goal-driven musician is only focused on her career aspirations. In an amusing scene showing the real personality of Lynn that was somewhat lost in the sequel Any Which Way You Can, she goes bowling and says aloud personal stakes with each attempt (“If this is a strike, it means Ronstadt and Parton to the side and Halsey-Taylor to the top”). Despite quite a few pins being left, she doesn’t get discouraged, subtly showing the audience how far she is willing to go, even with setbacks like Philo in her life. Going again, she states that she will have her own special by the same time next year if she gets the pickup. Once she does, she celebrates as if it’s an absolute fact while drawing in another man to be her victim. Lynn is an intelligent, vicious, and dangerous woman in her own right that the viewer is sure to underestimate for the first half of the movie. You find yourself falling for Lynn’s trap, and you begin to like her despite the obvious red flags surrounding her, just like Philo does. As more is unveiled with the running time though, we realize that the character is layered, devious, and a cunning one that Philo wasn’t prepared for. In creating this character, Sondra Locke manages a strong and memorable performance against her long-running co-star. She’s so good with Lynn’s twisted tactics but ability to be desirable in her own way, and she pulls off a nearly unthinkable feat: she catches an Eastwood character with his pants down and actually makes us genuinely feel bad for him. By the time Philo is getting in his jog and happily waves down Lynn when she happens to be driving by, it’s already established that Lynn’s “relationship” with Philo and all these other men are merely part of her elaborate plan. The audience can tase the sourness of the moment once Philo smiles upon greeting her and jumps into the passenger seat because he has no idea who she actually is, Sadly, we are a part of the unlucky who do know.

The whole driving action of the film is Lynn, and Philo wanting to reconnect with her because he took her final note as a sign that something was wrong rather than it being the definitive end without any strings attached that she was intending it to be. To Philo’s credit, he’s just as resilient and stubborn in his personal life as he is against an opponent, channeling it into his chase for Lynn without realizing it. The whole time, Philo thought he was fighting for a forbidden love with Lynn, which is why he took this road trip on in the first place because he thought he was doing this for the both of them. It’s why Lynn finally revealing her true colors in the parking lot of the Palomino was such a heartbreaking scene, as the viewer knew how much Philo was putting into all of this. It’s also why her trying to win over Philo in Any Which Way You Can and being surprised that he’s still mad was asinine. Even so, as Lynn kissed the random Harlan, the camera shows Philo in the background staring at the two from across the parking lot and Lynn’s silence upon seeing him speaks volumes. Realistically, we’re dead silent too because Philo has beaten the absolute dogshit out of people for much less than this. The way he walks over, the rage is felt in every step before he sternly tells Harlan, “The lady and I have a little business. I expect you’ll be excusing us”. It’s at this point where you don’t know what Philo is going to do. We have already seen the bare-knuckle fighter beat the hell out of the tough Kincaid in a slaughterhouse, mop the floor with off duty cops Putnam and Herb, and take on 10-15 members of the Black Widow biker gang at once and kick the shit out of every last one of them handily. With Kincaid or Church however, Philo is getting paid. With Al in the opening scene, the cops, or the Black Widows, his hand was forced and he had to react. With Lynn however, this was purely manipulation. Someone close to Philo knowingly used him for all that he was worth. Since Lynn is now well aware of who Philo is, she doesn’t even know how he will react.

She’s aware of how dangerous he is, which is probably why she set him up to be caught by the Black Widows, assuming they would take care of him. In that moment in the parking lot with Harlan though, her heart sinks seeing Philo appear because she knows he’s pissed off. When Philo has a reason to be pissed, everyone knows to watch out. The tension in the scene is palpable, but Philo proves why he’s different from any other Clint Eastwood protagonist. In an attitude switch no one sees coming in either character, Lynn lights Philo up by blaming him for following her, his inability to take a hint, and how she was trying to get rid of him since the first day they met. She shouts at him as she asks why he didn’t quit like everyone else, but Philo is in such shock, he just calmly comments how he’s not too smart, blaming himself for being dumb enough to want to take her further than her bed. In a role reversal, Lynn strikes Philo over and over, but he just takes it. He is simply stunned at how badly he was fooled. As blood comes out of his face, he looks at Schyler, walks over to him, stops, and looks as if he’s about to unleash hell like no other on the frightened man. Instead, he takes the high road and leaves them alone, heading straight from there to meet Tank Murdoch. It’s a challenging moment because we want a comeuppance of sorts, but the restraint and maturity of Philo in his silence is more powerful as a response. Outside of Clyde’s antics like flipping people off, scenes like this are what helps makes the movie as memorable as it is, and unexpectedly so.

It goes without saying that Every Which Way but Loose is not for everyone. Still, for the blue-collar type, truckers, southerners, country folk, and those who live and die by the honkytonk lifestyle, this action comedy and its sequel Any Which Way You Can is like The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Overstuffed with slapstick, cartoonish villains, and a litany of locations truckers thrive in like low-rent motels, honkytonk bars, and a multitude of countryside landscapes, there is no surprise why the movie was as popular at the box office as it was. As expected, the score is heavy on the country music too. For someone who hates the genre, this is probably the toughest element to get through because the scenes involving people performing are much longer than they needed to be. Granted, it makes sense to an extent to establish Lynn Halsey-Taylor as an aspiring country star, but they didn’t need to go back to it that many times nor did we need to hear all the other performers in each bar the characters find themselves in. Then again, it’s hard to criticize it too much in this regard because the film is geared to the specific audience who does enjoy this music. So, for the viewers they are targeting, the movie does a great job in depicting this blue-collar American crowd. It’s got the beer drinking, cops that overstep their boundaries, vulgar language and people, barroom brawls, fart jokes, everyone is driving a pickup truck, and there is plenty of gross humor and innuendo to go around for everyone. There’s even some fishing, like when Putnam and Herb try to sneak attack Philo, though their plan is perplexing to say the least. If they planned on shooting Philo, why did Putnam send Herb to the other side of the river when they both could have just walked up together and shot Philo while he was standing there with his back to them? It made no sense for Herb to have to go through all of that.

On the other hand, it was funny for Putnam to forget about his entire plan and help Philo with his fishing after he hooks a big one. I laughed out loud when they caught the fish together and Philo turned and slapped him with it. The successive left hands he throws to demolish Putnam right after were awesome to say the least.

Speaking of which, the choreography isn’t groundbreaking in the slightest, but the bare-knuckle fights Philo gets involved in are extremely satisfying and straight to the point, albeit completely one-sided in his favor. Eastwood is in great shape for the role and embodies the physical and mental toughness of the character. The shots of him looking straight into the camera as if it was the fighter are invigorating. It makes you want to throw some jabs back, which is really all we want out of an action film like this. Besides the fight with Church, him taking on Kincaid in the slaughterhouse was awesome. There is an intensity to it that draws us in even more. The unexpected ending to it of Kincaid’s guys all being sore losers and refusing to pay, prompting Echo to show her worth by firing her gun and then doing it a second time to show it wasn’t an accident was an underrated moment, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone do or say that in a movie before. It’s a shame Echo wasn’t kept on for the sequel because her relationship with Orville was a bright spot. She’s a little unhinged and begins to revel in the chaos Orville and Philo find themselves in. Watching her get in on the action was amusing like when she saved Orville from the Black Widows by picking him up in the garbage truck and then running over all of their motorcycles with the vehicle (“10 points!”). Her relationship with Orville was arguably more likable than Philo’s and Lynn’s through both movies. Then, there’s the final showdown with Tank Murdoch, another great bare-fisted brawl. The lighting, the location used, the atmosphere, all of it was perfect for the climax of a fighting film such as this one. To the film’s credit, their efforts in building up the character as “The Final Boss” Philo is to face was great. He sounded dangerous, he looked the part of someone who is this underground fighting legend considered to be the best, and the casting of Walter Barnes was excellent. The former football star looked like a mean old trucker with hands of stone and possessed a rough demeanor that embodied the type of person the character is written as.

They really don’t make them like Tank Murdoch anymore, and Barnes just exemplifies that hard-drinking trucker from the 1970s that you would not want to bump into at a bar. Today, we have this preconceived idea about what a fighter should look like, but this large, big-bellied trucker that is as tough as nails is about as realistic as it gets, especially to that side of the country during that time period. With that being said, Philo’s decision in the fight was infuriating and completely unnecessary. He had no motivation to do what he did. Thankfully, they rectify things in Any Which Way You Can.

As difficult as it may be for some to get past the country attitude of the movie as a whole, the biggest struggle is getting used to the foul-mouthed Ma. In repeat viewings, you realize that she’s crucial in setting the tone of the rough environment in Every Which Way but Loose and its sequel, but if someone were to only view the film one time, there’s a solid chance you will hate the character. No one would blame you either. She complains nonstop about things we don’t care about, she is written to be over-the-top in her argumentative personality, and it’s intended to be amusing because it’s so much, but it just makes us hate her even more. They give her scenes with characters like Putnam and Herb when they are looking for Philo just for Ma to go off on her rants about Clyde shitting everywhere, him stealing her Oreos, and Philo and Orville leaving her behind without protection, but it goes nowhere. It’s intended to be funny, but we want the scene to end just as badly as the two cops do, which is why they hightail it out of there after talking to her for less than a minute. Truthfully, she’s completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but gets a ton of screentime to just yell and agitate anyone near her. Actually, it makes sense why Philo is a fighter. He probably had so much bent up aggression living in that household that he had to take it out on someone. With all of this being said, Ma facing off against Cholla and the Black Widows was a very funny scene. After Cholla takes out the post on her porch by attaching it to his bike and driving off, Ma blows up another biker’s motorcycle in retaliation with what is supposed to be a shotgun but shoots like a grenade launcher. Seeing all the Black Widows scramble in a panic and run in different directions to escape Ma’s wrath was great. The guerilla style camera work in the scene magnified the humor too because it really felt like these bikers were freaking out.

Despite being a neo-Nazi group with a shirtless leader who wears a scarf, the Black Widows are so cartoonishly ridiculous that it becomes the engine to the buffoonery of this two-film franchise. Their actual motivations as a group are unknown. In fact, we only assume the Nazi stuff because Cholla has a swastika on his jacket, but they don’t talk about anything or do anything specific for us to know more about the plight of their group. Their entire goal in life after crossing paths with our favorite trucker, is to kill Philo Beddoe. It even stretches to the sequel. What’s ironically comical about it is that they aren’t even funny. They’re mildly amusing at best, but anytime that saxophone note is played to signal to the audience that this is their scene, you can’t help but roll your eyes and smile thinking, “Here we go again with these motherfuckers”. They aren’t tough either. Besides getting their asses kicked by Philo in arguably the best scene in the film in the historic Georgetown, they try to threaten Lester and other truckers at a random diner earlier in the film and get their asses kicked there too! A semitruck even drives in and runs over some of their motorcycles. Once it happens and Cholla becomes more disappointed in his group of miscreants in every scene, while never throwing a single punch in two movies I might add, we realize that this ragtag group of bad guys are nothing more than dumb cartoon villains in the same vein of Dick Dastardly. I wouldn’t even put them on the same level as Bluto from Popeye because at least Bluto looked tough and posed a threat. Here, Orville isn’t even afraid of their idiotic spider tattoos and attempts at intimidation.

There are a lot of gags that fall flat, but it’s lighthearted enough that you keep giving the movie chances. Once you throw away your expectations (which might be a requirement for some), it becomes much more enjoyable, and you’ll find yourself laughing at the silliness presented like the simple joke of repeating Echo’s name, the singer breaking a guitar over someone during a bar fight and comically just grabbing another one to continue his song, Echo being introduced to Clyde while she’s outside taking a piss and nearly shooting him because she thinks he’s a monster, or Philo going out drinking at a strip club with Clyde and deciding in the middle of the night that his orangutan pal needs some pussy. When Philo wakes up Orville and Echo, we think Philo is talking about himself and his relationship with Lynn, but it’s not until he gets them into the truck and talks about how smart Clyde is that we chuckle, realizing Philo is just trying to get his boy laid. Clyde putting his hand on Philo’s shoulder on cue after Philo talks lovingly about him was hilarious. As an actor, Eastwood can’t seem to figure out if he’s drunk or mad and underplays both in the sequence, which is why it’s hard to tell what he’s getting at before they get into the truck, but it’s funny watching Eastwood try his best to put on a comic performance. Also, Philo helping Clyde break into the Albuquerque Zoo so he can find some female orangutan, and the love song plays as soon as Clyde closes the door behind him was stupidly laugh-inducing. Who would have thought this would work? Shoutout to screenwriter Jeremy Joe Kronsberg for believing in his idea this much. The man only wrote three films in his entire career. Two of them were the movies of this Eastwood-led franchise, and the other was yet another orangutan movie in Going Ape! This guy was all about the orangutan. What a weird dude. In case you were wondering by the way, Clyde does steal the show. As soon as he’s introduced, you find yourself watching him more than anyone else in the cast. It’s not only because of the novelty of having a live orangutan on set, but the well-behaved animal is also surprisingly a good actor, all things considered.

His relationship with Philo and his tendency to always come by for a hug or putting his arm around Philo is admittedly cute. So, for all the movie’s misfires, they absolutely nailed the selling point of Eastwood teaming up with an ape. It’s worth watching both movies for this reason alone. Despite it not being the type of movie or genre one would seek out, there is something charming about Every Which Way but Loose. Really, it might just be the weirdness of it all, with Eastwood partnering with up with his orangutan buddy being wildly captivating because of how strange of an idea it is. Besides Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, never before has a co-star humanized Clint Eastwood better than the lovable Clyde. Here, we see a new side to Clint Eastwood with the tough but loving Philo Beddoe. In the defense of the many Hollywood pundits, they were right to doubt the film’s viability at the box office and popularity with audiences, but it beat all the odds and become one of the highest earners of 1978. It’s a lot of fun. Knowing Eastwood’s demeanor and public persona however, one can’t help but chuckle wondering what was going through his head when reading the script and thinking, “Yup, this is so me”. He was definitely thinking it after he beat up Putnam and howled like an ape (“What was that?” – “I think he’s spending too much time with Clyde”).

It didn’t need to be as long as it was. As mentioned before, there was no need for that much of Ma and her scene getting the driver’s license and having sexual tension with the guy administering the test should have been removed entirely. It should have just went from the Tank Murdoch fight to Philo driving back home with his friend group and passing by all the villains on the road. It was a great epilogue, but the insertion of Ma’s scene killed the flow of it. Plus, a majority of the scenes where the Black Widows were on Philo’s tail didn’t offer much in terms of entertainment. It did help to remind the audience that they are still in pursuit of the protagonist, but they did nothing to make their scenes worthwhile. For example, the big payoff of them meeting with the trailer court manager and asking about Lynn and Philo was the manager having the hose on the entire time he was talking to Cholla. Cholla didn’t realize it and looks down to see water all over his boot to finish the scene. Is that supposed to be funny? Putnam and Herb’s conversations don’t offer much amusement outside of the numbers scene, and Orville making a woman run away screaming by telling her that Echo had the clap was too much of an overreaction to warrant a laugh.

However, when Lynn sees Philo jogging and belts out “Oh shit”, and they sneak in some Sergio Leone type western music in the Georgetown fight sequence, they did get some laughs there. It’s hit or miss from a comedic standpoint, but the fun-loving tone is admittedly contagious.

Just like its title, this film is sure to drive audiences every which way but loose. If the lack of urgency bothers you or you can’t bypass the country style that is the backbone of the story, chances are you are not going to like this movie. Actually, it’s got some pretty childish and unfunny humor for a movie not recommended for kids. Nevertheless, the unique Every Which Way but Loose is as fun as it is dumb. It still possesses some great action, a surprisingly layered story, and Clint Eastwood hangs out with an ape. If that compels you, and it should, it’s an entertaining watch.

Fun Fact: It was written with Burt Reynolds in mind to star.