Tightrope

Tightrope is a 1984 American suspense thriller starring and produced by Clint Eastwood & directed by Richard Tuggle (in his directorial debut).

Clint Eastwood's daughter, Alison also stars in the movie as the daughter of his character.

The film is known for having a significant amount of red tint photography. The red color connects with the movie's adult sexual scenes and references to the red light district's prostitutes & seedy sex.

Plot
Detective Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) investigates the case of a serial killer who rapes & murders young women.

Due to the sexual nature of the murders, Block works with Beryl Thibodeaux (Genevieve Bujold), a rape services counselor on the investigation and the two of them begin to form a relationship.

As Block gets further into the investigation, the murderer starts targeting victims that are acquaintances of his, making him fear for the safety of his young daughters (Alison Eastwood & Jenny Beck).

Cast

 * Clint Eastwood as Detective Wes Block
 * Geneviève Bujold as Beryl Thibodeaux
 * Dan Hedaya as Detective Molinari
 * Alison Eastwood as Amanda Block
 * Jenny Beck as Penny Block
 * Rod Masterson as Patrolman Gallo
 * Marco St. John as Leander Rolfe

Production
"Tightrope" was filmed in New Orleans during the fall of 1983.

According to producer Fritz Manes, he said the production wanted the film to reflect New Orleans on two levels, saying, "First of all, we wanted to capture then historic charm and tradition of the city. In addition, we wanted the jazzy, sultry quality."

The inspiration for the film was based on newspaper articles about a rapist in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California. Also, Richard Tuggle's story was developed out of his interest in the potential influences that may exist on law enforcement during police work.

While Richard Tuggle retained the director's credit, Clint Eastwood directed most of the movie after he found Tuggle working too slowly on it.

Susan Sarandon was offered the role of Beryl Thibideaux, but turned it down. According to an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sarandon explaned she turned down the role because "the link between violence and sex was very strong. I met with Clint Eastwood and I said, 'Aren't you worried, especially you, who everybody thinks is like Man Personified, (that) when your character starts to do some of this stuff, that it's going to have a link between sex and violence and treating women badly?' And he said, 'I don't think that it's my job to worry about that, I'm an actor."

Clint Eastwood's then-partner, Sondra Locke (who co-starred with Eastwood in his six previous films) was not cast as the lead female role in the film because reportedly, Warner Bros. studio execs told Eastwood that the public was tired of seeing movies of him teamed up with Locke and was told not to make any more films with her.

Eastwood also faced in the media for casting his daughter, Alison in the film (possibly due to the elements of the film's theme).

Box Office
"Tightrope" opened at #1 at the box office, grossing $9,156,545 during its opening weekend (which is an average of $5,965 per theater). It would eventually grossed $48 million in the United States.

Critical Reception
"Tightrope" has an 82% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, out of 11 reviews.

Roger Ebert praised the film for taking chances by exploring the idea of a hard-nosed cop learning to respect a woman. He cites the film as "a lot more ambitious than the [Dirty] Harry movies."

Gene Siskel also praised the film during Siskel & Ebert's on-air review of the film on "At the Movies," crediting the performance of the villain, the relationship between Eastwood and Geneviève Bujold and Eastwood doing "a terrific job risking his star charisma playing a louse" and also "taking us inside to see what it's really like to abuse women."

Janet Maslin concluded that the film "isn't quite top-level Eastwood, but it's close."

David Denby compared Eastwood's directing style with that of "Don Siegel's tawdry, urban-anxiety mode, slowed by episodes of rapt erotic stillness" and stated that as actor he "also gave his most complex and forceful performance to date."

Accolades
Young Artist Awards
 * Alison Eastwood: Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama (nominated)