Force Fed Films: Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

This week we were lucky enough to be asked to be on the Media Pulp podcast, and you can hear our interview in Episode 5, as I'm sure many of you know already. During the interview Wes suggested that I watch the Clint Eastwood movie with the monkey. Lucky for me, Puneet came to the rescue saying that he had both movies on DVD and that he would make it my Force Fed Film for today. So here we are. I'm sitting here with a movie starring Clint Eastwood and an orangutan. So was I really rescued by Puneet and Wes, or was I sentenced to a terrible fate? Hit the jump to find out!


The first thing you should know, is that while the poster makes Clint look tough and strong and totally badass, he's actually really starting to show his age in the film. Sure he's quite a bit younger than say Gran Torino, or even Pale Rider. But he's nowhere near as fit as that artwork depicts. He's already getting his winkles and his skin is starting to sag like my grandfather. His arms were still pretty big, so at least it wasn't completely impossible to believe he could be a champion street fighter.

That's right, Clint Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a bare fist brawler to fights for money wherever the fights are held. It's pretty much the only way he makes his living. He also has a pet ape named Clyde, but no one seems to think that's unusual and everyone generally ignores this fact. Philo meets a singer one night at a bar, and he falls in love with her. She says she has a possessive boyfriend though, who she wants to leave, but can't because he has her money. Philo decides to get the money for her so she can just leave him. The boyfriend comes after them both with a shotgun one night, and Philo gives her the money swearing he'll come get her the next day after she's calmed him down. However, the next day they've up and vanished, so he takes off after her with Clyde and his buddy Orville to find and rescue her. Along the way they also meet Echo. That's right, they also meet Echo, who instantly becomes Orville's girlfriend, which is never really explained why.

The whole gang out on the road.

The story, to be honest, sounds far better on paper than it is in practice. For starters, Clyde isn't even a plot point in the movie. Philo already has him, and he's just around for really no reason other than to do crazy things that trained apes can do. A few times he lifts his arms and clips while kinda looking like he's smiling. Yup, pure comedy, folks. For the longest time it's just so confusing as to why Clyde is there, and it isn't until well into the movie that it's explained how he got him. The plot is just so paper thin and they just seem to meander around the country in the general direction of Denver, hoping they find Philo's girl. Honestly, everything that happens seems totally random.

They aren't alone in their road-trip though. There's also a really lame gang of bikers who are after Philo for beating them up and stealing their bikes. These have to be the worst bikers I've ever seen, one of them has a comb-over to cover up his balding head! They're also obviously just in the movie, like Clyde, for comedy relief. Too bad nothing they do is funny. They did help provide the best part part of the whole movie though. When they finally catch up with Philo, they corner him in an alley which looks conspicuously like an old western set, and you hear the whistle tune from The Man with No Name series of films. For the rest of the movie I just zoned out and kept whistling that tune.Man, those movies were good.

Oh look! The monkey has a beer! That's so funny! -_-

I suppose one other OK part of the film (but I'm talking barely passable) were the 1 on 1 fights he gets into for cash throughout the movie. You slowly get the sense, even though the fighting is incredibly bad, that Philo is a mean fighting machine. Only barely though since it's clear the actors aren't even hitting each other and they're just throwing punches towards the camera and then showing the other guy stumble backwards. We also keep hearing about this legendary fighter named Tank Murdock, and at the end of the movie, after driving across the country, they find him in the final city.We actually get to see Philo Beddue vs Tank Murdock for all the money! Too bad the fight is just a lame, if not more so, as all the others.

Every Which Way But Loose was really quite awful. I can't begin to describe how boring, pointless, random, and utterly terrible this movie was. The best thing I can say about it is that it wasn't the worst film I've ever seen. It was damn close, but luckily Clint Eastwood had some big biceps and stumbled around a bit playing pretend fighter. I mean, at one point they break into a Zoo to "get Clyde laid". Are you serious?! I mean, really?! I can barely understand why anyone would like this stupid, totally unfunny movie. I think my feelings on this are best summed up by Clyde in this final image.