In 1984, Clint Eastwood teamed up with another screen icon to City heatwhich became one of the star’s biggest disappointments. Although Eastwood has worked nonstop since the 1950s, it’s fair to say that the 1980s was one of his weakest decades. In fact, the reception for City heat is emblematic of his uneven record during the decade. Outside of Clint resurrecting the Western genre with Pale Knight in 1985 or directing your favorite movie, Bronco Billymuch of his production looks like a supposed blockbuster fire fox or dumb action comedy Pink Cadillac proven very disappointing.
Regardless of the lukewarm critical response to his ’80s output, Eastwood was still a huge box office attraction. The best example of this is the room Dirty Harry film, Sudden impact. Despite only winning 51% of critics (via Rotten tomatoes), this sequel was one of Clint’s biggest hits of the decade, grossing over $67 million worldwide. Eastwood followed with City heata two-hander between him and Burt Reynolds, with the pair playing bickering former friends investigating a murder in Kansas City during the 1930s.
City Heat, by Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, was supposed to be one of the biggest hits of 1984
Warner Bros expected big things from its Eastwood & Reynolds team
Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were two of the greatest leading men of their era, with the latter’s most famous work including the Smokey and the Bandit films and Release. He and Clint were also longtime friends, so pairing them up for a big-budget action thriller like City heat he must made it one of the highest grossing films of 1984. Instead of, City heat received near-universal receipts, and although it grossed $38 million, this was still considered a major underperformance considering the attached stars. The problem with this noir comic is that it’s never entirely clear what want to be.
It could be a serious Clint Eastwood thriller in one scene, a screwball comedy led by Reynolds in the next, and the tones never quite gel. It doesn’t help that the film has an unnecessarily complicated and completely uninteresting plot. City heat At least it has some good action sequences – including the successful gag of Clint and Burt trying to outdo each other in terms of pistol sizes – but they’re also nothing memorable. Even Reynolds (via Los Angeles Times) quickly realized that the film was a failure in preparation.
Ten days after filming began, I knew I would take responsibility. Clint was playing with the Clint formula that had always worked for Clint. I was playing Jack Lemmon in this weird movie where people were amazed. I never read a review of the film, because I knew it would be killed by critics. The public wanted ‘Boom Town’ or to see us in a contemporary film. They didn’t want ‘Dirty Harry vs. the Wimp’.
The film was also notable for suffering from a confusing production, where the original director was fired by Eastwood and the replacement essentially followed his protagonist’s marching orders. The biggest shame is that there are moments of City heat that work, like the restaurant opening fight or the joke of Eastwood’s Lieutenant Speer becoming unstoppable when angered. City heat it simply never finds the right balance between its disparate elements. Compared to films like Ghostbusters or Beverly Hills Police Officerit barely made a dent in the box office in 1984.
Eastwood fired City Heat’s original director shortly before filming
Clint Eastwood didn’t agree with Blake Edwards’ vision
Eastwood has funny moments in City heatbut broad comedy has never was his strong suit. For most of the film, Speer remains the clichéd tough cop that Eastwood built his career on. City heat was originally called Kansas City Jazz and would be written and directed by comedy legend Blake Edwards. However, Reynolds recalled a meeting where he, Edwards and Eastwood came together to discuss the project – and it became clear that the collaboration was doomed.
Blake paved the way for Clint to do his part. To me, it was clearly evident that Blake’s way was not at all how Clint saw the role. Clint said nothing except his Gary Cooper comments like ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Clint and I drove home in his truck and he still didn’t say anything until we were halfway there. Finally he said, ‘I don’t think this will be the film we make together.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ Warner Bros. I really wanted to make the film.
It would have been a blow to City heat bankability, but if Eastwood never understood the tone of the project, then he He’s the one who should have left. Instead of, Warners pushed for the film to move forward, so Edwards was fired from the film. City heatwith Reynolds revealing “Blake’s firing hurt him badly. I don’t think he ever got over it.” Director Richard Benjamin (My favorite year) was soon hired to take over. The result was a film with many ingredients and no real concept of how to combine them.
City Heat changed Burt Reynolds’ career forever
Reynolds was soon eliminated from the A list thanks to City Heat
City heat The poor performance didn’t really impact Eastwood’s career, but for Burt Reynolds, the film altered his career in several important ways. The biggest was an injury Reynolds suffered during filming, where a stuntman hit the actor in the chin with a metal chair. by mistake. This accident caused the actor chronic pain in the years that followed, and eating became so uncomfortable that he stuck mostly to liquids. This led to a noticeable weight loss, which is visible in his subsequent projects, such as 1985. Stick.
All of Burt Reynolds’ post-City heat bombed, and by the end of the decade, the star’s time on the A-list was over.
His alarming weight drop led to rumors that Reynolds was battling AIDS during this period. Despite still dealing with jaw pain, Reynolds moved on and made films like 1986’s Warm up (which Jason Statham later remade as Wildcard) or Malonea modern riff on Shane. These terse thrillers did little to help his career, with Warm up especially suffering a very difficult production that saw Reynolds punch co-director Dick Richards during filming and be successfully prosecuted for assault.
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All films directed by Burt Reynolds |
Release year |
|---|---|
|
Gator |
1976 |
|
The end |
1978 |
|
Sharky Machine |
1981 |
|
Stick |
1985 |
|
The man in left field |
1993 |
|
Difficult time |
1998 |
|
The Last Producer |
2000 |
All of Reynolds’ post-City heat bombed, and by the end of the decade, the star’s time on the A-list was over. He still did great work in his later years, but both professionally and personally, Reynolds’ involvement in City heat had a great cost.
City Heat waste their greatest asset
City Heat left the friend part out of the buddy comedy
The term buddy cop movie evokes wizards of 48 hours or Lethal weaponwhere two mismatched partners fight while dodging bullets. City heat didn’t get that memo because even though Eastwood and Reynolds exchange jokes all the time, they spend a lot of time away from each other and the film suffers for it. Your characters go off on their own side quests, bump into each other briefly, and then continue on their separate paths. It’s only in the third act that they begin to work together properly – but by then it’s too late.
City heat it should have been a Burt/Clint duo and it works better when they are together. The way the film misinterprets what the audience wanted to see from their union shows how it never finds the right rhythm. It could be that Eastwood wants a lot of scenes for himself – and to play the tough character his audience expects. Whatever the case, City heat it wasted its biggest attraction, and while it has its charms, there’s a reason why audiences didn’t rush out.
Source: Rotten tomatoes, The Numbers, Los Angeles Times