Every Which Way but Loose

• Directed by James Fargo
• December 20, 1978

A trucker that is a bare-knuckle brawler searches for a singer he fell for while accompanied by his brother/manager and his pet orangutan.

Every Which Way but Loose is more an insight into the minds of the time than a legit snapshot of the era. My favorite are bikers that Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) encounters. For a time in movies and television they often had some doodad or addition to their helmets like horns or heavy amounts of fur embellishments on their clothing.

As usual for much of his career Eastwood’s Philo is a cynical a-hole who is charming and not really a bad guy. Philo is famously paired with an orangutan named Clyde (Manis). I expected this movie to be an origin of how the two came together, but they were already a duo at the start. How does a guy like Philo get an orangutan? Why does he even get the animal?!

One of the signs of the times is that it is not a sign of being a stalker when Philo upends his life to go cross-country in pursuit of smalltime singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke) he diddled after hitting on her in a bar. In an era before GPS or cellphones or the internet, an unskilled person looking for an individual they barely knew was quite a tall order. Philo is not being creepy. He is just following his heart as happens in all good romance stories because he thinks Lynn has fallen for him like he has for her. Was he that stuck on the power of his penis? Was leaving the area not a clear sign she was not into him?

Once you get to a certain point in the movie you may also question why a young woman would take off with two complete strangers as the youthful Echo (Beverly D’Angelo) did when she met Philo’s brother Orville (Geoffrey Lewis). This was the late 70s and people still hitchhiked so such a bad decision was not seen as that bad when in context. You had to be there. It really was a different world.

Clint Eastwood’s easy charm is what makes this work. I think the only other person that could’ve pulled off such a character as Philo in 1978 would have been Burt Reynolds though Every Which Way but Loose would not have been as good. Both had similar styles involving easy charm and both were riding high on their fame around this point in careers.

Clyde is a bit of comic relief but given how well this movie is known for the character, I expected him to be present more. As it is, he is almost incidental with his real story purpose being just to get something unique to make Clint Eastwood easier to find by everyone that needs to find him. Even the bikers and the pursuing cops are in the background showing up as needed to be humorously bested by Philo.

Not strictly a comedy, there is humor and absurdity and director James Fargo knows what to show and what not to show. Watching Philo beat some people up would be good but watching the shadows of it and two characters reacting or simply discussing something else is much better.

We have a couple of new notable actors, character and otherwise, popping up in this. Geoffrey Lewis as Philo’s brother Orville, Ruth Gordon as their mother, Beverly D’Angelo as Orville’s eventual girlfriend Echo, the legendary Hank Worden as a trailer court manager, and character actor John Quade (you cannot forget that face) as Cholla who is the leader of the biker gang Philo upsets.

What the narrative comes down to is it being a story where the hero must grow up a bit. He doesn’t grow by getting the girl and finding love. He grows by getting played. If you did not figure it out by now Lynn was looking for booty while she was in town but not to settle down with.

This is dare I say a masculine movie because though humorous it gets into often male-centered themes of honor and dignity and men can lose it or keep. Philo feels a bit shamed by Lynn but calls her out on her shallow behavior. Philo gets to keep his honor/dignity and helps another man, a fellow boxer, keep his by throwing a fight that follows the wrap-up with Lynn.

There is a subplot with Orville and Philo’s mother (Ruth Gordon) trying to get a driver’s license. It is more filler than anything that goes anywhere. Gordon was a known commodity at this time with her character’s events coming off as justification to have her there. The story only needed Ma’s moments with her boys rather than those of her complaining about her age creating difficulty in getting a license or trying to appear younger than she was.

This may not be the funniest comedy, but Every Which Way but Loose is entertaining. Clint Eastwood is at the top of his game surrounded by an able cast making for something that failed critics but won over fans.