In short: Coogan’s Bluff (1968)

Happy to get rid of him for a couple of days, his boss sends Arizona Deputy Sheriff Coogan (Clint Eastwood) off to that strange and peculiar city known as New York, to transport an escaped fugitive the New Yorker’s somehow managed to catch back to Arizona.

Alas, things become difficult for Coogan from the start. Not only do the primitive city people he is confronted with ignore the fine difference between Arizona and Texas – certainly Coogan’s cowboy hat and boots don’t help there – they also take their dear time with actually putting the escapee into Coogan’s hand. It’s some liberal nonsense about illness at work. Yes, it is unfortunately that kind of movie.

Of course, once Coogan has acquired his man, he finds himself bashed over the head by some of the dirty hippie associates of the guy, and loses his gun to them. His masculinity stays intact, though, I’ll have you know. So our protagonist makes his way through New York looking for his man, while sneering at everyone disapprovingly and trying to fuck every woman he meets.

This Don Siegel joint shows Siegel and Eastwood at their most unpleasant: reactionary – the hippie disco scene must be seen to be believed –, quietly racist, and misogynist. There is a line of this sort of thing running through both men’s bodies of work, of course, but usually, there’s some human insight, some interest in people or violence or how people and violence go together and what that does to them, or even just an exciting plot to either make up for these failings or put them into a more human perspective, often even break them.

Here, there’s nothing of the sort. Coogan’s Bluff has no plot to speak of and consists exclusively of its protagonist wandering around New York sneering at people and things, from time to time exploding into violence on those weaker than him, and pressuring women into sex. Worst, the film never seems to think him anything but a hero, instead of the not terribly competent asshole he is.

But then, Coogan’s an Asshole would not make for the greatest movie title.