Movies - TV
Every Which Way But Loose Was A Controversial Project For Clint Eastwood To Choose
By JEREMY SMITH
Over his nearly 70-year career, Clint Eastwood has received 11 Academy Award nominations and won four times, and is widely considered Hollywood royalty. However, he isn’t above doing a low-brow film from time to time, as demonstrated in “Every Which Way But Loose,” where Eastwood plays a bare-knuckle fighter opposite an orangutan.
Eastwood knew that the movie was a “problem picture,” but he didn’t care, saying, “I’ve made problem pictures before,” referring to the 1977 film “The Gauntlet” which critics admonished him for. Eastwood revealed, “Everybody — my agent, my lawyers — they said don’t do ‘Every Which Way But Loose,’” as they thought the film would be a flop.
Eastwood continued, “I always thought it was kind of a hip script with the orangutan and stuff. Some people got it and some people didn’t, but the public seemed to enjoy it.” “Every Which Way But Loose” was the second-highest grossing film of 1978, and its sequel finished fifth at the box office in 1980, helping Eastwood survive a rocky decade filled with other commercial disappointments.