EVERY WHICH WAY: Audience Reaction 1: Your Overall Feeling

[Matt]

What is your overall feeling about this film? Do you think it stands the test of time and is still as appealing today as when it was released 25 years ago?

[misty71]

Its defenitely (I spell that word differently every time I write it ) still funny.

I mean, I wasnt there to see it 25 years ago, but I think its a good family movie, that both 9 and 90 year olds can enjoy.I dont know, I feel like theres a little something for everyone in there.

Im sure if Id watch it in 25 years from now, Id enjoy it as much as I do today

[Gant]

I don't think it can have the impact today that it had 25 years ago. It was seen as such a departure for Eastwood then, and as such probably took a lot of people by surprise. Still, looking at it today it hasn't particularly aged.. It's almost a kind of ageless movie... good knockabout fun. Eastwood looks cool and lots of people get beat up.  
Now, in retrospect I look back and see it as one of the last 70's movies. Kind of a bittersweet experience where the hero doesn't always get the girl or win the fight. I like that and it's these elements that I still find attractive in this film today. A time when movies didn't always end neatly with everyone getting what they want or attain the goals they've spent the movie  aspiring to.  In a way, maybe this is what helps the film still retain a certain freshness...
It'll probably get re-made one day with some young pup.. Tank Murdock will loose and Philo will get the gal... a bit like the sequal.... made in the eighties.

[D'Ambrosia]

Yeah, released today it might not have that same mass appeal that it did 25 years ago.  Although it still is just as funny today as it was back then.  Plus all this animated stuff like Nemo and Lion King for kids, it  wouldn't gross the $250,000,000 that it did back then.  The 70's were different.  Parents would drop their kids off at the theater for, I'm not kidding, the whole day and they would watch the movie a couple of times.  You can't do that in this day and age and expect them to come back alive.  Sad really.

One a side note in one of the scenes I noticed that gas was 56 cents back then...  Can you imagine,  56 cents?

[mgk]

It's a funny Eastwood movie if you just want to sit down and relax and watch something a little different from "the man."  

As for standing the test of time, maybe the younger members are better able to answer this one.  As I've gotten older, it's not one of Eastwood's movies that I pull out to watch on a regular basis.

[mgk]

Thanks, everyone! This thread is now locked.  Please post any additional thoughts you have on this topic in the General Discussion forum.

[The Schofield Kid]

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