the gauntlet

I threw down the gauntlet (unto my unworthy self) to mark a bunch of essays in one day. For those amongst you who have not marked a bunch of essays, I should explain that it is the very mechanistic nature of essay marking that is the problem - after a while, as your own words and for inexplicable reasons certain key phrases etc are regurgitated back to you time after time, it all starts to blur into one and you think 'you've already said this, you idiot' and then you realise that was three essays ago. And so on. Anyway, I did get all the essays marked by three in the morning and Mia and I also managed to watch an hiliarious (I am using that archaic rubbish usage of 'an' ironically of course) film called The Gauntlet, starring Clint E and Sondra L, from '77. He is a policeman called Shockley or Shocklee and she is a prostitute with a degree and her name is Gus Mally. The chief of police in Phoenix wants them both dead and so they don't know who to trust as they traipse excitingly from Vegas to Phoenix in various stolen vehicles. Along the way they fall in love.

Best moments:

The Vegas cop who is driving them to the border who keeps quizzing Mally about her sexual behaviour and then she says 'Does your wife know you masturbate?' and he goes 'Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!' and nearly drives off the road.

The ending (warning: a spoiler!) where the chief of police shoots Shockley, Mally shoots the chief of police and then implores Shockley not to die, and he sort of does and then he looks at her and says 'Nag, nag, nag'. Throw to credits.

The total overkill police shoot 'em up scenes in which the police riddle Mally's home with bullets, as well as the Vegas cop's car, and the bus that Shockley and Mally hijack to get them to Phoenix.

I am pretty sure Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie is one of the passengers forced off the hijacked bus.