“Tightrope” takes a similar stance from the skillful Eastwood. Warner Bros. filmed a trailer that wrongly implied that it was a serial killer thriller in which everyone from Eastwood's character to the mayor is under suspicion. This is not the case (the film makes this very clear in its opening scene by showing the criminal's face, barely masked by shadows), but this bait and switch does not bother moviegoers. “Tightrope” was a critical and commercial success. It topped the box office on August 17, 1984, and remained at the top for the next three weeks (keeping challenges from Red Dawn, Ghostbusters, and The Karate Kid). (It's Clint as a cop, and the general public was unfazed by the film's highly provocative content because, at the very least, it didn't resemble R(R)'s “Red Dawn,” which some media observers felt took advantage of the inactivity of the then- new PG-13 rating.)
40 years later, the film's screenwriter Richard Tuggle believes forensic science as a new investigative tool may seem dated, but the portrayal of a cop whose personal bitterness intersects with the killer's bellowing still resonates. As he told me in an interview, he was inspired to write the script after reading about a series of rapes and murders in the Bay Area. Since he was working with Eastwood, he initially saw it as a standard crime thriller. “I'll have a cop, some Dirty Harry type, go after the rapist,” Dougile said. “That doesn't sound very interesting.”
Dougil thought it would be more interesting if a police character named Wes Black worked on the secondary squad and seemed to have something to do with the killer. He discovered his film during a lunch with a man and woman from the Los Angeles vice squad. According to Duckle:
“I said [to the male cop]'How does it affect you to be on the sidelines and see this sexual stuff all the time?' And this cop said, 'This made my wife very nice in bed.' And it hit me very hard. I realized that the film should be about the relationship between a police officer and a serial killer. The police had the same sexual quirks and desires as the killer, and the two mirrored each other.”
After completing his script, Duggle took it to “Dirty Harry” director Dan Siegel, with whom he worked with Eastwood on the hit film “Escape from Alcatraz.” Siegel told Duckle to take it to Eastwood, who did so on the condition that he direct the film. Eastwood agreed, but he had a few requests, the most important being that Dougle move the film from San Francisco, which was more closely associated with the “Dirty Harry” films. Having previously enjoyed working in New Orleans, Dougil thought the Louisiana metropolis would be perfect. Once again, Eastwood agreed, so they finally found themselves in the Big Easy, making a crime movie unlike anything the star had attempted before.
