1968: just sanctified by Sergio Leone as the cynical heir of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood leaves the western for the thriller. The interest of the film, the first collaboration between the star and Don Siegel (the director of “Dirty Harry”), is also to stage this transition: it begins in the aridity of Arizona where Coogan (Clint) , deputy sheriff, kicks the buttocks of a crazed Indian. The sequel brings him to New York on the trail of a hippie runaway whom he must bring back to prison.
Path strewn with pitfalls: bureaucratic and snobbish cops, a female shrink, a sneaky and liberal justice that Coogan likes to scratch, between whistling valves, savage settling of scores and cold anger. Another curiosity: Eastwood uses here his sex appeal as an instrument of pure predation, a weapon which, in the immediate continuation of his filmography, will hit the mark – notably in “The Preys”, the best of his films shot with Siegel.
Saturday November 28 at 8:50 p.m. on TCM Cinéma. American Policeman by Don Siegel (1968). With Clint Eastwood, Lee John Cobb, Susan Clark. 1h30. (In multicast and On demand).
