The Best Sports Movies You've Never Seen

Any Which Way You Can (1980)
Director: Buddy Van Horn
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sandra Locke, Clyde the Orangutan
Warner Brothers, 116 minutes




I don't think there are many No Masians out there who are unaware about my feelings concerning Every Which Way But Loose and it's lesser-known (and looser) sequel, but in that we may have some new eyes coming to us from the Sportsfest crowd, this seemed like a good time to reiterate those feelings for our Best Sports Movies You've Never Seen series.

Every Which Way But Loose is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made. But I probably don't have to tell you that - you've probably seen it. It was a huge hit, and made Clyde the Orangutan an international movie star.

But Any Which Way You Can, the sequel, did not garner nearly the amount of attention that the original did, such that generally, when I tell people how good the sequel to Every Which Way But Loose is, they say, "There was a sequel to Every Which Way But Loose?" (I get a similar response when I bring up the sequel to Saturday Night Fever).

So yes, there was indeed a sequel to Every Which Way But Loose, and it's awesome. It's not quite as good as the original, and it's a little long, but other than that, it picks up right where the first movie leaves off. Bare-knuckles brawler Philo Beddoe is still living his rootin-tootin brawlin lifestyle, scaring up fights so he can win a little scratch here and there from gambling on himself (because there ain't no man alive who can whup Philo with the gloves off). But then he runs into the country singer who broke his heart in Loose, Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke, Eastwood's lover back in the day - the only possible explanation that she stars in this, or any other, movie). After some initial distrust from Philo, they fall in love and she moves in with him at the ranch with his rootin-tootin buddy Orville and his irascible Ma (Ruth Gordon) and, of course, his orangutan, Clyde.

Meanwhile a mob syndicate is trying to put together the ultimate bare-knuckles brawl to make some gambling money and they decide to match up their own superfighter, martial arts expert Jack Wilson (William Smith, a former arm-wrestling and weightlifting champion with 18.5-inch biceps) against Beddoe in a fight out in Vegas. Philo initially accepts, because he's broke and the money's huge, but then Lynn and Orville convince him to back out because this Jack Wilson fella is reputed to be a cold-blooded murderer and a karate expert. Philo isn't scared - that karate crap don't work on Philo - but he loves Lynn and wants to keep her happy. So he gives the mob back their deposit and tells them he's retired. Of course, it doesn't end there.

In short, much like Loose, there's a beer-drinking sucker-punching ape, there's a ne-er-do-well biker gang called the Black Widdas, there's a lot of bar-brawlin and bare-knuckles brawlin and an overall atmosphere of brawlin, and there's at times such an utter lack of plot or direction or purpose that one can only revel in the rootin-tootin meaningless of it all. Also, there's a theme song that is one of the most ridiculously awful songs ever conceived, a duet between Ray Charles and Clint himself called "Beer's To You." For that song alone, which runs over the opening credits, you do not want to miss this movie.
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This post is part of our ongoing partnership with The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival which runs from April 25 to May 26 right here in New York City. And we assure you that one of these days, maybe even later today, we will review a movie that is not about bare-knuckles brawling.