Dirty Harry (1971)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Harry Julian Fink (screenplay) &
Rita M. Fink (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 December 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

You don't assign him to murder cases, You just turn him loose.

Plot:

A San Francisco cop with little regard for rules (but who always gets results) tries to track down a serial killer who snipes at random victims.

Plot Keywords:

Dirty Harry | Sniper | Ransom | Police | City

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Clint Eastwood	...	Insp. Harry Callahan
Harry Guardino	...	Lt. Al Bressler
Reni Santoni	...	Insp. Chico Gonzalez
John Vernon	...	The Mayor
Andrew Robinson	...	Scorpio Killer (as Andy Robinson)
John Larch	...	The Chief
John Mitchum	...	Insp. Frank DiGiorgio
Mae Mercer	...	Mrs. Russell
Lyn Edgington	...	Norma
Ruth Kobart	...	Bus Driver
Woodrow Parfrey	...	Mr. Jaffe
Josef Sommer	...	Dist. Atty. William T. Rothko
William Paterson	...	Judge Bannerman
James Nolan	...	Liquor Store Owner
Maurice Argent	...	Sid Kleinman (as Maurice S. Argent)

Also Known As:

Dead Right (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

102 min | Portugal:99 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:16 | UK:X (original rating) | Finland:K-16 (1972) (cut) (re-rating after appeal) | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Netherlands:16 | France:-12 | UK:15 (2008) | Ireland:15 (re-rating) (2008) | Ireland:18 | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Argentina:18 | Peru:18 | Norway:15 (DVD rating) | Australia:MA | Australia:R (original rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1972) | Italy:VM14 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:16 (cut) | Norway:18 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Bank of America Building - 555 California Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Malpaso Company, The

Trivia:

The original draft of the script by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink was set in New York City. When Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel became involved in the project, they initially planned to relocate the film to Seattle, Washington before ultimately deciding on San Francisco.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the famous pull-back shot at the football stadium, as Harry stands on Scorpio's leg, the wind caused by the rotor blades can clearly be seen. In the previous shot, Harry's jacket is motionless, but when it cuts to the helicopter shot, his jacket is blowing back and forth.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Harry Callahan: Jesus.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Spike's Guys Choice (2009) (TV)

Classic renegade justice

This stylish 1970s critique of the U.S. justice system is well known as a crime action drama, and is widely regarded as one of many breakthrough films for Clint Eastwood. Eastwood plays the same sort of character he typically plays - a likable tough guy with a powerful sense of justice and ice for blood. This Eastwood, however, has lost his wife to a drunk driver, some of his partners to murderous criminals, and some aspect of his sanity to his job. He's an inspector in the San Francisco police force's Homicide Division. The film is highly regarded for Eastwood's charismatic performance, for the boldness of the Dirty Harry character, and for the several spaghetti-western quotes uttered by Eastwood.

I have a slightly different take on this film. Dirty Harry was released in the same year as The French Connection - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067116/combined - a film partly based on real life detectives catching the feeling of police dealing with the hard realities of the drug trade in the big apple of the early 1970s. Dirty Harry - as cool as Eastwood's character may be - is a one-dimensional creature compared with Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle. Something about Harry Callahan's political incorrectness resonates in a disturbing way with people who have only examined police work and the justice system through their televisions. The reality of this aspect of modern life is far less interesting, dramatic, and straightforward. And the critique of "American justice" is at least as powerfully made in the French Connection as it is here. Furthermore, The French Connection was an extremely innovative film, while Dirty Harry was a fairly typical stylized police-fantasy. The only explanations for the on-going popularity of this film, then, are Eastwood's charisma and the sheer entertainment value of this gutsy, gritty, hardcore crime drama.

Harry is on the trail of a serial killer played by the phenomenal character actor Andrew J. Robinson in his major film debut. Andy Robinson makes a great psycho, and, at times, appears so out-of-control (nicely contrasted with Eastwood's reptilian calm) that it is a wonder he didn't seriously injure himself during the shooting of the film. When Robinson abducts a young girl and buries her alive, extorting $200, 000 from the mayor's office, Harry uses some unconventional tactics to bring him to justice. This brings us slightly past the midpoint of the film, and just to the point where it accelerates into a first-rate action thriller.

While I think Dirty Harry is a very good film, and worth seeing at least a couple of times, I do not necessarily agree with the general opinion concerning the film. It is disappointing to me that this film did not make Andy Robinson the star that it helped to make Clint Eastwood into - especially since the range of characters and emotions these two men have shown themselves capable of is so disparate (in favor of Mr. Robinson). It is also surprising to me to see that the obvious connection (dare I say plagiarisn) between this film and the French Connection has been glossed over by film history so completely. In the same light, it bothers me that this film is rated so highly as compared with the French Connection. And finally, I am pleased that Dirty Harry is still a film that action fans enjoy, because unlike most of what the action genre produces today, this is a film with a message, and a subtle and hauntingly memorable intelligence.