The Enforcer (1976/I)

Director:

James Fargo

Writers:

Harry Julian Fink (characters) and
Rita M. Fink (characters) ...

Release Date:

22 December 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

The "dirtiest" Harry of them all!

Plot:

Dirty Harry must foil a terrorist organization made up of disgruntled Vietnam veterans. But this time, he's teamed with a rookie female partner that he's not too excited to be working with.

Plot Keywords:

Terrorist | Police | Alcatraz | Vietnam Veteran | Policewoman

Cast

Clint Eastwood	...	Insp. 'Dirty' Harry Callahan
Tyne Daly	...	Insp. Kate Moore
Harry Guardino	...	Lt. Al Bressler
Bradford Dillman	...	Capt. McKay
John Mitchum	...	Insp. Frank DiGiorgio
DeVeren Bookwalter	...	Bobby Maxwell
John Crawford	...	The Mayor
Samantha Doane	...	Wanda
Robert F. Hoy	...	Buchinski (as Robert Hoy)
Jocelyn Jones	...	Miki Waleska
M.G. Kelly	...	Father John
Nick Pellegrino	...	Martin
Albert Popwell	...	'Big' Ed Mustapha
Rudy Ramos	...	Mendez
Bill Ackridge	...	Andy

Also Known As:

Moving Target (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (TV rating) | Spain:18 | Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Finland:K-18 (1977) (cut) | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | USA:R (certificate #24716) | France:Unrated | Germany:16 (re-rating) (2008) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Australia:MA (Cable TV rating) | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A | Australia:R | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 (cut) | UK:18 | South Korea:18 | Norway:16 (1977) (cut) | Norway:15 (DVD rating) | New Zealand:PG (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

23rd & Capp Streets, Mission District, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The chess pieces used in the movie was sold from Ingmar Bergman's descendent's estate in 2009 for 1m Swedish Krona (around USD$145,000 at the time).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Callahan fires the bazooka at the watch tower that Bobby Maxwell has just climbed up to, the cabin on top of the tower vanishes shortly before the missile hits it. We just see the bare platform for a few frames, then there's an explosion and then we see the platform in flames.

Quotes:

Harry Callahan: I'll tell you what you are to me, little man. You're just a maggot who sells dirty pictures.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dirty Harry: The Original (2001) (V)

Another Good Dirty Harry

This film was to be Dirty Harry's last outing in the seventies (do not worry though, he had two comebacks in the eighties). It is easy to compare this film, with the two previous Dirty Harry movies, because there some things have (still) not changed. First of all, Harry (obviously) kept his cheeky mouth, which again provides the viewer with the necessary laughs and his boss with the necessary headaches. This is not the only thing that has stayed the same though. Again some of the scenes could have been shorter, thus (theoretically) making The Enforcer a much tighter package. A perfect example of that is the scene in which Harry chases a bad guy to the rooftop of a building. Not only could this scene have been shorter, but it could also have been much more exciting had there been adequate use of music and cinematography. There is however one upside to this installment in the Dirty Harry series, which is, that it is far more stable than it's predecessors. It is not a decent or good film film, but it gets very close, mainly because of the good acting and the fact that the film remained interesting for the despite it's downsides. Best Dirty Harry film until then. If you want to know if it is the best in the series, check my comment for Sudden Impact