The Enforcer (1976)

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.

Director:

James Fargo

Writers:

Harry Julian Fink (characters), Rita M. Fink (characters) (as R.M. Fink)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Tyne Daly, Harry Guardino

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Harry Callahan
Tyne Daly	...	Kate Moore
Harry Guardino	...	Lt. Bressler
Bradford Dillman	...	Capt. McKay
John Mitchum	...	DiGeorgio
DeVeren Bookwalter	...	Bobby Maxwell
John Crawford	...	The Mayor
Samantha Doane	...	Wanda
Bob Hoy	...	Buchinski (as Robert Hoy)
Jocelyn Jones	...	Miki
M.G. Kelly	...	Father John
Nick Pellegrino	...	Martin
Albert Popwell	...	Mustapha
Rudy Ramos	...	Mendez
Bill Ackridge	...	Andy

Storyline

Picking up three years after the events in Magnum Force, a threatening terrorist group called, The People's Revolutionary Strike Force declare war to the city of San Francisco and demand a ransom to be paid, otherwise they plan to blow the city apart. While Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan is at a limbo following his unorthodox method during a robbery, he's at it to dispatch the terrorist group, by playing their game by being more dirty than ever. But this time, he's got a new partner, which might prove the task to be somewhat more difficult than ever, unless the two can work together.

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Plot Keywords:

woman murders a woman | female villain | female gunfighter | maverick cop | tough girl | 

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Taglines:

The "dirtiest" Harry of them all!

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Moving Target

Filming Locations:

1470 Pine Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$46,200,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., The Malpaso Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (5.1)

Color:

Color (Deluxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stirling Silliphant was already working on a screenplay idea for a third film in the series, entitled "Dirty Harry and More" involving a female partner for Det Harry Callahan - an Asian-American called More. Clint Eastwood liked the idea of a female sidekick but felt that Silliphant's script lacked action. He showed him the spec script from Gail Morgan Hickman and Silliphant agreed to rewrite it. Silliphant's subsequent draft still lacked action so he drafted in his frequent collaborator Dean Riesner with whom he'd worked on Coogan's Bluff (1968), Play Misty for Me (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971).

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Goofs

When Harry and his old partner are driving to the liquor store holdup, in the shot from the rear of the car through the windshield, Harry's partner is hanging on to the light with his left hand. In the very next shot, he is speaking on the radio with the same hand.

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Quotes

Harry Callahan: [speaking to the mayor & Capt. McKay] If you're talking about the Mustapha bust, nobody smashed anything. In fact, I made a deal with Mustapha - he was gonna help me find out who the people were!
The Mayor: [stunned] What's he talking about?
Harry Callahan: Doesn't it bother anyone that no weapons were found?
Capt McKay: We'll find them!
Harry Callahan: [to McKay] Meanwhile, the people are still out there and they're going to blow the HELL out of half this city. And meanwhile, you're telling everybody how great we are!
Capt McKay: All right, Callahan, button your...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

Cut in Sweden when it ran theatrically in 1977:

• The killing of the gas men; no blood seen coming from the knife wound of the first unlucky one nor blood seen from the second gas man being killed with a shotgun.
• The execution of Miki Waleska in the fire arms warehouse was completly cut.
• No second image of the dead bridge keeper.
• Harry beating the guard at Tiffany's was trimmed down. Using some really bad editing, it cuts from where Harry kicks the guard in the groin to him "questioning" Buchinski in the Ladies room.

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Connections

Follows Dirty Harry (1971)

User Reviews

Enjoyable on its own. Not quite a Harry movie, but a Clint movie

I think many fans have mixed feelings about THE ENFORCER. It represents both a departure from and an adherence to the familiar Harry tradition. However, despite its many shortcomings, it excludes a great 70s feel.

Fans of the first two installments will still delight in Harry's struggles with bureaucracy in the department, and to this end Bradford Dillman is a valuable addition to the series as the new Chief. Once again, Clint has some killer dialogue but while for the most part he is as stern as in his previous performances, some of his lines are offered just a little too sparingly and nonchalantly.

The villains – this time a group of mere misfits who kidnap the Mayor of San Francisco for a ransom of five million dollars – just aren't as menacing as the crooks in DIRTY HARRY and MAGNUM FORCE. There's no mystique surrounding their identity and their performances are particularly flat and nondescript (even to the point where their plot points may wash over you and you momentarily lose your place.)

The script begins very promisingly with Harry being assigned a female partner. The relationship that develops between the two - as Harry is forced to deal with his subconscious sexist prejudice – leads to some surprising comical moments, and this addition to the dynamic of the usual animosity between Harry and his partners comes across very well.

The soundtrack is overwhelmingly orchestral giving THE ENFORCER a Hollywood music make-over instead of the usual gritty and upbeat Lalo Schrifin score which was used to full effect earlier. The chase scene in which Harry ends up in the Church builds up some tension and only serves thereby to remind the viewer of a hitherto absence of the moody jazz that was so prevalent in the original.

The original Dirty Harry's success was not due to any specific formula but rather was the result of a film full of subtleties. These subtleties included a perfect music score, a balanced tension between Harry and his partners, Harry's contempt for the red tape of police bureaucracy, and the sinister nature of the villain(s). Together, these dynamics made the original two movies stronger than the sum of their parts: THE ENFORCER is simply not as magical. This is a great pity. For the next Harry outing would see an older, greyer, and wrinklier Clint - and the series could only ever descend into some sort of parody.