Even to this day Inspector Harold Francis “Dirty Harry” Callahan remains film’s most iconic and famous police officer. Clint Eastwood would make him, even beyond his equally iconic “Man With No Name” in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, his signature role.
From his debut in Dirty Harry (1971), Callahan became the mythic template for a new kind of film cop: a borderline vigilante who doesn’t hesitate when crossing professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of real justice.
Throughout Dirty Harry and the four sequels, this rationale is frequently at odds with a criminal system that values the rights of the criminal over the victim.
With his signature Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver and watching over the city of San Francisco, Harry Callahan is seen as the last true lawman in a lawless, insane world.
Warner Brothers has finally re released the complete Dirty Harry film collection with brand new extras and remastered picture and sound.
Dirty Harry (1971):
“I know what you’re thinking. Has he fired six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, I kind of lost track myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” Harry Callahan
Dirty Harry’s preferred weapon of choice for dealing with his main conflict: .44 Magnum
The first and still the best, Dirty Harry would be our introduction to a new kind of screen cop. Indeed from the film’s famous tagline “Dirty Harry and the homicidal maniac. Harry’s the one with the badge” one knew that this would be a turning point for not just cinema but for the country.
My uncle, who was a huge Eastwood fan, showed it to me when I was nine and I was forever changed. When my friends and I would play cops and robbers with our toy guns, they would have AK-47s (remember I was an 80s kid and it was the Rambo era where you could actually buy plastic, authentic looking toy guns) but I would have my .44 Magnum and quote Dirty Harry lines that would confuse my friends and impress and concern adults and teachers.
I guess when a teacher gives you a poor grade on a test in fourth grade and asks why you did so poorly only to get a “Man’s got to know his limitations” back in response, that might raise an eyebrow.
That’s not to say that the film didn’t have its detractors, which it did in spades. It was criticized by liberal film reviewers like Pauline Kael who called it “fascist” and branded the film as “an expression of a new nihilism.”
Certainly Dirty Harry could be viewed as a conservative, right wing look at a crumbling America that took the morals and standards of High Noon (right down to the ending where Eastwood throws his badge away like Gary Cooper in High Noon) and modernized it.
This was an America that wasn’t worth saving by its police officers. However, Eastwood and the late director Don Siegel (who had directed Eastwood previously in the underrated The Beguiled in 1971, Two Mules for Sister Sara in 1970 and Coogan’s Bluff in 1968) denied that there was any attempt at a political statement in the film. Then again, this was the same Don Siegel who made the original and still superior version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) that could be read as a liberal indictment of McCarthyist paranoia about Communism during the beginning of the Cold War.
In both cases, Dirty Harry and Body Snatchers, Siegel maintained that there was never any attempt at politicizing the content. It was just a good story, pure and simple.
On the loose in San Francisco is a rooftop sniper who goes by the name of “Scorpio.” At the beginning, Scorpio (Andy Robinson) coldly shoots and kills a young woman in a rooftop pool using a high-powered rifle. He leaves a note to the mayor demanding $100,000 or else there will be more deaths.
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is assigned the case. We learn that Callahan has had trouble with shooting suspects in the past and the Mayor (John Vernon) demands that there not be a repeat. Callahan’s brand of justice and penchant for toying with criminals is seen immediately afterwards as he foils an attempted bank robbery, WHILE EATING A HOT DOG.
Harry is reluctantly assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzales (Reni Santoni), even though he points out that he needs someone experienced as most of his partners end up in the hospital or dead. Gonzales is curious as to where Callahan gets his nickname of “Dirty.” Fellow cop Frank DeGeorgio (John Mitchum), or as Harry affectionately calls him “Fatso” sums it up to Gonzales in a most hilarious albeit decidedly un-PC way as he says, “He doesn’t play any favorites. Harry hates everybody.”
The nickname also comes from the fact that Harry takes on the “dirtiest” of cases and brings resolution to them no matter what. After getting a rooftop suicide jumper down, Harry remarks to Gonzales “Now you know why they call me Dirty Harry; every dirty job that comes along.”
Dirty Harry would be the one and only of the Harry films where you get any insight into the character. Harry’s wife was killed by a drunk driver, which explains his lone wolf mentality and solitary way of being. He’s clearly burnt out as a police officer but when asked later in the film why he still does it, he can only respond “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
In one of the film’s most controversial scenes, Harry finally corners Scorpio on a football field. Even though he seems to be surrendering, Harry shoots him a leg that he previously stabbed with a switchblade. When Scorpio demands medical attention and a lawyer, Harry refuses and demands to know where Scorpio has buried a kidnapped teenage girl alive. Scorpio refuses and Harry stands on his wounded leg. Siegel uses a beautiful, helicopter shot here to pull back as he shows just how “dirty” Harry can be.
This would be groundbreaking in that the “hero” not the “villain” perpetrates one of the more cold-blooded instances of violence in the film. This is when one realizes the genius of the film’s tagline mentioned earlier suggesting that there are more similarities between Scorpio and Harry then one would think.
Scorpio relents and tells Harry where the girl is buried but it is too late as she has already suffocated to death. Adding insult to injury, the DA releases Scorpio much to Harry’s disgust as Harry’s search of Scorpio’s living quarters was illegal and Scorpio’s confession was obtained through torture. Harry warns the DA and a judge sitting in that they haven’t heard the last of Scorpio as he will kill again.
When asked how he knows this, Harry’s responds, “Because he likes it.” Inevitably there will be one final showdown between Harry and Scorpio. Ironically the ending (Eastwood throwing away his badge) did not suggest that there would be a sequel but rather that Harry had finally decided that the society that he fought to protect but that fought him every step of the way wasn’t worth fighting for anymore.
Everything about the film is top-notch from Eastwood’s cool yet edgy performance to Siegel’s efficient direction to Lalo Schifrin’s jazzy score that plays as much a part in establishing Harry as Eastwood does. Eastwood’s portrayal of the blunt, cynical, play by his own rules cop who is always in trouble with his timid, emasculated bosses, set the style for a number of Eastwood’s later roles as well as a new genre of cop films. It can be argued that Dirty Harry is still one of the most often imitated action films to this day.
Dirty Harry is the only film in the set that comes as a two disc special edition. Disc One contains the film along with a new commentary by critic and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel. Carried over from the previous DVD version are the 30 minute Dirty Harry: The Original featuring interviews with the cast and crews from all five Dirty Harry films, the seven minute vintage featurette Dirty Harry’s Way and 27 minutes of interviews from selected cast and crew members from the Harry films. Also included here as well as the other four films is a Dirty Harry Trailer Gallery for all five films.
Disc Two contains the new 25 minute featurette The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry with interviews from Eastwood and collaborators from all the Dirty Harry films along with screenwriters, directors and actors that were influenced by the Dirty Harry films like Joe Carnahan, David Ayer, Shane Black, George Gallo, Steven E. deSouza, John Badham and Peter Hyams to name a few.
It’s easy to see Dirty Harry’s shadow when thinking about some of the famous burnt out cops that were created in the 1980s by Black (Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon), Gallo (Jack Walsh in Midnight Run) and DeSouza (Jack Cates in 48 Hrs. and John McClane in Die Hard). All of the new featurettes on the other Dirty Harry films feature interviews from the aforementioned group.
Also included is the excellent 58 minute 1993 documentary Clint Eastwood: Man from Malpaso that chronicles Eastwood’s career in front of and behind the camera up through Unforgiven.
Magnum Force (1973):
“Man’s got to know his limitations.” Harry Callahan
Dirty Harry’s preferred weapon of choice for dealing with his main conflict: plastic explosive bomb
Given the monumental success of Dirty Harry, it was easy to assume that there would be a sequel. One would not assume that it would be a direct response to the harsh criticism leveled at the first film. Written by future directors and 70s power players John Milius and Michael Cimino, Magnum Force goes the exact opposite way of Dirty Harry.
Here Harry is confronted by a death squad within the police department that carries out its own brand of justice by murdering mobsters and pimps that slip through the legal system on technicalities. This group consisting of rookie motorcycle cops (amongst them faces like David Soul, Robert Urich and Tim Matheson that would go on to bigger projects afterwards) shepherded by Lieutenant Briggs (Hal Halbrook) is meant to be the antithesis of Harry.
For those critics and audiences who thought that Harry was a vigilante or a fascist, they are given real examples of both here in the form of these villainous cops. Harry’s character is given more of a chance to shine in this film, unlike most sequels. While these rogue cops have no boundaries, Harry does.
Harry doesn’t have a true resentment of the law like Briggs and the others do but rather a resentment of what it’s become. Harry even remarks late in the film,” I hate the damn system, but until someone comes along with changes that make sense, I'll stick with it. ”
When confronted by the cops and asked to join, Harry remarks, “I’m afraid you’ve misjudged me.” It’s hard not to think Eastwood is not just responding to them but to his harsh critics from the first film. Magnum Force may not be AS good as Dirty Harry but it does what so few sequels fail to do.
It takes the original idea or character of the first film and genuinely raises the moral/physical stakes. One would think that Harry would be all in favor of such drastic actions taken to rid society of its criminals.
It could be argued that at first Harry doesn’t seem to have any qualms about what this rogue group is doing. It is only after his friend and fellow policeman Charlie McCoy (Mitchell Ryan) is killed by one of the rogue cops that Harry seems to take a moral stand. However, it is precisely this action that shows that there are no boundaries to what these true fascists will do whereas Harry will only go so far.
He may loathe the red tape and bureaucracy that has engulfed the legal system, but he’ll still work within it. This makes the iconic line of the film “Man’s got to know his limitations” have real meaning rather than just be a throwaway line for Eastwood. Magnum Force does however have some pacing issues and has a few throwaway plot lines including a love interest for Harry that does nothing to further the plot along.
The extras for Magnum Force include a commentary by co-writer John Milius, the 24 minute featurette A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry, the seven minute vintage featurette The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today and the Dirty Harry Movies Trailer Gallery.
The Enforcer (1976):
“She wants to play lumberjack. She’s gonna have to learn how to handle her end of the log.” Harry Callahan
Dirty Harry’s preferred weapon of choice for dealing with his main conflict: M72 LAW Rocket
The Enforcer, while having its moments, is by far the weakest of the Dirty Harry films along with The Dead Pool. There are no real moral dilemmas for Harry here except for the true gimmick of the film, which is to pair the ultra masculine Harry Callahan with a female partner.
There is enough action here to placate Dirty Harry fans and the interplay between Daly and Eastwood is amusing if not predictable. Can anyone see the gruff, chauvinistic Harry giving his new partner a hard time until she proves herself in the line of fire? The real problem here lies with the villains (the aforementioned Strike Force) who come off more like a bunch of pissed off hippies then villains that Harry or anyone else should fear.
The film is quick and to the point but the lack of a credible villain in addition to no moral decision Callahan must make leaves one disappointed. By this time, Eastwood had the Harry character down cold so fans of the series will still enjoy The Enforcer just not as much as the first two or even Sudden Impact.
The extras for The Enforcer included a commentary with director James Fargo, the new 30 minute documentary The Business End: Violence in Cinema, the five minute vintage featurette Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films and the Dirty Harry Trailer Gallery.
Sudden Impact (1983):
“Go ahead, make my day.” Harry Callahan
Dirty Harry’s preferred weapon of choice for dealing with his main conflict: .44 Automag handgun
The fourth Dirty Harry film finds Harry Callahan as always, in hot water with his police department heads over his lack of sticking to the rules, as well as with a mobster he angered and a young punk Harry unsuccessfully tried to jail. With mobs hits being made on him left and right, Harry is put on forced vacation and sent to San Paulo to investigate a series of murders where men are being shot both in the head and the groin.
Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke), tortured artist and rape victim is behind the killings, seeking revenge against the group of thugs that raped her and her sister, leaving her sister so scarred that she is catatonic and institutionalized.
Eastwood shows the rape in cold, uncomfortable flashbacks that immediately put you on her side. Sudden Impact is by far the most violent of the series and the scenes where Spencer exacts her revenge are unsettling. Most of the violence involving Harry is somewhat lighter compared to the dark contrast of Spencer hunting down her attackers. By the end, Harry has to make a choice that will have you debating long after the film is over which is always the mark of a good film.
The extras for Sudden Impact include a commentary by Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel, the new 25 minute featurette The Evolution of Clint Eastwood and the Dirty Harry Trailer Gallery.
The Dead Pool (1988):
“You forgot your fortune cookie. It says ‘You’re shit out of luck.’” Harry Callahan
Dirty Harry’s preferred weapon of choice for dealing with his main conflict: harpoon gun
The fifth and final outing for Harry Callahan probably didn’t need to be made and even Eastwood himself will tell you that it was one Dirty Harry too many.
Done mostly to generate some box office for Warner Brothers after the commercial failure of one of Eastwood’s directorial masterpieces, Bird, The Dead Pool clearly shows that Eastwood had grown bored with the character of Dirty Harry.
The death of substance-abusing rock star Johnny Squares (a pre-stardom Jim Carrey billed here as James Carrey) while filming a music video with obnoxious English director Peter Swan (Liam Neeson) introduces detective Harry Callahan to the morbid game called The Dead Pool.
A group of bettors guess which celebrities might die next - Squares was on the list, and now Harry's name is too. With help from his partner Al Quan (Evan C. Kim) and reporter Samantha Walker (Patricia Clarkson), Harry faces a number of bizarre assassination attempts, not knowing if his assailants are hoods avenging a mob boss he's put in prison, or the Dead Pool Killer in person.
Much like The Enforcer, there is no moral quandary for Callahan here. There are a lot of inside jokes on violence in cinema and the nature of celebrity, the biggest being that after all these years Callahan is being recognized as a hero cop that puts away the bad guys at all costs.
Instead of being berated by his bosses for shooting up the city and causing untold amounts of damage, here he is prodded to get along with the media in the form of Samantha Walker.
Eastwood may have outgrown the character but he can still deliver dialogue with gusto. One of the film’s highlights is Harry scaring the hell out of a mobster in prison by telling him that he is now the “mailman” for a serial killer that ate his victims.
The standout action sequence involves Harry and his partner in a Bullitt type car chase up and down the San Francisco hills only they are being chased by a radio-controlled car loaded with plastic explosives. Unfortunately the real villain is the lamest of the series and the final showdown is somewhat of a letdown.
The extras for The Dead Pool include a commentary by Producer David Valdes and Cinematographer Jack N. Green, the new 21 minute featurette The Craft of Dirty Harry and the ubiquitous Dirty Harry Trailer Gallery.
Overall, Warner Brothers, as they always seem to do, has done an excellent job upgrading the films with new extras. With Father’s Day coming up, this might be the perfect gift for the old man.
While some of the films are better than others, even The Enforcer and The Dead Pool are still fun to watch while they may be the least morally complex of any of the Harry Callahan series. Hell any Clint Eastwood fan should enjoy this set.
Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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