Hi, I work for a large mobile telecomms company. I live in Oxford but was born in Toronto, Canada. ...
Hi, I work for a large mobile telecomms company. I live in Oxford but was born in Toronto, Canada. Engaged to a lovely guy from Birmingham (see Sonatine on Ciao [love you babes xx]). Love playing guitar & midi keyboards when I can afford it. Have 2 ca...
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In spite of its age and dated looks Dirty Harry is probably one of the best cop movies to come out of Hollywood. It spawned a host of variations on a theme, even though some would argue DH took a few ideas from the 1968 Bullitt.
The idea of a cop trying to bring criminals to book, but using tactics otherwise outside the law, was quite a novel idea back then and was probably an indictment of how the crimewave in some parts of the States had spiralled during the liberalised late 60's and early 70s.
Of course if Mr Harry Callaghan (Clint Eastwood)had tried such unorthodox methods of arrest in these politically correct days you can be sure the criminal would have sued for millions of dollars, shouting human rights violations and demanding the cop be arrested & jailed for a thousand years.
Which is a salient point in a way, because back in the 70s such Correctness was exactly the kind of thing Callaghan was fighting against along with creaking police procedures of arrest.
Not only does he find it hard enough keeping tracks on Scorpio as he causes mayhem in the streets of SF, but he also has to battle the law & order system. Is it any wonder he steps out of line when justice seems to support the alleged criminal rather than protecting the innocents...sounds so familiar these days.
Eastwood really got his foot in the Stardom threshold with this movie. Somehow I don't think an ageing John Wayne or Frank Sinatra (the original choice) would have had the same kind of steely glare as Eastwood, especially during the final standoff with Scorpio and Harry recites his infamous "Punk" line. Nobody has a tighter jawline than Eastwood at times like this.
Eastwood expands on his previous Dollar "man with no name" characters to good effect: essentially we have a man who is more a renegade, a man who tries to live outside the restrictions of law & order in order to achieve a legitimate goal, although unlike the Dollar films Eastwood becomes a little more cultured in the streets of SF rather than way out in the middle of some western desert.
The bandits he challenges to duels in the Dollar films are no different to the criminals he challenges in Dirty Harry, and even though he has the law on his side, its often not enough.
Siegal's direction and the script never lets up for a minute coupled with a very good musical score. But the best part is of course the stand-off at the end. What Eastwood does with his badge is perhaps one of the great pieces of symbolism in movie history and probably had a million liberals up in arms!
The less said about the sequels the better: they seem to follow the Jaws trend, Magnum Force being competent but The Enforcer et al just get steadily worse.
Pick the best and make his day, Punk!
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Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1989 - Action/Adventure - Director: Rowdy Herrington - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Patrick Swayze, Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott, Kelly Lynch
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
"Dirty" Harry Callahan was one of the first screen characters to embody contemporary fears ... more
about crime--and the uncompromising response to it that much of the audience would liked to have seen. Clint Eastwood's laconic rogue cop became an instant scree...
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![The Dirty Harry Collection [DVD] [1971]](http://images.ciao.com/ide/images/icons/no_pic_generic_S1.gif "The Dirty Harry Collection [DVD] [1971]"){kind=icon}
![Dirty Harry [Box Set]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/103221851.jpg "Dirty Harry [Box Set]")
Jan 29th, 2001
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