Review: Dirty Harry

     “I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” This is one of the most memorable, and arguably the most bad-ass quotes in the history of cinema. Over 40 years since uttering these words, Clint Eastwood remains as one of Hollywood's greatest tough guys. Dirty Harry benefits greatly from Eastwood's trademark demeanor, creating one of the most classic cop characters of all time. It is unfortunate that an otherwise fantastic film gets bogged down by questionable political message.

     Harry Callahan (Eastwood) is an inspector or the San Francisco Police Department. While investigating a murder Callahan discovers a message from the murderer that unless the city pays him $100,000 he will continue killing one person a day until he is paid. Callahan is a no nonsense cop with little regard for the rules. He tries doing what his superiors, including the mayor, tell him to do, but after letting the murderer, who calls himself “Scorpio,” get away one too many times, Callahan begins to go against his superiors. After, Scorpio kidnaps a young girl he leads Callahan, who is going to give Scorpio the ransom, all over town. Callahan is supposed to be by himself, but he instructs his young partner, Chico, to follow him for cover. This eventually leads Callahan to where Scorpio lives, but Callahan breaks into his dwelling without a warrant, assaults and apprehends Scorpio and seizes the murder weapon. Because of his illegal search and seizure as well as his assault of the suspect, any evidence or confession to the crimes became inadmissible in court, forcing the District Attorney to let Scorpio walk. Callahan can't believe this and goes on a mission of his own to bring down Scorpio.

     This film is based loosely on the Zodiac murders that took place in San Francisco. Scorpio is the obvious stand-in for the Zodiac killer, leaving notes for the police, hijacking a school bus, heck, even his name is a zodiac sign. However, in this film Scorpio is much more of a bumbling idiot than the diabolic mastermind of the Zodiac Killer (who was never caught). While Scorpio is portrayed as a deepy twisted psychopath, he falls for every trap the SFPD set up or him. I also had a problem with the film's handling of Scorpio's constitutional rights. There is an extended scene with Callahan, the DA, and even a constitutional scholar where they explain why they had to let Scorpio walk free because of the violation of his civil rights. This was an awfully heavy-handed message on a subject that, while appropriate in terms of subject matter, felt out of place in what was otherwise a fun police action popcorn flick. On the plus side however, Clint Eastwood is fantastic, as well as the supporting cast. The script is otherwise well written and there is a lot of cool things done in terms of cinematography. This was the kind of movie I was hoping the other great San Francisco cop movie, Steve McQueen's Bullitt, would be. Dirty Harry is a better film because of it's focus on keeping the plot moving with exciting action scenes. There are long periods in Bullitt where the plot stagnates. Dirty Harry is one of the original tough-as-nails cop movies that would go on to inspire other great films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and Training Day.

Rating: 7.5/10 - Virtuous