Dirty Harry (1971)

Director: Don Siegel
Writers: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, Dean Riesner
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andrew Robinson, John Larch

In his first silver-screen outing, the steely-eyed officer of the law is tasked with stopping a vicious serial sniper (dubbed the Scorpio Killer) who, after shooting a young woman, threatens to murder more innocent people if the city of San Francisco refuses to pay him a hefty ransom. With a new partner in tow – a rookie named Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni) – Callahan pursues the elusive killer, only to lose a fellow officer during a rooftop shootout. Enraged by Callahan's persistence, as well as the police force's penchant for predicting his movements, the Scorpio Killer lashes out, adding kidnapping, rape, and even greater extortion to his repertoire. Their intense game of cat and mouse eventually puts the tenacious inspector at odds with the city's snide bureaucrats, the public at large, and his own colleagues. With no other choice but to take the law into his own hands, Callahan becomes determined to introduce the Scorpio Killer to his unique brand of home-brewed justice.

Screenwriters Rita and Harry Julian Fink deliver a seemingly endless series of increasingly potent confrontations between their resolute anti-hero and their vindictive killer – undeniably memorable scenes Siegel stages with confidence and stylized swagger – but Dirty Harry is, and will always be, Clint Eastwood's film. More than an iconic performance, more than an enduring encapsulation of craft and screen presence, Eastwood transforms himself into Callahan. The once-and-future Oscar winner submits every fiber of his being to the solitude, frustration, and inevitable outrage of his character, leaving little distinction between Eastwood the Actor and Callahan the Man. He so commits himself to the role that even the most hyper-realistic sequences are grounded in the reality of Harry's tenacious will. Callahan isn't an invincible action hero, he's an unstoppable force of nature; a relentless agent of justice whose strength and single-mindedness won't allow him to fail or, for that matter, die. Eastwood believably descends into Callahan's own personal hell, his mouth clenched in anger and his eyes glowing with hatred. By the time his gun comes to bear on the Scorpio Killer, Eastwood and Callahan have become one, forever ensuring their standing amongst Hollywood's greatest performances and creations.

That being said, don't let the word "timeless" mislead you. While Dirty Harry holds up quite well, it may disappoint anyone expecting a modernized masterpiece. '70s classics will never boast the aesthetic polish of more recent period pieces, nor will they ever fool anyone into believing they weren't filmed some forty years ago. Even so, Dirty Harry still has a lot to say to modern filmfans about justice, morality, ethics, and bureaucratic ineptitude, all while providing a thought provoking commentary on our legal system, its effectiveness, and the inherent contradictions that plague its implementation. Siegel may not have been aiming for such lofty intellectual pursuits when Eastwood strode onto set, but the film and its actors manage to tackle all of these concepts and more, forcing viewers – even those wrapped up in its gunplay and chase scenes – to answer some tough questions about the ideals and realities of law and order. In that regard, Dirty Harry will continue to be a Hollywood hallmark; a classic in every sense of the word that won't soon fade from our collective cinematic conscience.



Please Note: Playback of this H.265/HEVC encoded video file in VLC media player may cause problem (like Green Screen). A fresh install of the player or a new version can solve this problem. I strongly suggest you to download and install "K-Lite Codec Pack (Full or Mega version; totally free with WMP Classic)" on your system first and then try to play the file in VLC. Or, you can just install PotPlayer, and no codecs will be needed. I use this player for playing all sorts of media… from MP3 audio files to 4K UHD video files.

Mac users please get help from the Internet and YouTube.