Dirty Harry (1971)

Directed by Don Siegel 
Written by H.J. and R.M. Fink

Rated R for violence, language and nudity

"Dirty Harry" is one of the grandfathers of the modern action genre. The plot is neo-noir: Clint Eastwood stars as "Dirty" Harry Callahan, a hard-boiled detective who breaks the law almost as often as the people he arrests. He earns his "Dirty" nickname by showing disrespect for authority figures, taking on groups of criminals without calling for backup and eliciting confessions from suspects with his fists! Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" has inspired numerous bad-boy cop imitations, including "Die Hard"'s John McClane and Jack Bauer from TV's "24". In short, Clint Eastwood is a major badass.

The film opens with an unknown sniper shooting a woman from a rooftop. Inspector Harry Callahan arrives on the scene to discover a note from the sniper to the police, demanding payment to avoid further bloodshed. The killer (who calls himself Scorpio) is loosely based on the "Zodiac Killer", who operated in the San Francisco area in the late 1960's, sent taunting letters to the press and was never caught. Callahan takes the case, following Scorpio on a cat-and-mouse chase through the bustling San Francisco cityscape.

But even before the quest for Scorpio gets fully underway, Callahan earns his "badass" status by taking out a team of bank robbers on his lunch break. In the film's most famous scene, he faces off against the last robber with his giant .44 magnum and performs the now-famous monologue: "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"

Callahan is assigned a partner by his superiors in order to rein in his violent methods. Harry's partnership with Chico Gonzalez planted the seeds for the later "buddy cop" movies of the 80's and 90's. Gonzalez is injured pretty quickly after being assigned to Callahan, and ultimately quits the force.

During a late-night sniper sting operation, Harry is distracted from the work at hand by a naked woman he spots through a window. Harry's peeping-tom tendencies may be another reason for the "Dirty" nickname. Indeed Harry is caught peeping in windows at nude women twice in this first film, in what will become a trademark in his future films. Rather than excuse his rude behavior, Harry says "You owe it to yourself to live a little, Harry."

But Harry's biggest hard-on is for justice, and so he pursues Scorpio like a trained dog until Scorpio gains the upper hand by kidnapping a 14-year-old girl. The Mayor of San Francisco asks Harry to deliver the ransom money to the killer. After leading Harry on a wild turkey hunt around town from payphone to payphone, Scorpio finally confronts Callahan and beats him senseless. He says he's changed his mind, and that now that he has the money, he's going to kill the girl anyway. Luckily, against orders, Callahan brought back-up to the money drop, and his partner fires at Scorpio just in time to keep him from killing Harry. Harry catches Scorpio and beats the girl's location out of him, but when the police find her, it's discovered that she's already dead. Callahan's illegally obtained evidence against Scorpio causes the case to fall apart, and the police are forced to release the killer back into San Francisco.

Using the system against itself, Scorpio hires a man to beat him up and then claims he was beaten by Harry. Harry famously denies the charge by saying: "...anybody can tell I didn't do that to him. Cause he looks too damn good, that's how!" Nevertheless, Harry is ordered to stay far away from Scorpio at risk of losing his badge.

Scorpio can't stay away from crime for long. It's discovered that he has taken a busload of schoolchildren ransom. The Mayor asks Harry to take the money to Scorpio again, but Harry tells him to "get another delivery boy". Scorpio has told the police the path he's traveling with the hostages in order to ensure that no one tries to stop him. Using this knowledge, Harry cuts Scorpio off at the pass, saving the schoolchildren and stopping Scorpio for good. Knowing his vigilante adventure has cost him his job, Harry tosses his police badge into the river, bringing the film to a bittersweet close.

I give "Dirty Harry" a 10/10. In addition to being an edge-of-your seat crime thriller, it's also beautifully shot and edited. The locales and landmarks of San Francisco make a beautiful but threatening backdrop for the explosive events of the film. Eastwood gave a landmark performance as Harry Callahan, and liked the role so much he would go on to direct some of the later films in the series. Whether or not you end up regarding it as highly as I do, every action fan owes it to themselves to see this film.













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