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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Wall Street (1987)

Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone

Rated R

Note: I was pleased to see online that Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas are currently making a sequel to "Wall Street", the 1987 insider trading thriller. Check out more on "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" here.

"Wall Street" is one of Oliver Stone's legendary 80's masterpieces. It follows Charlie Sheen as young Bud Fox, a Wall Street hopeful who is having a hard time breaking into the business. Bud believes he's made his big break when Gordon Gekko, a Wall Street big-shot, agrees to show him the ropes. In order to prove his usefulness to Gekko, Fox gives him an insider tip about his father's airline. Fox's father is played to perfection by Charlie Sheen's real-life father Martin Sheen. This casting choice was inspired, and makes Fox's on-screen connection with his father that much more authentic.

Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko is the real screen-stealer here. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role, and it has helped make him the Hollywood player he is today. Gekko's calm businessman confidence and disregard for ethics make him one of Hollywood's favorite villains from the 80's. Douglas plays Gekko as a man with the world at his feet, and he uses it as a doormat.

The main conflict arises when, after being made rich and successful by Gekko, Fox discovers that Gekko is using his insider knowledge to buy out Fox's father's airline in order to break it up and sell it. In an emotionally charged scene in Central Park, Bud elicits a confession from Gekko on tape, sending the tycoon away to jail.

Oliver Stone is a master of the craft of film. He can take virtually any subject and make a movie about it that's engaging and grand. Most of us only know about insider trading because of Martha Stewart's infamous trip to white-collar prison. It's not the kind of thing you would think would make a compelling plot element in a film, but Stone takes lemons and makes lemonades. Rather than focusing on the minutae of Wall Street business, he explores the people involved in the business. It's through Bud Fox's relationships with his dad, his co-workers and his love interest that we find a real man with amiable desires and goals who has stumbled into a world of white-collar cutthroats.

Charlie Sheen is supported by John C. McGinley as Bud's Wall Street coworker Marvin. McGinley has appeared in many Stone films, including "Talk Radio", "Born on the Fourth of July", "Platoon" (with Charlie Sheen), "Nixon" and "Any Given Sunday". More recently, he's been a regular character on the hit TV show "Scrubs". McGinley is a great supporting actor in general, and uses his supporting roles to subtly enrich whatever project he's working on.

I give Wall Street a 9/10. It is incredibly well-made and actually makes insider trading seem interesting! It moves a little slowly at certain parts (the love story with Darryl Hannah was almost completely omitable) but the all-around stellar acting and directing make this one of Stone's best films. If you like this film, keep watch for "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", which should be in theaters later this year.













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