"Dirty Harry" is an incredible action film, one of the finest ever made and certainly an *extremely* influential one, spawning legions of imitative cop flicks made in the subsequent 43 years. It gave Clint Eastwood a contemporary-set star vehicle to rival the Westerns he'd headlined in the 1960s, and gave us an iconic hero character with whom we could identify: a man who's weary of a "justice" system that shows too much sympathy to lowlife bad guys who don't merit that sort of thing.
Eastwoods' "Dirty" Harry Callahan (so nicknamed because he gets stuck with "dirty" jobs that nobody else wants to do) is a police detective with a wicked .44 Magnum (that will blow your head *clean* off) and a disgust at having to deal with weak superiors and criminal slime. Harry picks up the trail of a psychotic rooftop sniper, "Scorpio" (Andrew Robinson, in one hell of a breakthrough film performance), and is willing to do anything necessary - the rulebook be damned - to get his man.
Highlighted by Lalo Schifrins' groovy jazz score, impressive aerial photography, and exemplary location work (director Don Siegel and company make the city of San Francisco just as much a character here as any of the human players), "Dirty Harry" is wonderfully put together, and features a solid action climax involving a bus. Harry's dialogue (the screenplay is credited to Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, and Dean Riesner) is memorable and quotable; his "do I feel lucky" speech is now cinema legend.
The film is very well directed by Siegel and features a strong supporting cast including Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, John Larch, John Mitchum, and Josef Sommer; small uncredited roles are played by the likes of Max Gail, Richard Lawson, and Albert Popwell; Popwell, as buffs well know, became a recurring actor in the "Dirty Harry" series.
Overall, this is absolutely essential viewing for action fans of all ages.
10 out of 10.
Eastwoods' "Dirty" Harry Callahan (so nicknamed because he gets stuck with "dirty" jobs that nobody else wants to do) is a police detective with a wicked .44 Magnum (that will blow your head *clean* off) and a disgust at having to deal with weak superiors and criminal slime. Harry picks up the trail of a psychotic rooftop sniper, "Scorpio" (Andrew Robinson, in one hell of a breakthrough film performance), and is willing to do anything necessary - the rulebook be damned - to get his man.
Highlighted by Lalo Schifrins' groovy jazz score, impressive aerial photography, and exemplary location work (director Don Siegel and company make the city of San Francisco just as much a character here as any of the human players), "Dirty Harry" is wonderfully put together, and features a solid action climax involving a bus. Harry's dialogue (the screenplay is credited to Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, and Dean Riesner) is memorable and quotable; his "do I feel lucky" speech is now cinema legend.
The film is very well directed by Siegel and features a strong supporting cast including Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, John Larch, John Mitchum, and Josef Sommer; small uncredited roles are played by the likes of Max Gail, Richard Lawson, and Albert Popwell; Popwell, as buffs well know, became a recurring actor in the "Dirty Harry" series.
Overall, this is absolutely essential viewing for action fans of all ages.
10 out of 10.