Dirty Harry (1971)

Amsterdam 1972, saw posters of "Dirty Harry" everywhere. When I finally did see Dirty Harry I loved it and how he was such a cool underdog but he had such insights to human behavior. I am watching it again today 2017 and he is more timely than ever. He had skill, intelligence, guts, and the ability to accomplish the dirty assignments.

I don't think you could have made this movie today. It would not have been taken seriously. One of the reasons is an obvious one, many of the plot points and elements in this film has since become clichés, and can't be used without acknowledging that it's a tired old trope. But also the sincerity in the portrayal of the cynical character is something that today's audience seldom see in new movies. Or perhaps I am just watching the wrong movies? Either way, I consider this as a positive quality for the film. There's no winks to the audience.But the film does feel dated in certain aspects. I think it's harder to like the Harry character today than it was back then, as the values he stands for are not really the one we aspire to today. But seen as a movie set in the era it was made, it still works. And had Harry not been Dirty Harry, the movie probably wouldn't have worked at all. The plot itself is interesting enough, but it's Clint Eastwood's performance that makes this movie last.And Clint Eastwood kills it. This movie was definitely made in his prime.

Popularity of works like Dirty Harry is more about the wave it created in a genre of it's own type (here thriller Genre), for this reason when someone writes about films like dirty harry must face the wave that film has unleashed and this is not fair. A work should be first analyzed independently to indicate its inherent values. Dirty harry is initially quiet entertaining work. The only aim the director had was entertain the viewers while producing the film, a job Don Siegel has fairly successfully done. Film wholly revolves around Clint Eastwood and it is his charisma that has kept dirty harry standing; Perhaps imagining someone other than Eastwood in the role of harry and gaining this amount of popularity for the film is completely vain. The biggest drawback to this movie is the villain pole of story(Scorpio). A character which hasn't been developed properly. It is very weak character. Opposing someone with this level of intelligence and ability (just compare Scorpio's intelligence and ability with zodiac's, it is said Scorpio's character inspired by his character and actions) for ransom (100000$ or 200000$) with the heads of a big city is eccentric and idiotic. The script does not provide any information about the biography and features of this character. The amount of information Which is scheduled to be presented about this serial killer,played by a weak actor for this role (Andrew Robinson) in this job is powerless and unsuccessful. To me it is strange why a professional director like don Siegel has used such an inept actor for villain role of his film. Perhaps if both the character and acting the villain role had been effective a better balance between positive and negative poles of the story would have been created and we would have a better movie. Since the first mission of the cinema and a movie is entertainment Dirty Harry must be respected; of course adequate respect, not exaggerated one. 7/10

Inspector 'Dirty Harry' Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is assigned to one of his toughest cases when he finds himself having to track down a notorious serial killer simply known as Scorpio. Scorpio leaves a letter at the scene of his first crime threatening to kill again unless he receives $100,000. What follows is a cat and mouse game between Scorpio and Harry but in this game Harry is determined to win and will do whatever it takes to bring Scorpio to justice.Between 1971 and 2016 there have been many cop type films and over the years we have seen many similar 'Harry Callahan' type police officers being portrayed on film. However, Dirty Harry was a very early example of a bad-ass cop who's prepared to bend or break the rules in order to get his man but, to my knowledge, no film has ever given us a cop who's quite so iconic and cool as Dirty Harry Callahan. Part of the reason this film succeeds lies with Eastwood himself and what he brought to the role; there's nobody else quite like him when it comes to tough-talking through gritted teeth and he's also capable of giving icy stares that at times can be quite unnerving. I think the important distinction to make with Harry is that he's a 'bad-ass' cop rather than a 'bad' cop; he isn't afraid to break the rules in order to do what he feels is right, but he also knows when to hold back and never allows his judgement to be clouded even in the most extreme of circumstances. For these reasons it's easy to have a vested interest in Callahan's dogged pursuit of Scorpio as more often than not we find a police officer doing a lot of things wrong but for all the right reasons. Of course every 'bad-ass' cop needs a bad-ass villain to contend with and this is where Andrew Robinson comes into play; Robinson was not a big actor (and sadly never seemed to become one either) and therefore going up against Eastwood (who was quite well-established at this point in his career) must have been quite a daunting task, but Robinson acquits himself to the role very well and manages to be chilling, menacing and ever so slightly sociopathic. According to the trivia section Robinson received death threats after his performance in Dirty Harry which just goes to show that a lot of people were so convinced by his performance that they must have forgot that he was acting!!!Director Don Siegel gives the film plenty of energy and keeps the film moving at a fair old lick; the screenplay also includes some humorous moments (I loved the unorthodox approach that Harry used to try to prevent someone from jumping off a high-rise building). Harry's general contempt for authority made many of his scenes with The Mayor and The Chief very enjoyable. To top it all off Dirty Harry also has a very exciting finale with one of the best closing lines to a film that I've ever seen.Anyone who is a fan of Eastwood really should watch this as not only is this one of his best films but he's also playing one of the best characters to grace the cinema screen (I genuinely can't think of a cooler character than Harry Callahan). Many cop films with similar bad-ass cops have followed, but few (if any) have been as good as Dirty Harry.