Dirty Harry

Directed by Don Siegel. Written by Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, and Dean Riesner. Starring Clint Eastwood (Police Inspector Harry Callahan), Andrew Robinson (Charles ‘Scorpio Killer’ Davis), John Vernon (The Mayor).

Bottom line: Iconic movie that does a really good job of translating the Western Clint Eastwood to a modern urban setting.

3/4

Clint Eastwood is Police Inspector Harry Callahan. He is a San Francisco cop who wants justice by any means necessary. It’s summertime and a serial killer named Scorpio (Robinson) strikes. He demands one hundred thousand dollars or he will kill “a Catholic priest or a nigger.” While the cowardly mayor tries to raise the money, the police undertake a manhunt. Callahan and his partner capture the killer but almost at the cost of their lives. Unfortunately, by going outside of protocol and outside the law, the killer goes free. Callahan urges the police system to act saying, “He’ll kill again...he likes it.”

I’m sure I’m not the only one who associates Eastwood with the silent, stern, noble (probably a wandering cowboy) type character.  In Dirty Harry, the nomadic hero has changed setting from the West to modern urban jungle. His core character is pretty much the same though. Instead of literally wandering from town to town, Callahan exists in a state where he moves from one crime to the next; his wife died so he only has his job.

The major conflict in the film is the bureaucracy preventing Callahan from fighting crime. 

The mayor holds a meeting with the police to discuss a plan to address Scorpio. He calls in Callahan for a report. “What have you been doing,” asks the mayor. “I’ve been sitting on my ass for the past half hour waiting for you,” he responds with an annoyed smirk. Callahan is like Batman in The Dark Knight. He wants justice and isn’t afraid to step on everyone’s toes to get it.  In The Dark Knight, Batman sets up a massive surveillance system to catch the Joker. It infringes on everyone’s sense of privacy, sure, but in the responsible hands of Batman, it is a means to an end. It’s ok. Callahan functions in the same way; “When I see a woman running down an alley screaming, being chased by a naked man with a butcher knife and a hard on, I don’t need to guess [his intentions].” Just like in Dark Knight, crime is presented as black and white so it’s palatable for us as the audience for Harry to act in an arguably extreme way.

At one point, he steps on the gunshot wound of a kidnapper to get information; one might call it police brutality, but a young girl’s life is at stake. In this scene, Callahan and the kidnapper are alone in an empty football field. As Callahan is stepping on the gunshot wound, the kidnapper screams out in pain. The camera cuts over to a helicopter shot which flies off into the night. The nearly empty stadium and the kidnapper’s screams gradually fade to black. It is an interesting shot because it is uncomfortable. It is one of the only times where we actually might question Callahan’s methods. As the kidnapper is let go (because his rights were encroached) we are frustrated enough with the system that we side with Callahan.

Speaking of the young girl, she is fourteen years old, is kidnapped, and it’s implied that she’s raped. Later, we assume Harry’s point of view, who, from a nearby hillside watches her naked, dead body being lifted out of a hole. Whenever a naked woman appears in most movies, the shot takes on a voyeuristic tone. It’s like we’re sitting and saying, “Oh will you just look at that. It’s terrible. Just let me look long and hard at how horrible this is.” By this point in the movie, I suppose we’re supposed to have forgotten that she was fourteen.

I liked the set design in Dirty Harry. It had a fun, artificial, shooting gallery feel to it. It reminded me of an old western town’s main street.

This is an iconic movie, as I’m sure you’re aware. Dirty Harry marked an evolution in crime films being one of the first major “cop movies”. It’s exciting and the action is solid. The more, I think about it, yeah, this is a 70’s version of The Dark Knight just less flashy and with Clint Eastwood. I’d recommend it for a weekday evening or a Saturday night.