Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 11/18/1997
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1/DD1
Run Time: 102 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated
Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona.
Harry Callahan (
Eastwood, in a role meant for
Frank Sinatra) is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When hippie-esque psycho
Scorpio (
Andy Robinson) goes on a killing spree,
Harry and new partner
Chico (
Reni Santoni) are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the
Mayor (
John Vernon) and
Lt. Bressler (
Harry Guardino) admonish
Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants,
Callahan brings in
Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," opines
Harry in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that
Scorpio doesn't kill again. Directed in violent and efficient fashion by
Don Siegel, with a propulsive score by
Lalo Schifrin,
Dirty Harry was the fourth
Siegel-
Eastwood collaboration after
Coogan's Bluff (1968),
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), and
The Beguiled (1970). Critics at the time strongly objected to the heroic image of a cop's violations of a suspect's Miranda rights, forcing
Siegel and
Eastwood to deny that they were right-wing reactionaries. All the same,
Dirty Harry proved to be highly popular and spawned four sequels:
Magnum Force (1973),
The Enforcer (1976),
Sudden Impact (1983), and
The Dead Pool (1988).
~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
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