| | | You Don't Assign Him to Murder Cases. You Just Turn Him Loose.|"You've Got to Ask Yourself One Question: 'Do I Feel Lucky?' Well, Do Ya, Punk? --Harry Callahan"
In a signature role, Clint Eastwood plays a streetwise San Francisco police detective who gets the job done. A rooftop sniper (Andy Robinson) named Scorpio has killed twice. Harry Callahan will nail the perp...one way or the other...no matter what "the system" prescribes. Filming on location, director Don Siegel made the City by the Bay a vital part of one of the best police thrillers ever made.
"An all-time great that keeps getting better with age...Robinson's Scorpio gets my vote for the most loathsome movie villain ever." Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily
"A crisp, beautifully paced film, full of Siegel's wonderful coups of cutting and framing." Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"Clint Eastwood got the role of his life." Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"Seminal law-and-order cinema." Time Out
"A fascist film, or a film about a fascist cop? Either way, this is suspenseful, energetic stuff." TV Guide
Editor's Note
A tremendously controversial film, both decried as an apologia for fascism and hailed as the solution to a decade of rising crime, DIRTY HARRY propelled Clint Eastwood's career into the stratosphere while adding another archetype to join his Man with No Name in film iconography. Clint stars as Harry Callahan, a truculent San Francisco police detective well known for his vicious take-no-prisoners attitude toward criminals. With the city of San Francisco being terrorized by the psychotic killer known only as Scorpio (Andrew Robinson), Harry is assigned by the mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) to try to stop him, pairing him with reluctantly accepted new partner Chico (Reni Santoni). Scorpio kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and buries her alive, demanding a $200,000 ransom for her return. Harry is to bring him the money--alone. What follows is one of the most exciting ransom deliveries in film history. The prototype for most of the action films through the rest of the century, DIRTY HARRY rises far above most of them due mostly to an excellent script and Eastwood's gripping acting. That said, the main character's contemptuous attitude toward the Miranda law seems far more damning now that it did in the early 1970s.
Plot Summary
Clint Eastwood stars in one of his most popular roles, as Harry Callahan, a determined cop hunting down the psychotic Scorpio. But just when he thinks the case is closed, the chase begins again. This violent and controversial hit paved the way for several sequels and a slew of urban cop movies.
| Features | 1993 TV Special: Clint Eastwood - The Man From Malpaso - A Look At The Life & Career Of Actor/Director Clint Eastwood, Including Scenes From His Past Film & Television Work & Interviews With Friends, Fellow Actors & Crew Members Who Have Worked With Him Over The Years | | Audio Commentary By Clint Eastwood | | Hardcover Book | | Interactive Menus | | New Featurette: The Long Shadow Of Dirty Harry - An Examination Of The Influence & Legacy Of Dirty Harry | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner Home Video |
| Release Date: 6/3/2008 |
| Running Time: 102 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1971 | | Catalog ID: 1000021457 | | UPC: 00085391115243 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "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've kind of lost track myself. But being 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 a question. 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?----Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) to Scorpio (Andrew Robinson) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
"[I]mpactful for how it cold-cocked the movies' good-guy cop persona." 12/01/2003 p.11Total Film
"Andrew Robinson gives an indelible performance..." 04/01/2004 p.137 Entertainment Weekly
"Tautly directed by Don Siegel, it's a terrific, politically polarizing thriller." 06/13/2008 p.55 Reel.com 9 of 10
In an era in which the courts were increasingly upholding the civil rights of the accused, Harry Callahan stood up for the victims and a public weary of crime...Dirty Harry works so well because it is the perfect marriage of both actor and director with the material. Eastwood only took the role when Frank Sinatra dropped out of the picture, but it's hard to believe that anyone ever would have considered a saloon singer for a role that dovetails so well with the laconic persona that developed in all those Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns. Like the Man with No Name, Dirty Harry Callahan possesses the unwavering will to settle a score in his own way, and a habit of letting his gun do his talking for him. As a political and moral animal, Dirty Harry is conservative-to-reactionary and firmly on the right, but as embodied by Eastwood's imperturbable aplomb, rarely have those traits looked more attractive...In 1958, director Don Siegel demonstrated his feel for San Francisco with the B-noir The Lineup, a TV-series-based thriller more notable for its locations, including the then half-finished Embarcadero Freeway and Steinhart Aquarium, than its half-baked plot. Returning to the city a dozen years later for Dirty Harry, Siegel once again proved himself a master of geography. - Pam Grady
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
It is possible to see the movie as just another extension of Eastwood's basic screen character: He is always the quiet one with the painfully bottled-up capacity for violence, the savage forced to follow the rules of society. This time, by breaking loose, he did what he was always about to do in his earlier films. If that is all, then "Dirty Harry" is a very good example of the cops-and-killers genre, and Siegel proves once again that he understands the Eastwood mystique...But wait a minute. The movie clearly and unmistakably gives us a character who understands the Bill of Rights, understands his legal responsibility as a police officer, and nevertheless takes retribution into his own hands. Sure, Scorpio is portrayed as the most vicious, perverted, warped monster we can imagine -- but that's part of the same stacked deck. The movie's moral position is fascist. No doubt about it...I think films are more often a mirror of society than an agent of change, and that when we blame the movies for the evils around us we are getting things backward. "Dirty Harry" is very effective at the level of a thriller. At another level, it uses the most potent star presence in American movies -- Clint Eastwood -- to lay things on the line. If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news. - Roger Ebert
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