Dirty Harry

Clint Eastwood has an interesting filmography and throughout his long career has remained on top of his game. This film has a lot to it,whether you like it or not,but they were very popular and are a change to the realist 70's. I should say...and this is the first of the 25 films in a multi pack i'm watching from...this is the film they want us to view first,,,and its loaded with tons of bonus material. Of course in hollywood clint always isolated himself and was known as being on the right,a friend of Reagan,I recall seeing him at a filmfest,but i dont know how much of a friend he was. Anyways there werent many in hollywood who made his kind of film...but most of the films were of an opposite bent,making it appear lopsided so he stands alone with the type of films he makes...making him original. He remarks in the bonus material,talking of the famed two reeler,which people here dont recall and made profitable by harry cohn during the 30's to 50's in which he gave work,admittedly for little money,to work on short jobs and they would not likely have found jobs in acting otherwise,and many of the unknown actors were thankful for the experience in acting,so there's much to these two reelers. Clint is old enough and knows old hollywood and it helps his approach to films,and there's much to learn of this industry,and they were mostly b material,and tv really did away with them..clint was a famous actor and i recall reading in a small town paper upcoming films like enforcer,heartbreak ridge,and many others...as his films were always much anticipated. Here we have a cop,who has gone through many officers,with a rape,and dead bodies all around,and i wont talk much of the film,in which clint's partner is a student of sociology,how's that for foreshadowong,and a criminal robbing a place has a super ego?,and really there's a scene which makes us understand this film...where he confronts a rapist i believe bloodied and cripled,and wants to know about the woman,who was raped,or threatens to blow the criminal away...his feelings are for the victims not the chief,or the officers,nor anyone else...he just serves the victims of crimes....that is a key which unlocks him....and good that it unlocks us...and he goes it alone...like an old movie from the 40's in isolation...this is not so much right wing...but one who feels for the victims of crime...when he made another film..the enforcer...he was told he couldnt use that name its an old film covered by copyright..but he made some effort and was able to use that title...the first film about contract murders in policing and investigations...a story about helping victims,,,someone who knows old hollywood although i read this story and i recall from memory in my town paper...so i give him credit for going it alone...and his travails about hollywood...where knowledgeable people have a hard time directing especially with unique approaches and boxoffice success...makes us wonder? Especially as he remarks some of the people directing some of these films..as he mentions often the directors they have ....what's really going on? But that's another story,like columbia's two reelers,i'd love to talk of that but another time...an interesting look at an old film

while i did like this first film in the Dirty Harry series for the most part,there were a few things about it that didn't work for me.one thing was i thought it was a bit slow in spots,not enough to make a huge difference in quality,just enough to notice.also the story.it just seemed a bit ordinary to me.it didn't have any gravitas or oomph to it.the acting was good all around,although i have to single out Andy Robinson who was superb as the villain.overall,despite a few minor problems,this is still a very good film,with many more positive aspects than negatives.for me,Dirty Harry is a 3/5

John Milius is the greatest screenwriter you never heard of, not to mention a terrific director. He describes the "Dirty Harry" Callahan character as "God's lonely man." Milius is that rarest of rarities, a Hollywood conservative. He herein wrote a film for the Republican Clint Eastwood that spoke to the hopes and fears of an America yearning for justice, law'n'order in a world dominated by overarching liberalism in the 1960s and '70s.

Picture America at that time: Vietnam, the streets and campuses exploding in riot, and a new social ethos that was willing to blame a racist white establishment for the crimes of this nation's increasing population of criminals.

In the 1960s, the Supreme Court became activist to the hilt. The most obvious of these cases was the famous Miranda ruling from Arizona, in which a criminal was allowed to go free because he had not understood his rights, not understanding the English language spoken by the arresting officer. His subsequent confessions were thrown out. The Court spoke of the "forbiddeen fruit" of evidence gathered by overzealous officers who "failed" to inform criminals that they were being searched just before they discovered their weapons, their drugs, their evidence. A police officer who found evidence of crimes was unable to make the case unless he had probable cause ahead of time to find the evidence.

In "Dirty Harry", a character (Andy Robinson) based on the never-caught Zodiak killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area at that time, goes on a murder rampage. Eastwood catches him at Kezar Stadoium. A little girl is lying in a hole some place. She has a limited amount of air left. Eastwood knows the guy did it. We know it. God knows it. The scene is worth watching in light of Abu Ghraib and the concept of the "ticking time bomb" theory of interrogation that the terror era has brought upon us.

Eastwood knows that if the man is arrested and booked, he will not talk, hiding behind a lawyer, and that the girl will suffocate. He applies a little bit of torture to Robinson, the Scorpio killer. What he wants is to know where the little girl is, so she can be saved. Scorpio wines about having rights and wanting a lawyer. Eastwood extracts the information from him. The girl, however, has died before she can be found by the cops.

Eastwood is confronted by the D.A., who tells him not only that the killer had rights, but that he will walk as soon as he is healthy, and he has brought in a Berkeley professor to detail to Clint how he violated the criminal's rights and, in essence, is worse than the Scorpio killer.

The end? We've all seen it a million times on TBS's "Movies For Guys Who Like Movies." Eastwood gets his man. He receives zero gratitude from the authorities. Millions of ordinary American citizens appreciated him in theatres and TVs since then, however.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"

STWRITES@AOL.COM