When this came out in 1971, America was so polorized, people either loved or hated Dirty Harry. Doves Vs. Hawks. No need to go into who was on what side and why. We all know.
This cultural split has gone the way of rotery phones. When you look at the film now, it poses quetions more ambiguous than anyone might have seen through the dove v. hawk smoke of 1971
How do we, as a rational society, deal with serious social pathology? The question goes back to Moses, and we have not yet answered it.
Now, Harry Callahan is one dangerous dude. He actually means well, such as when he breaks up a robbery, or runs from pay phone to pay phone to try to save the life of a kid abducted by a sniper/ kiddie rapist, Scorpio.
But he also shoots first and then asks questions. He sure does like that gun. He tortures Scorpio to get the location of the adolesent rape victim. Harry knows you can't reason with evil. Yet, you see in the film that the girl dies anyway, so his torture did not do any good.
Let's look at this both ways. I am a card carrying member of the ACLU and a proud lefty. I relaize that these tactics don't work, and usually are used on the wrong guy.
But i am a person, too, and if it were my little girl in that hole, you bet I'd want Harry dancing on Scorpio's wounded leg until the SOB sang. Any mom or dad would, I don't care how liberal they are.
Either way, these are not cut and dry questions, and this is the point I think Seigal and Eastwood were trying to make. When everyone was taking sides in 1971, both the actor and the director were smart enough to see the ambiguities and leave them unanswered. Harry may have become a action hero in sequals, but for this film, he is not a Hollywood commodity as much as a channel for issues America was, and still is, grappling with.
One more point: in 1971, Miranda had only been law five years. There was little forensic psychology, no use of DNA. Police did not have many of the techniques we see on Law and Order or NCIS today. Police who could have strongarmed suspects before Miranda were at a loss of how to handle all this, which brings us back to my initial question: What DO you do when a madman has a child?
Oh yeah. I LOVE Harry's suits.
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Offensive to space Jesus and Anti-Bacon
Added 10/14/2009
Clint Eastwood has, over the years, quite cleverly hidden a speech impediment that hampered his early forays into acting. His technique is based on an old French teaching about the linguistic problems experienced by some people, such as Jonathan Ross. Both Clint and Jonathan have difficulty pronouncing the letter 'w'.
Whereas Rossy just dives on in and has made it a feature of his persona, Clint has used the Fleuron approach where the letter is pretty much negated and often not pronounced at all. In 'Dirty Harry', his line about feeling lucky, to the punk, he says, '...to tell you the tooth...', note 'tooth', not 'truth'. To most ears this sounds acceptable and normal but in all of Clints films, use of 'w' words is kept to a strict minimum.
The music in this film is also quite grating, possibly to cover for the woeful dialogue. A chap called Lilo Shafter did the music, and from scant listening it sounds like music from a skin flick from the same era. All in all I cannot see one good thing to recommend this excellent film to others to miss it.
The story is entertaining, the acting is bad, the special effects are terrible, editing and lighting is adequate given the equipment used but unforgivable in this day and age of DVD's and MP3's. All in all, I would give this film 3 stars, minus two for the reasons above, plus 3 for Clints acting, minus 2 for the title, add three for the music, take one for the bloke out of Hellraiser being in it and finally minus 2 for the use of the Fleuron approach to the 23rd, and sacred, letter.
Ramsey Tupper - (c) 2006 - Re-hashed by Mr Bus
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Wild ride.
Added 6/5/2009
Dirty Harry is the ultimate guy flick but as a woman in her mid-twenties -I have to say this movie rocks! Clint Eastwood is awesome in this crime drama, the dude who plays the killer is one horrific actor but otherwise than that Dirty Harry is pure fun. Buy it now!
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The classic 1971 original on Blu Ray!
Added 4/20/2009
The classic original 1971 Dirty Harry on Blu Ray,great PQ,sound and extras!!! FYI,this is also included as part of The Dirty Harry Blu Ray box set! Classic Clint Eastwood!!! A+
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A wonderful company
Added 2/8/2009
Thank you Amazon for your quick response in sending the movie. thank you very much-charles
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Dirty Harry Collection...Rocks
Added 9/4/2009
Ladies and Gents, "The Man With No Name" is back, and his name is Inspector Callahan.We all (most) know that 3 of the Dirty Harry films are better than the other two...they all have their moments and fave tag-lines.This Collection brings them altogether for that winter marathon, like the "Lethal Weapon" series.
Dirty Harry Callahan is the picture perfect series of the Old West Sheriff dragged, kicking and screaming, into the New West to clean up the town and save the day from the bad guy (or guys & gals). Not all the townsfolk like the hero's methods, but they all want or need saved (remember Lago, Big Whiskey, or the mining camp in "Pale Rider"?) We like VHS because it will FAR outlast dvd...
It seems that there's a new generation who saw "Gran Torino", but never,gasp, ever, heard of Dirty Harry. If you like really nasty villains, high speed chases, sneering one-liners, and lots of flying lead, you'll love The Dirty Harry Collection. Go ahead, make your day...
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Buy them individually instead
Added 2/23/2009
if you are into toy badges, etc., then this collection is fine as it offers that and a vinyl badge case. Ok for kids. I have seen these films many times, and have my favorites, of which there are only 2 in this collection as far as I'm concerned. If you have the extra money to spend, and don't care, then this is the set for the "hardcore Harry fan". This set has 2 that are truly great to me.
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Dirty Harry
Added 7/23/2008
Great value and the set was in mint condition. Fast action on sellers part. Thank you
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