Dirty Harry (1971)

More than iconography here in dynamite Siegel/Eastwood teaming. The film opens with a shot of a memorial wall in praise of the San Francisco Police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, a SFPD badge is prominent as the camera scrolls down the ream of names on the wall. Cut to a rooftop sniper shooting a girl taking a swim in a swimming pool, cut to the coolest looking cop you have ever seen making his way to the rooftop scene, he stands and surveys the whole of the San Francisco...

The directing is remarkable but, the most interesting side of this film is the character created by Eastwood, a policeman who decides to take the law by his hand disregarding any kind of right or procedure. Quite like his characters in the far west ... but in nowadays U.S. The story itself is, plainly, bad and grotesque.

Recently I've considered drastically negatively re-appraising Clint Eastwood's work, both directorially and as a thespian, as a knee-jerk reaction to his constant defense of the more racially-bigoted face of conservative America, but because of what his work has meant to me as a cinephile over the years, plus in tribute to everyone else's work involved in this film, particularly director Don Siegel's, that simply wouldn't be fair. As well, you're basically gettin...

Surprisingly straightforward story-wise, but very enjoyable all the same. <em>'Dirty Harry'</em> is no doubt stylish, features an eye-catching plot and has a very good lead performance from Clint Eastwood; he really does own the role. With that noted, I was surprised at how simply the story unfolds. That's not necessarily a criticism, I just presumed it would've been more than just 'event one, event two, event three etc. ... the end'. I enjoyed it, wh...

I can't imagine anyone else playing Harry Callahan other than Clint Eastwood. He will always be an iconic character with his tough demeanour and his means to get justice no matter how many rules he needs to break. Some of the scenes at the start have nothing to do with the investigation and while feel quite unnecessary to the plot, they still bring entertainment and shows us just what type of character Harry is. Andy Robinson is fantastic as Scorpio and while the investigation does take a ...