sudiniup
Amsterdam 1972, saw posters of "Dirty Harry" everywhere. When I finally did see Dirty Harry I loved it and how he was such a cool underdog but he had such insights to human behavior. I am watching it again today 2017 and he is more timely than ever. He had skill, intelligence, guts, and the ability to accomplish the dirty assignments.
Idiot-Deluxe
Though there were several actors interested in the role, we can all be thankful that it was a 41 year-old Clint Eastwood that ultimately landed the role and film history was made.In this first (and best) installment of the series, we have Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco P.D. on the trail of Scorpio, a sadistic serial-killer, whose attempting to extort the city of $100,000 - but the sum soon rises as do the stakes. The role of Scorpio is brilliantly portrayed by the little-known/under-rated actor Andy Robinson, who, after this movie should have gone on to do great things, but instead, he was soon cast for a role in a soap opera pathetically enough; of which he was soon fired from merely because "he's that mean man, from that scary movie". Knowing this, one can easily surmise that the soap opera crowd must be some of the softest and most delicate people in the world. Anyway back to the movie, Eastwoods good friend and mentor, veteran film director Don Sigel helmed the project, which was filmed in and around Clint's home town of San Fransisco and like all of the Dirty Harry films "the city by the bay" serves as the primary location of the series.Owing much to the fact that Scorpio's a homicidally insane night-owl, who has very busy night-life, many of the movies most crucial scenes occur at night, which were strikingly captured by the masterful eye of veteran cinematographer Bruce Sortees. The scene on the roof-tops involving the attempt on the catholic priests life, where Scorpio gleefully shoots-up the rotating "Jesus Saves" sign is the most perfectly composed/photographed night scene I've ever seen in a movie, another great one is the scene involving the labyrinthine layers of Kezar stadium (which dramatically ends with one of the best helicopter shots ever). Scorpio as you'll see, is a man whose not burdened by a conscience and leaves a trail of destruction virtually everywhere he goes and though he's highly impulsive, he's not stupid and ropes along Callahan, The Mayor and the SFPD for almost the entire movie, first with extortion attempts, then he tries his hand at blackmail - and more extortion.When watching this first outing of Dirty Harry one quickly realizes just how perfectly suited the cast and crew were, it's a marvel, a thing of sheer perfection and as a result of their combined talents, every single aspect of this film seems to fall perfectly into place and crystallizes at that moment, resulting in the creation of an iconic screen hero/film series. Though four more "Dirties" would follow, the first film still stands out as the best of the lot; but what are the reasons behind that, as there are so many to consider. First of all Eastwood's great as always - that's a given. However for me it's the thrillingly compelling performance of Andy Robinson, that elevates this film to the next level and the series never had a more effective antagonist. Huge props must also be given to Don Sigel, whose skillful direction fully compliments the film and keeps the pace rolling at a high level of intrigue. Sigel's direction is so to the point that there's not a single scene wasted, not even a single wasted frame.Another stalwart of the series is composer extraordinaire Lalo Schifrin (the man behind the Mission Impossible theme), who scored all but one of the series five films. But it's in this film that his music is most memorable and effective, Schifrin's music has a way of capturing the vibe of Scorpio's murky, night-time world, pitch perfectly. I'm particularly found of the tension his music stirs up whenever Scorpio is coldly eyeing his victim from a distance. Schrifin was, again, the perfect choice of composer, which as stated earlier is a recurring fact, when considering the people who where behind this classic film. Which finally brings us to George Milius, the films screen-writer, whose contributions are invaluable to this films lasting greatness. Milius is primarily remembered for his iconic "Do I feel lucky" routine, which Harry loves to taunt criminals with; his famous words are, of course, reinforced by the presence of his infamous partner - the mighty Smith & Wesson 44 magnum revolver. What this all adds up to is the best cop drama ever made and it's scary to think of how badly this movie would have sucked, with someone else in Clint's signature role. Give praise to the exploits of Inspector Callahan, as this series has been an institution of greatness for nearly the past half a century.
Raushan Kumar (AbsoluteRaushan)
Well I only watched this movie because of Clint Eastwood, I have watched Gran Torino, Good Bad and the Ugly , and many .They were pretty good movies. My hopes were lot higher with this movie . I mean it's Clint Eastwood. People write songs about him. He made old cowboy movie look cool. But this one I found to to be boring. And many things are happens for no reason. Last half an hour is bit of interesting but many people would just left the movie.
jimbo-53-186511
Inspector 'Dirty Harry' Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is assigned to one of his toughest cases when he finds himself having to track down a notorious serial killer simply known as Scorpio. Scorpio leaves a letter at the scene of his first crime threatening to kill again unless he receives $100,000. What follows is a cat and mouse game between Scorpio and Harry but in this game Harry is determined to win and will do whatever it takes to bring Scorpio to justice.Between 1971 and 2016 there have been many cop type films and over the years we have seen many similar 'Harry Callahan' type police officers being portrayed on film. However, Dirty Harry was a very early example of a bad-ass cop who's prepared to bend or break the rules in order to get his man but, to my knowledge, no film has ever given us a cop who's quite so iconic and cool as Dirty Harry Callahan. Part of the reason this film succeeds lies with Eastwood himself and what he brought to the role; there's nobody else quite like him when it comes to tough-talking through gritted teeth and he's also capable of giving icy stares that at times can be quite unnerving. I think the important distinction to make with Harry is that he's a 'bad-ass' cop rather than a 'bad' cop; he isn't afraid to break the rules in order to do what he feels is right, but he also knows when to hold back and never allows his judgement to be clouded even in the most extreme of circumstances. For these reasons it's easy to have a vested interest in Callahan's dogged pursuit of Scorpio as more often than not we find a police officer doing a lot of things wrong but for all the right reasons. Of course every 'bad-ass' cop needs a bad-ass villain to contend with and this is where Andrew Robinson comes into play; Robinson was not a big actor (and sadly never seemed to become one either) and therefore going up against Eastwood (who was quite well-established at this point in his career) must have been quite a daunting task, but Robinson acquits himself to the role very well and manages to be chilling, menacing and ever so slightly sociopathic. According to the trivia section Robinson received death threats after his performance in Dirty Harry which just goes to show that a lot of people were so convinced by his performance that they must have forgot that he was acting!!!Director Don Siegel gives the film plenty of energy and keeps the film moving at a fair old lick; the screenplay also includes some humorous moments (I loved the unorthodox approach that Harry used to try to prevent someone from jumping off a high-rise building). Harry's general contempt for authority made many of his scenes with The Mayor and The Chief very enjoyable. To top it all off Dirty Harry also has a very exciting finale with one of the best closing lines to a film that I've ever seen.Anyone who is a fan of Eastwood really should watch this as not only is this one of his best films but he's also playing one of the best characters to grace the cinema screen (I genuinely can't think of a cooler character than Harry Callahan). Many cop films with similar bad-ass cops have followed, but few (if any) have been as good as Dirty Harry.
