Dirty Harry (1971)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 103m
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, John Vernon, Andy Robinson
Synopsis:
A San Francisco police inspector reputed for his direct methods is pitted against a serial killer sniper who is holding the city for ransom. He soon finds himself at odds with the modern day legal system that appears to protect the rights of the criminal more than those of the victim.
Review:
A film that touched a nerve in the early seventies, as establishment morality bit back on the counter culture of the late sixties. Building on the 'country sheriff brings his methods to the big city' character he created in Coogan's Bluff, Eastwood - and Siegel - create a new maverick, one who is the surrogate for the bewildered man in the street who cannot understand how society got so bad as to create such monsters and clutches at the most natural cure-all: summary justice! As such the film is of course highly cynical, added to which one has to swallow the premise that an inspector of the experience of Calahan would not know the ins and outs of defendants' rights and inadmissible evidence (definitely a case of educating the audience that scene at the DA's). However, the performances of both Eastwood and Robinson are persuasive and honest enough to carry the film convincingly, and Siegel and Schifrin orchestrate the tension well enough. Basically it is a straight-up well-told tale of cop and killer that ups the antagonism between the two and gets the audience gunning for the bad guy. It spawned four sequels.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 103m
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, John Vernon, Andy Robinson
Synopsis:
A San Francisco police inspector reputed for his direct methods is pitted against a serial killer sniper who is holding the city for ransom. He soon finds himself at odds with the modern day legal system that appears to protect the rights of the criminal more than those of the victim.
Review:
A film that touched a nerve in the early seventies, as establishment morality bit back on the counter culture of the late sixties. Building on the 'country sheriff brings his methods to the big city' character he created in Coogan's Bluff, Eastwood - and Siegel - create a new maverick, one who is the surrogate for the bewildered man in the street who cannot understand how society got so bad as to create such monsters and clutches at the most natural cure-all: summary justice! As such the film is of course highly cynical, added to which one has to swallow the premise that an inspector of the experience of Calahan would not know the ins and outs of defendants' rights and inadmissible evidence (definitely a case of educating the audience that scene at the DA's). However, the performances of both Eastwood and Robinson are persuasive and honest enough to carry the film convincingly, and Siegel and Schifrin orchestrate the tension well enough. Basically it is a straight-up well-told tale of cop and killer that ups the antagonism between the two and gets the audience gunning for the bad guy. It spawned four sequels.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 103m
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, John Vernon, Andy Robinson
Synopsis:
A San Francisco police inspector reputed for his direct methods is pitted against a serial killer sniper who is holding the city for ransom. He soon finds himself at odds with the modern day legal system that appears to protect the rights of the criminal more than those of the victim.
Review:
A film that touched a nerve in the early seventies, as establishment morality bit back on the counter culture of the late sixties. Building on the 'country sheriff brings his methods to the big city' character he created in Coogan's Bluff, Eastwood - and Siegel - create a new maverick, one who is the surrogate for the bewildered man in the street who cannot understand how society got so bad as to create such monsters and clutches at the most natural cure-all: summary justice! As such the film is of course highly cynical, added to which one has to swallow the premise that an inspector of the experience of Calahan would not know the ins and outs of defendants' rights and inadmissible evidence (definitely a case of educating the audience that scene at the DA's). However, the performances of both Eastwood and Robinson are persuasive and honest enough to carry the film convincingly, and Siegel and Schifrin orchestrate the tension well enough. Basically it is a straight-up well-told tale of cop and killer that ups the antagonism between the two and gets the audience gunning for the bad guy. It spawned four sequels.