Check after the jump for my review...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING! SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What i love about 70s crime thrillers and cop films in general from that decade and even the late 60s is that they were gritty, rough violent films and they made no apologies for it, from Michael Winner and his Charlie Bronson films to the screenplays by Paul Schrader, these films were raw, none of the gloss you see these days, and they were seemingly fast paced. The closest modern cinema has come to emulating these types thrillers is probably We Own The Night by James Grey and Narc by Joe Carnahan, these films do have a rawness to them, Narc being the better of the two, but what these films lack is the underlying dark humor and sarcastic whit that infiltrated the scripts of the seventies crime thriller. But one man did it better than anyone else, and not only cop thrillers, but westerns and War films too, that man was Don Siegel, a man who while being recognized for his body of work is still not held in the same high regard of Peckinpah, John Ford, John Huston etc, but when you look at Siegel's film history, this man made a hell of a lot of classic films from the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Hell is For Heroes to Coogan's Bluff and Telefon. I think he should get more recognition for his work....
Enough about my love for Don Siegel onto the film it's self...
THE PLOT:
The place is San Francisco, the time...the early 70s, the crime? a madman is shooting innocent people using a suppressed sniper rifle and tormenting the SFPD. The man in charge of finding him? Inspector Harry Callahan, Homicide, know through out the force as Dirty Harry because he always gets the shitty end of the stick, the dirty jobs that no-one else will take. When Lunatic Scorpio starts tormenting the police by sending letters announcing he's going to kill a catholic priest or a black man, Dirty Harry is assigned the case, when a trap goes south, Scorpio kidnaps a 14 year old girl and buries her alive and asks the mayor for $200,000 in used bills, Callahan takes the money to him but is attacked and left almost for dead, but is able to stab Scorpio in the leg. He tracks him down to a football stadium and uses excessive force to arrest him. After the D.A says there is jack that they can do as the perp's rights were violated, Scorpio is set free only to be allowed to kill again. He sets Callahan up for police brutality after paying $200 dollars to get his ass kicked and when released from hospital hijacks a school bus and threatens to kill them unless he gets his money. With the Mayors office ready to pay, a pissed of Callahan manages to track down the bus and after a showdown in a 'rock' factory, brings the film to an end after uttering the immortal lines....
"I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
Enough about my love for Don Siegel onto the film it's self...
THE PLOT:
The place is San Francisco, the time...the early 70s, the crime? a madman is shooting innocent people using a suppressed sniper rifle and tormenting the SFPD. The man in charge of finding him? Inspector Harry Callahan, Homicide, know through out the force as Dirty Harry because he always gets the shitty end of the stick, the dirty jobs that no-one else will take. When Lunatic Scorpio starts tormenting the police by sending letters announcing he's going to kill a catholic priest or a black man, Dirty Harry is assigned the case, when a trap goes south, Scorpio kidnaps a 14 year old girl and buries her alive and asks the mayor for $200,000 in used bills, Callahan takes the money to him but is attacked and left almost for dead, but is able to stab Scorpio in the leg. He tracks him down to a football stadium and uses excessive force to arrest him. After the D.A says there is jack that they can do as the perp's rights were violated, Scorpio is set free only to be allowed to kill again. He sets Callahan up for police brutality after paying $200 dollars to get his ass kicked and when released from hospital hijacks a school bus and threatens to kill them unless he gets his money. With the Mayors office ready to pay, a pissed of Callahan manages to track down the bus and after a showdown in a 'rock' factory, brings the film to an end after uttering the immortal lines....
"I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
THE CAST:
CLINT EASTWOOD as Harry Callahan
Clint adds another iconic character to his legacy, Inspector Harry Callahan is a man who is the best at what he does, always given the dirty cases and a man that flies through partners. But it's his determination to uphold the law that is his greatest asset, a Lonely man who only has his badge and his gun and the law which keeps him going. Eastwood is spot on with his trademark effortless Cool and the only man i know who can look so comfortable holding a .44 Magnum which is one hell of a beast of a gun. Props go to Siegel who made quite a few films with Eastwood and he manages to get a brilliant performance out of him.
HARRY GUARDINO as Lt. Al Bressler
Harry Guardino is a name i recognised but would not be able to tell you what i'd seen him in. After looking over his Filmography, i saw that he'd been mainly a TV actor on shows such as Monty Nash and episodes of Night Gallery, here as Callahan's department head, he's actually pretty good, he's friends with Harry and knows he's a good cop but if he was a little less brutal and little more subtle, then Bressler would be a happy man..
RENI SANTONI as Inspector Chico Gonzalez
Santoni was another name i was familiar with but again i was unsure of where i'd heard his name before, then again looking over is filmography, realised where id heard his name before...COBRA, the Sylvester Stallone action thriller. Here as Chico Gonzalez, Callahan's new partner, he brings something new to the partnership, for a start he's a collage boy, has a degree in Sociology and is more intelligent than his previous partners. At first Harry doesn't like Chico but as the film progresses they do develope a friendship.
JOHN VERNON as The Mayor
I'd remembered Vernon from Topaz and Charley Varrick, here he plays the Mayor of San Francisco who is determined to pay the money to Scorpio and doesn't listen to Callahan who is pretty much right everytime. Vernon is good but his role amount to only a very small supporting role.
ANDREW ROBINSON as Scorpio
Wow Andrew Robinson is utterly brilliant in this, a complete sociopath with the creepiest scream ive ever heard. He's clever but also a little stupid and is clearly mentally unstable. I'd never heard of him before and like Reni Santoni he's appeared in COBRA too. He gives the second best performance of the film and the scene where he's on the school bus singing the wheel's on the bus is just chilling.
THE DIRECTION:
As you're aware ive made my love for Don Siegel very clear in my opening paragraph, and i can only carry on my praise of the man. His direction is spot on. His use of angles and wide to close up shots are great and he manages to make San Francisco a character in the film instead of a setting. One shot that stands out better than any other shot is the football field. The flood lights light up the green field and the camera Zooms out from a screaming Scorpio through the cold damp mist of the night and it's just a phenomenal shot. Utterly brilliant...
THE SCORE:
The Score is by the legendary Lalo Schifrin, the man responsible for the scores to films such as BULLITT, ENTER THE DRAGON and the iconic theme to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. The score to Dirty Harry uses multiple beats, almost hip hop like, but the beats could also be seen as heart beats, as the music is used over tense scenes such as the scene where Scorpio is hunting and watching as a black man walks across a park. Lalo Schifrin composed a brilliant score for a brilliant film.
MY VERDICT:
Well what can i say, this film was far beyond my expectations, i am a complete idiot for not seeing this film for so long as ive had the DVD for nearly 5 years. Although the dvd i have is from a magazine collection and since then the film has had a special edition release from Warner Bros, the one i have has an ok transfer but at times the picture quality is quite ruff, some of the night scenes are little difficult to make out and the picture is quite grainy. But The film id brilliant, an absolute classic that im ashamed to say it has taken me this long to watch. If you haven't seen it then check it out. It's fast paced, has some great set pieces and fantastic direction accompanied by great performances and a cracking score.
FILM: 10/10
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