Dirty Harry (1971)

Genre: Action / Thriller

Directed by: Don Siegel

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson, Harry Guardino

Running time: 102 minutes

Harry Callahan is a police inspector for the San Fransisco Police Department. They call him Dirty Harry because he always ends up with the dirtiest jobs and he rarely plays by the rules. When a serial killer who calls himself Scorpio starts leaving dead bodies and notes behind him, asking for money in exchange for an end to his reign of terror over the city, Callahan springs into action.

This is the first of the five installments in the Dirty Harry franchise. Here, we have Clint Eastwood in top form playing to his strengths, with guns, fights, blood and a few witty words from the protagonist.

Sure, Dirty Harry is not a work of finesse and subtlety. Sure, it might offend some sensitive souls out there with the language (which is on occasion racially-charged) and the depiction of a rough kind of justice. That being said, this 1971 remains a great action film where it is quite easy to root for the main character against a villain trying to use to weaknesses of the system to get his way.

Clint Eastwood was greatly convincing in what he had to convey here. The verbiage was not extensive, but the lines they gave his character were solid. And, Eastwood knew how to deliver that sort of thing. That “Do you feel lucky, punk” spiel is now part of history. The support cast was also very good.

The Bay Area made for a beautiful backdrop for this action film, which has become an ageless classic over the years and which will still keep you on the edge of your seat, if you are watching it for the first time. If not, it is still worth watching again and again.

Rating: «««««