Dirty Harry

Without a doubt, my favorite cop movie of all time is Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen. It is a movie that I watched with my father some years ago, when he got a copy of it on VHS. A while ago, I got it on DVD and have watched it several more times, absorbing more and more each time.

I bring this up because of its similarities to today's subject, Dirty Harry, starring, of course, the Magnum toting Clint Eastwood.

There are several similarities. For one, the settings are both the same: San Francisco. The music for both was done by Lalo Schifrin, who has done a ridiculous amount of movie soundtracks, including, but not limited to, THX 1138, Enter the Dragon, The Amityville Horror, the Mission: Impossible trilogy, the Rush Hour movies, After the Sunset, and the theme song for the second "Splinter Cell" video game. They also feature characters whose reputations seem to precede them, not all of the time in a positive way.

Both of these films feature main characters who are not completely satisfied with their lives, as Callahan demonstrates near the beginning when he dolefully stops about four bank robbers while chewing the only bite of his hot dog he got before shots were fired (this is the scene where he spews the famous line about "I know what you're thinking: did he fire six shots or only five...?"). And throughout the movie, various characters make brief references to Callahan's wife, only to immediately correct themselves with, "Oh...sorry Harry."

The opening shot of Harry features the San Fransisco Police Department's memorial wall, listing the men who've fallen on duty, suggesting that being a cop isn't all what it's cracked up to be in the movies (which is odd because at one point during the movie, Callahan jumps on top of a moving school bus).

In terms of reputation, which I mentioned earlier, Callahan gets the nickname Dirty Harry, as revealed after he tricks a jumper into attacking him by insulting him, because he's called whenever someone's dirty work needs doing. As his partner says it, "He's always given the shit end of the stick."

The main plot of the film is that there's a rooftop sniper loose in S.F. and he's randomly shooting one person a day, until he gets a ransom of $100,000 dollars. Pretty meager by today's standards, of course, but that was, what, 35 years ago? Things go haywire when a stakeout leaves the sniper, who calls himself Scorpio (and we never learn his real name), very aware that the cops are onto him. So, he takes a hostage and demands more money.

The major plot piece occurs near the middle of the movie, where Scorpio has Callahan running around the dirty San Francisco nightlife with $200,000 in cash in a yellow suitcase.

And while we're on the subject, one of the major characters in this movie is the city of San Francisco. Filmed merely three years after Bullitt, this San Fran is much grittier and scummier, and the fact that Callahan get stopped by mugger and perverts on his frantic trip around the city proves this point.

When Callahan delivers the money, Scorpio reveals that he's going to kill the girl anyways, and runs off. Long story short, he catches Scorpio and arrests him.

In any normal movie, this would be where the resolution would hit. By arresting Scorpio, the location of the girl would be revealed, and she would be returned to her parents with only minor psychological damage. Hell, it happened in Silence of the Lambs, and that movie was way more messed up.

But you'd be wrong to think all of that. This is a different kind of movie. The girl is found, dead, and Scorpio's arrest doesn't stick because Callahan broke into his house without a warrant, rendering the rifle Scorpio used to kill two people inadmissible as evidence. Also, Callahan shot Scorpio in the leg to stop him from running, and then stepped on his gunshot wound to force him to reveal the location of the girl. Ah, well, that's law for you. Ask everyone's favorite deaf criminal justice/law student/i don't remember exactly what it's called-type girl Brooke.

The climax actually occurs after Scorpio strikes again, having been released back on the streets due to Callahan's altruistic, if legally flawed, law enforcement techniques. He hijacks a bus full of schoolchildren and now demands the money and a jet waiting for him at the airport.

After all this excitement, running around San Fran, jumping onto a moving school bus, and so on, Callahan shows he doesn't quite dig it all. As he tells the wife of his wounded partner, "I don't know why [I'm still here]..I really don't." One of the last shots of the movie has Callahan ripping the badge out of his wallet and hurling it into the water of the big climatic set piece.

And if Dirty Harry didn't spawn four sequels, this would have been a grander gesture to remember.

This is a great movie, and certainly a classic. It has very memorable moments and very memorable lines. The performances, especially Clint Eastwood's, are really great. It's major flaw, however, is that its ideology seems to contradict itself. Its opening shot and its closing shot seem to convey the fact that being a cop isn't a glamorous job, and it makes you consider your self-worth. But a lot of it in between, especially the bus sequence, seem to convey the opposite notion. Rooftop shoot-outs don't normally occur on the job, especially right after seeing, with binoculars, a naked girl, with two other girls starting to strip, through their apartment window, which happens to be open in the middle of the night.

This is definitely a renter, but it's a buyer for die-hard fans.