Eric’s Guide To Watching The ‘Dirty Harry’ Series
3.) The Enforcer
After “Magnum Force” Clint Eastwood came back for the last time (or so he thought) as Harry Callahan in “The Enforcer.” The storyline is about some hippies (The People’s Revolutionary Strike Force) who are terrorizing the city of San Francisco. Like how “Magnum Force” was a reaction to the film before it, this film swings back to the crazy liberal villains of the first film. Also, in keeping with villains based on real life ones of the time, they’re clearly based on the Symbionese Liberation Army (the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst). Harry gets his third partner in the series, a female rookie cop. Together they hunt these hippies down. Normally when this film is described it’s referred to as the film where Callahan must overcome his prejudices against the idea of a female cop. However, I never saw it that way. The scene where he grills Tyne Daly’s character never came off as a dislike for women, just the idea of promoting women to inspectors to fill a PC quota. Again, like the speech in the first film, it feels like a lot of people misunderstand that scene. This is a weaker film than the last two. My main problem is the humor. All the “Dirty Harry” films have humor, but most of the time it’s very subtle. In this film there’s just a wee bit too much joking around. I’ll grant you that some of it is legitimately funny (like the scene with Harry sneaking into the sex place) but I still prefer my “Dirty Harry” films to be dark. The film is a little slow in places and unlike in the other films, the villain in this film isn’t given enough screen time to make much of an impression. I think they were trying to go for a strong silent type, but Harry is also a quiet type so it tends to work better when he’s facing off against a loud obviously insane type. It worked in “Magnum Force” by portraying the villain cops as almost inhuman soldiers and the real villain was someone you actually kind of liked before the twist was revealed.
Now the film does have its highlights. The end shoot out on Alcatraz is one of the most thrilling of the series. Also I know I said this film is jokier than the others, but it does have one of the more bleak endings. This also contains my favorite police boss in the series, maybe of the whole genre. Capt. McKay is almost like the anti-Eastwood in just how uncool and officious he is. The more he tries to sound tough against Harry the more he shows what a little worm he is. In other terms he’s the petty official we love watching get egg on his face. There’s just everything about this guy from his face to his voice that you just want to see Harry prove him wrong. That’s always the purpose of these characters in these types of stories and he is the perfect embodiment. It’s funny, in the broad strokes I agree with his stances, but he’s a straw man so when he and Callahan get into a debate he can never respond to Harry’s points because (of course) in the world of the movie Harry is always right. No wonder they brought him back in the next one… kinda. Also, Daly’s character’s progression from figure of fun to legitimate tough cop is natural and believable. I also really like that she and Harry never form a romance. As far as that part of the film goes, the fact she’s female and he’s male has nothing to do with anything. We even get to see Harry use his biggest gun yet, a rocket launcher!
Eric’s Advice: While it is a great deal sillier than the others at this point I have to admit that it is still an enjoyable film.
4.) Sudden Impact
After Sean Connery came back to play James Bond in “Never Say Never Again,” Warner Bros. performed a survey to see what actor should return to a classic role. The vote was unanimous for Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. “The Enforcer” came out in 1976 and this new film, “Sudden Impact,” didn’t get made until 1983. 7 years later Clint’s hair had already turned grey and he had gotten fairly wrinkly, but he was still just as badass as before. The plot concerns a female painter who was gang raped a few years back and now is slowly killing off each of the rapists one by one. Dirty Harry has recently caused an old crime boss to have a heart attack and spends a majority of the movie fending off hits against him. After awhile he’s sent to the same small town where the other story is taking place to keep him out of trouble. As you can tell from the storyline, this is one of the darkest films in the series and has a lot more in terms of great character development. It’s the only time we get something substantial as to how Harry’s mind works. It’s also the only film where there is something of a romance between Harry and the female lead, but it works because we know it can’t last. The two are way too messed up to live happily ever after. Of course this film has the great line, “Go ahead, make my day,” which send shivers up my spine every time I hear it. The finale in the carnival is one of my favorite scenes in the whole series. As Harry blows away all of the bad-guys he’s more like a villain in a slasher film that can’t be stopped.
My only complaint is that the story in the middle begins to get a little confusing, but not to the point that you can’t understand what’s happening. We have a return of the actor who played Capt. McKay from the last film. But for some reason he’s either playing a different character or they decided to change his name to Briggs. Which is weird as Capt. Briggs was the name of the Hal Holbrook’s character in “Magnum Force.” And if you’ve seen that film you know it can’t be the same character. Either way it’s cool to see McKay back even though he and Callahan only have a few great debates like before. In his place we have the police chief of the small town played by Pat Hingle. This is one movie I’d suggest to everyone who says he was a terrible choice for Commissioner Gordon in the original “Batman” series. This and “Hang ‘Em High” shows if he had been given the same level of material as Gary Oldman got in the Nolan films then it would probably be a very close race for best Gordon. Another complaint is that Harry is using some weird-looking pistol instead of his .44 magnum. I guess they wanted to create a new gun for people to go out and buy, but instead all it does is make you wish he had his .44 back. This does have some humor. Although it’s sprinkled in just enough to be effective, but not take away from the darkness of the story.
Eric’s Advice: Definitely the best sequel that comes to closest to matching the original.
5.) The Dead Pool
The last film, “The Dead Pool,” is considered by most to be the worst in the series. Frank Miller said he was so disgusted with it that he wrote the Hartigan (“That Yellow Bastard”) section of “Sin City” to be what he considered the true final “Dirty Harry” story. Although given what Frank Miller has become in recent years with his own writing, this criticism is easy to dismiss. The storyline is that Hollywood has a game called the dead pool (yes THAT comic book character is based on this) where you make a list of celebrities that you think will die soon. After a horror film director’s list is found containing Harry’s name and a recent dead rock star (played by a young Jim Carrey), he gets suspicious. Harry gets even more suspicious when other celebrities on the list start getting killed. The film as a whole returns to “The Enforcer” jokey style. It’s definitely the silliest of the series. Harry’s first appearance is getting his car shot up and flipped over like something out of “Robocop” by gang members, but somehow surviving and quickly killing them all. An early indication of the tone of the film. Many think that Clint Eastwood was too old in this film even though it was made only a few years after “Sudden Impact.” Fun fact in this film, Clint is as old as the character was originally supposed to be in “Dirty Harry.”
Despite the lightness of this film, it does contain one of the more disturbing scenes where the killer brutally attacks a female critic (modeled off of critic Pauline Kael who gave many of the films bad reviews) in her home and it can be a little hard to watch. Harry’s new partner is pretty annoying with all of his bad jokes. So it’s a bit disappointing that he’s one of the few partners to survive. Harry also gets involved with a news reporter (Patricia Clarkson) who was interesting, but I always feel Harry is too messed up of an individual to date. Also, his catchphrase isn’t that good this time around (“Your shit out of luck”). Although at least this film attempted one versus “The Enforcer” which had NO catchphrase. I can see why most don’t like this film, but I still think it’s pretty good. The storyline is original, and even later inspired other things like The Grey Ghost episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.” My complaint about the story is it has a golden chance to evaluate itself. The central question of does the violence we watch affect us isn’t really explored. I know everyone has different views on it, but as a series that is often criticized by some for glorifying violence, it seems like it could have been a great opportunity to make the themes in this film really interesting. Liam Neeson is good as the cranky film director and fun to see someone taller than Eastwood in the frame, but only slightly. The final fight feels a bit on auto-pilot. You wouldn’t realize this is a final film in a series. I supposed they figured they’d eventually make another “Dirty Harry” film, but they never did so there’s no real ending for the series. Unless you want to count “Gran Torino” as a thematic end to that kind of character for Eastwood.
Eric’s Advice: While it is the least good film in the series it’s still a decent action flick though you can’t help but feel like the series could have ended better.
