I’m sat resting my chin on my hand as I stare blankly out the window, all while wondering how to start this review. I feel lost for words. Perhaps it’s the odd mood I’ve been in this past week, but the first film in the Dirty Harry series has really knocked the wind out of me. That was surely its creators’ original intention, of course, but the film has never truly overwhelmed me like it did today.
I believe the last time I watched Dirty Harry was on a VHS copy, most likely in pan-and-scan format, so this viewing was much different. I am also much, much, much older and world-weary now, which lent a new aspect to the experience.
The 1970s were, so it seems from the outside, the grotesque hangover from the 1960s. All the dreams and ideals of peace and love and understanding, formed by post-war counterculture hippies, began to tire after the “Summer of Love”. The following grip of conservatism meant public services went by the wayside, and those hoping for a communal utopia, where everybody chipped in to help their fellow man, realised that nobody had followed them on their defiant march out the door. The 70s will forever be thought of as the decade that taste and style forgot. Its fashions were as ugly as the mass depression pulling everybody down. When I was a child in the 80s, the previous decade looked just awful. And now, in the 2020s, it still looks awful. I think there was a brief period in the early 2000s where “social influencers’ (nee assholes) attempted to mount a style comeback, but they failed.
Nobody wanted, does want, or will ever want, the 70s back again.
On the understanding that I was a teenager when I last saw Dirty Harry, it’s interesting how a person’s perception of events onscreen can change so much. While I was certainly put off by the period on display, I wasn’t terribly moved by any of the goings on. I think I just lamented at how stale some of the filmmaking appeared. After a brief search, I believe there has yet to be a remake of Dirty Harry, but teenage me would have loved one. After middle-aged me watched the original this afternoon, he found himself in tears over the tremendous sense of loss deep within the heart of Dirty Harry.
You don’t cheer at the end of this film, instead you just look away and sombrely consider how society can sometimes let itself down. Good things happen all the time, of course, but those usually don’t get reported. Crooks are caught, fires put out, and hearts are transplanted, but who could ever personally profit from making headlines out of that?! Dirty Harry captures a lifetime of reading the news and hearing only the negative side of life. It reaches into you and squeezes your heart, stifling your very lifeblood, until you can no longer take it.
Then the film’s villain dies, and the small child, who’s head just had a gun put to it, simply runs off to the side.
It’s over, but there is no parade for Harry Callahan. He is aware that, no matter how hard and far he throws his police badge, things will just repeat themselves tomorrow.
I wasn’t sure whether the film’s opening epigraph regarding brave police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty was hypocritical or not. Would real life police officers enjoy this film? Or would they simply shake their heads at its implausibility? Police officers in the 70s would no doubt have had a much different career experience to those of 2025, but I just have this funny feeling the 70s ones would not approve. I certainly doubt the mayor of a city would get so involved in a police operation as they do in Dirty Harry, who is portrayed more as a wealthy businessman than a public servant. What on Earth could a bureaucrat have to say on the matters of violent crime?!
Dirty Harry’s villain, named “Scorpio”, is fairly closely based on a real life serial killer, known only as “Zodiac”. Can you see what they did there?! While the latter is potentially still at large, or most-likely dead of natural causes, Scorpio gets his comeuppance. Yes, I shan’t be refraining form spoilers for this 54-year-old movie. Golly, where does all the time go?! But, being mostly a work of fiction for entertainment purposes, the audience deserves this conclusion after all they’ve gone through. You see, real life doesn’t always tie itself up nicely at the end, so here we get to live out that fantasy.
Scorpio is played by Andrew Robinson, who I’ve only seen elsewhere in the first Hellraiser film. I remember him being much more likeable in that. In Dirty Harry, however, he has been directed to be truly irritating. I say “directed to”, because I can’t believe any actor in their right mind would make the decisions that led to what we get here. I couldn’t always work out whether Robinson’s performance made his character unlikeable or the actor himself. I was also confused about the man’s hair colour, as, even though it appeared reddish to my deteriorating eyes, he is at one point described as being “blond”.
Hmmm…
Maybe they shot the “blond” scene before they cast Robinson. Or I have literally gone colourblind, which I genuinely suspect I have.
I truly feel for Robinson in a way, as I can imagine he was unable get laid for quite awhile after this movie came out. I would assume the same about many screen villains out there. Unless they’re lucky enough to partner up with a mate who prefers the bad boy/girl type. Who knows, it’s just something that crossed my mind.
Dirty Harry was made just a couple of years after the rise of the civil rights movement, where racism and homophobia were, apparently, behind us. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but that was the late-60s for you! There are some hints at those changing times in the film, such as The Mayor sighing at the use of the “n-word” in a ransom note; Callahan mentioning that he can see “Just a couple of kids necking” outside and is met with the reply “Boys or girls?”; one of the first street scenes features a VW camper van passing buy, truly a symbol of hippiedom; and we get a transgender person, sadly threatened with arrest simply for existing, it seems. Basically, the “freaks” are out on the street, and it’s Callahan’s job to clean them up!
Speaking of Clint Eastwood, his look is pretty awful in this movie, which is yet another sign of the times. I usually prefer an offbeat appearance to my heroes, but his naff sideburns and college professor suit are not flattering at all. Shame, is it could have worked. All the best Samuel L Jackson roles are those where he’s playing an unfashionable outcast. Witness him in Jurassic Park or Pulp Fiction or Die Hard with a Vengeance or The Long Kiss Goodnight. When a production dresses Jackson up in jeans and a leather jacket and shades, then you know they don’t “get it”.
The grimy style of the 70s is further depicted in the film’s musical score, filled with sleazy jazz fusion at its most embarrasing. You will want to take a shower after Dirty Harry. But composer Lalo “Mission: Impossible” Shifrin (who’s name I’ve been misspelling and mispronouncing for decades as “Sharifin”) does have his moments. In particular, the fuzz bass riff that accompanies Scorpio assembles his rifle early on made me exclaim: “Hell, yeah!”. So there are pleasing leitmotifs like that to be found amongst the cheesy porn cues. Urgh, remember all the hair in pornography back then?! Thank goodness we agreed to stop all that with waxing by the 90s, although it is making a comeback, tragically.
Finally seeing this on high definition widescreen was a treat, as there are some beautiful shots throughout. I was genuinely surprised to see them, as my previous viewing experience completely missed them. I don’t know how hands-on director Don Siegel was with his camera, or whether his cameraman, Bruce Surtees, was the one going around getting “money shots” of San Francisco. I am currently assuming the latter is the reality. I will post some of my own screenshots after the end of this review.
Yes, I was that impressed.
Reni Santoni is a standout as Callahan’s brief partner, so it’s a shame he’s ultimately cast to one side. I would actually have liked to have seen a “The Adventures of Chico” spinoff. Perhaps someday I will. Perhaps. John Vernon as “The Mayor” is uncharacteristically charming, playing a character with a very difficult job indeed. As mentioned above, whether or not that job is based on the real duties of a mayor, I do not know. There are also a stable of great (and not so great) character actors sprinkled throughout, who ably support the leads, but the film moves much too fast for you to really notice them.
And that’s another thing. Despite its age and fairly static shooting style, Dirty Harry races along like a motherfucker! It wouldn’t surprise me if a minute-by-minute film analysis podcast has already covered it, as so much visual information is presented to the audience. So much detail. So much emotion. While there was definitely a moment in my viewing, as with all viewings, where I felt like pressing stop and taking a long break, with Dirty Harry I daren’t, as I knew something weird or wild or devilishly obscene was just around the corner.
Again, not something I appreciated three decades ago.
Not just the bleak tone, but the film’s violence is also upsetting, without being overly graphic. Callahan torturing Scorpio in the sports arena features Clint merely putting his foot onto Robinson’s “wounded” leg as the camera zooms out, but my goodness do you feel Scorpio’s pain! The shootouts are realistically clumsy and chaotic too, rather than elegant and overly-choreographed. And let us not forget the twisted scene where Scorpio pays a man to beat him up. Every punch connects with the viewer in the most brutal of ways. I don’t know whether this copy is a remastered version, or that the sound design is all original, but it really does have a powerful impact!
I’m going to go ahead and assume that a modern remake would omit any bloodletting in order to get a UK 15 or US PG-13 rating.
That’s progress for you!
So, there we have it. I don’t need to recommend Dirty Harry to anyone, as it’s a much-deserved “classic” that surely adorns the bookshelves of anyone interested in the history of cinema. Despite its one-many-again’t-the-system reputation, it is, at heart, a simple serial killer suspense thriller. And one of the best. It’s gripping, traumatic, and hurtles by extraordinarily. I bought the complete film series boxset, so I shall be watching and reviewing Magnum Force soon enough. This will be my “Friday the 13th of 2025” long-running blog series. Possibly along with the Rock films.
We shall see…
Do stay in touch, punks.
Toodles!
No comments:
Post a Comment