Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dirty Harry

I actually don't remember if I have ever watched the original Dirty Harry in its entirety.  If I did, it was decades ago and I wouldn't have remembered a bit of it anyway.  I watched it last night.  I'm trying to recall why I was spurred to watch the movie, and I think it was a big tangent I was on in Wikipedia yesterday.  I somehow ended up on Clint Eastwood's filmography.

This movie was released in 1971, so I was expecting one thing when I started watching it:  to be bored.  This was a different time and a different mentality when it came to movies.  Back then, they would start very slow and the action would build up.  These days, filmmakers correctly assume that their audience wants to be entertained as soon as the title fades out.  Instant gratification.  Now, now, now.

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie did not start out slow.  But what was also quite intriguing is that it also didn't start out with a slam-bang action sequence like you would see in a James Bond film.  It started with a sniper on a rooftop shooting a swimming girl in the neck, followed by the police investigating the aftermath.  No chase scene.  No shootout.  No crazy stunts or explosions.  But, I was interested.  I was entertained.  The point I'm making here is that it was good film making, and it was done without crazy special effects or tricks.  Yes, I'm making a jab at today's movies.  Some of them could learn something from this film.

Moving on, let's go over my least favorite and most favorite parts of the film.

As for least favorite, not much to say here.  There are a few things that are dated, so I cannot complain too much since it is a 1971 film.  The only thing I will mention is how Harry reacted to Scorpio going free.  I'm sure any police officer, especially one with the number of years of experience that Harry clearly has, would know what would happen if he would arrest, torture, and gather evidence from Scorpio without a search warrant to enter the premises.  The fact that he was surprised at the District Attorney's decision made him look a little bit thick.  But I suppose, in 1971 the general public didn't really know all that much about police procedures.  Movies and television weren't as "smart" then as they are now (I use that term loosely).  But still, I didn't like that.  That's really the ONLY negative thing I have to say about the film.

Now for the positives.  The story was a simple one, but excellent.  Basically, there's a serial killer in San Francisco, and he's toying with the police.  Harry goes after him, breaking rules as he does so.  In the climax, Harry solves the case in his own way, renouncing his badge at the end of it all.  You're left with a tremendous amount of respect for the guy.  He did things the way any one of us would have wanted to do it, which is naturally not the "RIGHT" way to do it.  Harry is a man disillusioned with the "system", evidenced by his line late in the movie:

District Attorney:  "It's the law."

Harry:  "Well, then the law is crazy."

I really like Harry's character.  He's cynical and rough, which is just the way I like my heroes.  He's the kind of guy who really doesn't want to do what he's doing, but he knows he really has to do it because it's the right thing to do.  The bank robbery scene is probably my favorite part of the whole movie.

All in all, it's an excellent movie that I would recommend to anyone.

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