Let’s face it, the Dirty Harry movies are not exactly “great” movies. The appeal here is the character. I mean, why else would Dirty Harry be #17 on the AFI’s Top 100 Heroes & Villains list and yet not a single one of the films makes their list of the Top 100 American Films? This is a film series that did two things:
- Created an iconic character
- Introduced the world to the “rogue cop” genre
Everything you need to know about the Dirty Harry franchise is realized at the opening of the first film. Detective Harry Callahan sits down to have a hot dog and notices a bank is about to be robbed. He has the restaurant owner call the police and says, “Now, if they’ll just wait for the cavalry to arrive.” They don’t wait and Harry is forced to abandon his hot dog and heads into action as a city block is destroyed and the baddies are left for dead. We are given the classic line even those that haven’t seen the film even know … this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful hand gun in the world … I won’t repeat the whole thing.
More important than all of this, however, is Clint Eastwood’s stroll and swagger as he goes about his business. Eastwood plays Harry as cool and confident. Sure, he’s a renegade cop, but you like him. You understand him. You feel for him. Dirty Harry creates a character in Harry that is far more complex than just about every copycat character you will ever see. However, much of what made him so unique in the first film was ultimately lost in the sequels.
In Dirty Harry, Harry is a cop that is questioning his lot in life. He’s a loner and he doesn’t seem to particularly enjoy anything more than taking down the bad guys. At the end of the film he tosses his badge into the water and we believe that may be the end of the line for the cop that does things his way. However, that wasn’t the case.
Returning in 1973 we get a different Harry Callahan in Magnum Force, he teams up with Tyne Daly in 1976 with The Enforcer, takes on a bunch of crazies in 1983’s Sudden Impact and then in 1988 he takes on Hollywood itself in The Dead Pool.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some good films in here, but as far as the character that was created in Dirty Harry, that guy is lost in the sequels. For example, I never would have dreamed Harry would even date a woman we have Harry getting hit on in his apartment building as a young woman asks, “What does a girl have to do to go to bed with you?” Smiling, Harry says, “You could try knocking on the door.” It’s a great scene (especially once explained why it was done like this), but it makes me believe that between tossing his badge into the drink and getting hit on, Harry must have had his colon cleansed or something major because the carrot that was wedged up his ass was promptly removed and a different man is now on the streets. He’s still a mean S.O.B., but it is not the same man. [ … ]
