An officer named Harry Callahan is appointed to find a solution to the highly controversial case involving a madman named Scorpio Keller. Harry is set to stop the girl's abduction before being killed by this serial killer. When Harry is arrested, Harry abuses the rights of the civilian killer and decides to release him. But the killing did not stop, as he seized a school bus and Harry must follow him again to stop him. In that case, Harry only needs to use violence and kill this madman.
No less than Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it offers a fabulous, multifarious political metaphor. (And, as with Body Snatchers, Siegel's own liberal interpretation was trumped by a more forceful hard-right reading.
Three Movie Buffs
June 20, 2010
An iconic performance by Clint Eastwood creates a cinematic immortal.
A significant film ideologically, this right-wing revenge crimer catapulted Clint Eastwood to major stardom and launched a whole cycle of films about taking the law into your hands.
What makes Dirty Harry worth watching no matter how dumb the story, is Siegel's superb sense of the city, not as a place of moods but as a theater for action.
If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news.
Siegel makes excellent use of San Francisco locations, even if Harry makes a few implausible leaps across town from time to time. The Kezar Stadium showdown in particular is a keeper.
Clint Eastwood, in the title role, is a superhero whose antics become almost satire. Strip away the philosophical garbage and all that's left is a well-made but shallow running-and-jumping meller.
