The original Dirty Harry came out in 1971 and features Clint Eastwood as inspector Harry Callahan. Early in the film Callahan is assigned a new partner Chico Gonzalez, played by Reni Santoni and the two continuously have exchanges throughout the film as to why his nickname is "Dirty Harry." Essentially it all boils down to that Callahan is a badass that plays by his own rules to get the job done, no matter what side of the law it falls on.
On my last Eastwood blog covering Kelly's Heroes, I kept comparing that film to my favorite crime drama series, The Shield, and I will do the same here for Dirty Harry. I can easily see how the Harry Callahan character is the inspiration for Michael Chiklis's Vic Mackey character on The Shield. Callahan is not afraid to bend the law and rough up suspects to get the intel he desires as well as uttering a few stereotypical awesome one liners along the way. Vic Mackey is the exact same way, except a little more modernized and believable with slightly less hokey one-liners, and has a bit more of a sinister side to him. I have no idea if Callahan's character goes down that path in the later Dirty Harry films, but they certainly lay down the foundation for it with this film.
It was great to finally see some of the classic scenes this film is notorious for. I am of course referring to the "Do you feel lucky" quote early on in the movie where Callahan breaks up a bank robbery in the midst of eating a hot dog. Even after 40 years, that scene holds up and Eastwood pulls it off to perfection. There are also several other classic one-liner delivered throughout, but I do not want to give them all away in case you have yet to see this.
Chico and Harry spend the film chasing down the dreaded "Scorpio Killer" played by Andrew Robinson. This androgynous looking fellow is the perfect foil for these two as he is absolutely bonkers and I loved watching the wild goose chase he sends Callahan on tracking him down in his latest crimes throughout the film. When watching the behind-the-scenes feature for this afterwards, Robinson was not so sure about why he was chosen to be the antagonist until the director told him he wanted someone with the face of a choir boy.
Another thing I got out of watching the extras was that Dirty Harry was the launch pad of Clint Eastwood into Hollywood superstardom. With this film being packed with intriguing characters and well delivered one-liners and all over the place action, I can see why it became a successful vehicle for the career of Eastwood. I do not think I will track down the rest of the Eastwood films as the extras probably spoiled me a little too much and were packed with plenty of clips from the other Dirty Harry movies, but much like the other films I have covered in this collection, this one is a definite must see. It is not available on Netflix streaming, but they do have the disc on hand, or if you want to follow along with me, here is a Amazon link to the collection I am watching off of.
Past Eastwood Collection Blogs
Kelly's Heroes
Where Eagles Dare
Gran Torino
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