| Plot Synopsis |
by Lucia Bozzola |
"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood, in a role meant for Frank Sinatra) is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When hippie-esque psycho Scorpio (Andy Robinson) goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico (Reni Santoni) are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," opines Harry in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again. Directed in violent and efficient fashion by Don Siegel, with a propulsive score by Lalo Schifrin, Dirty Harry was the fourth Siegel-Eastwood collaboration after Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), and The Beguiled (1970). Critics at the time strongly objected to the heroic image of a cop's violations of a suspect's Miranda rights, forcing Siegel and Eastwood to deny that they were right-wing reactionaries. All the same, Dirty Harry proved to be highly popular and spawned four sequels: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). |
| Similar Works |
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Bullitt
(1968, Peter Yates)
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10 to Midnight
(1983, J. Lee Thompson)
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The Big Heat
(1953, Fritz Lang)
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Bad Cop Chronicles #1: Confessions of a Police Captain
(1971, Damiano Damiani)
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Cop
(1987, James B. Harris)
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Madigan
(1968, Don Siegel)
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The Organization
(1971, Don Medford)
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Sharky's Machine
(1981, Burt Reynolds)
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Walking Tall
(1973, Phil Karlson)
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Violent Cop
(1989, Beat Takeshi Kitano)
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| Other Related Works |
| Is followed by: |
Magnum Force
(1973, Ted Post)
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| Is featured in: |
Zodiac
(2007, David Fincher)
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| Is related to: |
Escape from Alcatraz
(1979, Don Siegel)
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In the Line of Fire
(1993, Wolfgang Petersen)
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The Laughing Policeman
(1973, Stuart Rosenberg)
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Two Mules for Sister Sara
(1970, Don Siegel)
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Coogan's Bluff
(1968, Don Siegel)
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Tightrope
(1984, Richard Tuggle)
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| Is part of the series: |
Dirty Harry [Film Series]
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| Influenced: |
Public Enemy
(2002, Woo-Suk Kang, Kang Woo-seok)
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| Is spoofed in: |
Mad Mission 2
(1983, Eric Tsang)
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