Dirty Harry (1971) – Film Review

Directors: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

I know what you’re thinking… here’s one of Clint Eastwood’s most popular films. It might also be his best.

As a huge fan of the iconic star, I’ve probably spent far too much of my life trying to decide which of his movies is my favourite. Sometimes it’s Play Misty For Me, sometimes it’s The Outlaw Josey Wales, but more often than not, I settle on Dirty Harry.

Why? Well, it feels as if everything came together at the right moment to create an incredible project. It was the fourth of five films Eastwood starred in that were directed by his mentor, Don Siegel, who often got the very best out of him, it has a taut screenplay by Harry Julian Fink, RM Fink and Dean Reisner, stunning photography from Bruce Surtees and arguably career-best performances from Andy Robinson as the villain of the piece and Eastwood himself.

Incredibly, the plot was inspired by the crimes committed by the Zodiac Killer, who was still on the loose at the time. You can’t imagine that happening today.

“Unorthodox methods”

If you’re one of what must only be a handful of people who haven’t seen Dirty Harry in the 54 years since it was first released, it introduces audiences to San Francisco detective Harry Callahan, an uncompromising cop who will stop at nothing to see justice is done; his nickname comes from the fact that any ‘dirty’ cases his colleagues refuse to take are assigned to him.

His approach to his work has made him a few enemies among his colleagues and the authorities, but it also makes him the ideal person to hunt down Scorpio, a crazed serial killer holding the city to ransom – if the mayor doesn’t meet his demands, Scorpio promises he will murder again.

As several of the talking heads who appear in the special features point out, without Dirty Harry, it’s unlikely that many of the hit action thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s would have been made – it broke the mould of crime thrillers, then rebuilt it completely.

Eastwood dominates the screen throughout; we’re rooting for him, despite his rather, shall we say, unorthodox methods – if you’re not cringing when he stands on Scorpio’s injured leg in order to get crucial information out of him, you’re clearly not human.

“Looks incredible”

Eastwood’s performance is so strong that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing Callahan, even though he wasn’t first choice for the role – it was originally announced that Frank Sinatra, of all people, would play it, with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen and Burt Lancaster also rumoured to have turned it down.

For its eventual leading man, it was a game changer. Although his career was already on the up, it turned him into the superstar we know and love today.

I’ve often wondered about the merits of 4K UHD restorations of older movies, whether they really benefit all that much. However, it’s certainly been worthwhile for Dirty Harry; it looks incredible with an astonishing depth of colour you simply don’t get watching it in another format.

And if that isn’t enough to persuade you to part with your hard-earned cash, then the special features should be – you’ll pretty much need to put aside an entire 24 hours to watch them all alongside the film itself. It really will make your day.

Sarah Morgan

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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