There's a psycho killer on the loose and Harry Callahan is determined to find him.
The sixties were a troubled time in America, with race riots, hippies, drugs, and new words like civil rights. The country had swung way to the left but it was time for the pendulum to swing back. Dirty Harry was on the leading edge of the pendulum.
Clint Eastwood was an actor little regarded in America, except for his old TV role in Rawhide and a handful of "spaghetti westerns," churned out by the Italian studios. Dirty Harry changed all that, catapulting him to fame and fortune and a long string of hits during the seventies through the present. With his laconic, tight-jawed style and steely-eyed presence, Clint Eastwood had everything it took to make a riveting performance as a cop out for revenge.
The plot is simple: A serial killer by the name of "Scorpio" is killing young girls and sending ransom notes to the City. Harry is a tough San Francisco detective with a fine contempt for the rules that always seem to be on the criminals' side. Come to think of it, Harry's supervisors also seem to be on the side of the crooks, too. So Harry has to play by his own rules. Like when the nerdy Mayor asks him how he knew a perp intended to commit rape, Harry tells him, "When I see a naked man chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-*n, I don't think he's collecting for the Red Cross."
Andy Robinson is spot-on as the Scorpio Killer. He combines a weasly appearance, a peace symbol, his knowledge of his civil rights, and serial murder to guarantee to enrage Detective Callahan. There is something in Sorpio's character that is easy to hate and to portray that takes talent, maybe it's his squeaky whiny voice. During the course of the film, Scorpio kills several girls and tries to kill a busload of kids at the end.
Eastwood is at his best in Dirty Harry. The opening scene where Harry is eating lunch and witnesses a robbery is priceless, and only one of many memorable scenes. Harry shoots the robbers with considerable style, all the time chewing on his hotdog. He finishes just in time for his immortal soliloquy, which ends, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Director Don Siegel, who earlier made the great Hell is for Heroes, made a stylish thriller out of Dirty Harry, combining deft camera work and editing with great action. The modern jazz score by Lalo Schifrin drives the action along.
The final scene is a homage to High Noon, where Harry, having done what he had to do, throws away his badge in disgust. (He would pick it up again later in time to film four sequels, none of which reach the level of the original, however!) :>
For fans of Dirty Harry I would also recommend the sequels -
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