Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Personnel? That's for @$$h01e$! Harry Callahan
Clint Eastwood reprises his role as Dirty Harry Callahan in this the third of five movies based on the detective created by Harry Julian Fink.
After Harry delivers a vehicle to barricaded thugs with hostages, with typically disastrous results for the thugs and political fallout for Harry, he is relegated to Personnel to help interview patrol officers on the list to make inspector. He is told up front that of the eight openings three will be filled by women in line with the mayor’s enlightened policy. The mayor’s spy tells Harry part of the mayor’s long-term plan for the city is to “winnow out the Neanderthals from the police department.”
Now, in my opinion, this angle would have enough meat in it to make an entire movie, but it is just used as a throw-away plot device to introduce the character of Kate Moore (Tyne Daly) who (surprise!) just happens to become Harry’s new partner. Now that I’ve described the best part of the movie let’s proceed to the down side of things.
The rest of the story is established in a short interlude before the credits where a gang of vicious terrorists (surprise!) use a cute young thing in cut-offs to entice a couple gas company men to their deaths, just so they can steal their truck. The first question that entered my mind is “Where are all these terrorists coming from and why do they always end up in San Francisco?” Hmmm… first Scorpio, and now this new gang of terrorists whose goals are never really explained. The rest of the movie follows the antics of Inspectors Callahan and Moore as they try to track down the terrorists, while the City is busy keeping their hands tied behind their backs. The mayor is another liberal twit like in the original movie and Bradford Dillman (the police captain) has his nose so far up the mayor’s posterior that it is nauseating to watch. Harry Guardino (Lt. Bressler) is Callahan’s immediate supervisor and does a good job but the role is basically a throwaway.
The surprise good performance is from Tyne Daly who proves remarkably sympathetic dealing with a partner like Harry. Eastwood’s performance is more like a man needing Ex-Lax than a gritty detective. His lines are almost all spoken in a low hiss with tight lips, the picture of self-righteousness and quite repelling to be frank. The terrorists? Strictly B-Grade performances and you will never want to see any one of the actors in a movie again. Hippie dippie headbands and power to the people slogans - absolute dreck. I normally love violent performances in film but these were below cartoonish, they were utterly ridiculous. The only worse bang for your buck would be the Clint Eastwood/Sondra Locke collaborations.
Direction by James Fargo is bland and lacks impact. The original Dirty Harry, while it had a far-out plot, was directed by action specialist Don Siegel and the difference is evident to fans who have seen both films. This, too, was where Clint Eastwood was getting into his own production and I believe most of the films made by Malpaso have been inferior to his earlier work.
Jerry Fielding’s score is typically right on the money, but nothing can really save this film from mediocrity. Two stars – watch Dirty Harry instead, unless you are a BIG Tyne Daly fan.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.