Dirty Harry (film series)
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Dirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department detective 'Dirty' Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood's character also helped popularize the .44 Magnum, as Harry Callahan is famously shown wielding his Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver.
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[edit] Dirty Harry films
[edit] Dirty Harry (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971), directed by Don Siegel. In this film Harry is tracking Scorpio, a serial killer. Eastwood's iconic portrayal of the blunt-speaking, unorthodox detective set the style for a number of his subsequent roles, and the box-office success of the film led to the production of four, just as successful sequels. The "alienated cop" motif was one subsequently imitated by a number of other films. This film features Eastwood intoning "You've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" (The line is often misquoted as "Do you feel lucky punk?")
This movie became iconic from other movies, especially the rest of the Dirty Harry films, because it was a portrayal of social protests, pointing out the fact that in many times criminals had more rights than victims and that the law was more keen on protecting potential suspects while ignoring citizens in danger or murdered.
[edit] Magnum Force (1973)
Magnum Force (1973), directed by Ted Post. The main theme of this film is vigilante justice, and the plot revolves around a group of renegade traffic cops who are executing criminals who have avoided conviction in court. By contrast, for all of Harry's strongarm methods, he does not tolerate coldblooded murder of the accused and resolves to stop the killers. Although a box-office success like its predecessor, the film was given a negative publicity due to the tone of violence[citation needed].
[edit] The Enforcer (1976)
The Enforcer (1976), directed by James Fargo. In this film, Harry is teamed up with a female partner (Tyne Daly), and takes on a terrorist ring, calling themselves The People's Revolutionary Strike Force. The film contains feminist themes and is generally considered more "politically correct" than its predecessors[citation needed] . While Harry initially mocks these themes, at first resisting the female partner, by the conclusion he is shown to have a greater understanding of these issues. A huge hit in its time but by some considered the weakest of the series[citation needed] .
[edit] Sudden Impact (1983)
Sudden Impact (1983), directed by Clint Eastwood. The film's plot revolves around an aging, but still bitter 'Dirty' Harry Callahan being sent to a small town to follow up a lead in a murder case, which leads him directly to a rape victim who is out to avenge herself and her catatonic sister by killing the people who sexually assaulted them. It is best known for the phrase "Go ahead, make my day." (which is often incorrectly attributed to the first film).
[edit] The Dead Pool (1988)
The Dead Pool (1988), directed by Buddy Van Horn. In the final film in the series, Harry finds out about a game called Dead Pool, in which people bet on which celebrity will die first. Eventually, someone tries to rig the game by killing certain celebrities. The film was not a full commercial success, and it remains the final entry in the series due to Eastwood's refusal to reprise the character, feeling his age would make Harry a parody[citation needed]. Ironically, Clint Eastwood's age in this film is close to the age Dirty Harry was supposed to be in the original movie.
[edit] Gran Torino (2008)
There have been considerations and rumors through years from Warner Bros. and Eastwood to do another Dirty Harry film, despite Eastwood's age and his personal protest against it. A slightly old rumor pointed out that Callahan would only return to full force to seek out a copycat killer of the infamous Scorpio killer years ago. Currently as of 2008, the studio is still inconclusive as if they are to make the film. However, in March of 2008, reports began surfacing on a new film directed by and starring Eastwood entitled Gran Torino that would officially be announced as the new and latest of the Dirty Harry installment [1]. The rumored plot is about a cop killer who murdered two rookie officers of which one of them turned out to be Dirty Harry's own grandson and makes it a personal agenda to hunt the killer of who gets away in a Ford Gran Torino and is the only lead about who the killer is. The only details released for this project are those concluding that Gran Torino is to feature the directional efforts and acting talents of Eastwood and that executives are searching for appropriate vehicles for the movie, rumored to be released sometime around December '08.
imdb.com has a very different plot synopsis for this film, where Clint plays a Korean War vet who owns a Gran Torino. See this link for details: [1]
On 20th May 2008, Clint Eastwood dimissed rumors of a new Dirty Harry movie. Stating that the rumors were, and have always been, just that, rumors[citation needed].
[edit] DVDs
Warner Home Video owns rights to the Dirty Harry series. The five films have been remastered for DVD three times: In 1998, 2001 and 2008 (for release June 3). They have been packaged in several DVD box sets. The Dirty Harry films make their high-definition debuts with the 2008 Blu-ray discs. Warner's marketing plan calls for only the "Dirty Harry" film to be available as a separate Blu-ray, requiring fans who want the other four movies in high definition to buy the $130 box set. [2]
[edit] The Dirty Harry Novel Series
Around the early 1980s, writer Dane Hartman wrote a total of twelve novels that further the adventures of Dirty Harry. Although not officially canon, it's speculated that the novels fill in the seven-year gap in time between The Enforcer to Sudden Impact. In the novels, Dirty Harry is portrayed more as an epic hero than he was in the films, although he remains somewhat of the self-centered person he was in the movies.
[edit] Duel for Cannons
(September 1981) "Dirty Harry" Callahan blasts his way from the mean streets of San Francisco to the blazing byways of San Antonio. His target- a crime boss who's got the whole town, including the cops, under his thumb. Harry's all alone now, with nothing but a .44 Magnum and a bagful of dirty tricks between him and instant death!
[edit] Death on the Docks
(September 1982) There are some guys in this world even dirtier than Harry Callahan. Like union czar Matt Braxton, the biggest deal on the docks. He's corrupt enough to be cozy with the Mob, rich enough to afford friends in the highest places, and ruthless enough to kill anything that stands in his way. Dirty Harry's standing there all right-and he doesn't intend to give an inch.
[edit] The Long Death
(December 1981) Someone is grabbing young women from the bars, campuses, and streets of San Francisco and doing unspeakable things to their minds and bodies. Someone is setting up cops against black nationalists in a violent inter-city war, playing both sides for bloody fools. Someone is looking for deadly trouble when a gorgeous policewoman baits "Dirty Harry" Callahan into a showdown that can only be settled with bare fists and Magnum lead!
[edit] The Mexico Kill
(March 1982) Not even losing his badge can keep "Dirty Harry" Callahan away from Magnum-powered action. Now Harry's working for a millionaire, and battling dope-running sea pirates from San Francisco to Mexico's heroin-packed shores. Behind the scenes and the big guns is his old enemy Father Nick. An underworld kingpin and ex-con, Nick can't let the past die-and Harry won't let the mobsters live!
[edit] Family Skeletons
(April 1982) "Dirty Harry" Callahan stalks a mass murderer through Boston's infamous underworld where crooked cops are usually looking the other way. Once it was the Boston Strangler- now the killer's got a knife and is carving up college girls. Dirty Harry will slice through the slime to find him.
[edit] City of Blood
(April 1982) Winos brutally slain on San Francisco's skid row. Beautiful young women butchered in the act of sex by a perverted killer. The acts of two men- or one? Not even Dirty Harry knows. But he's going to find out, if he has to break every law to do it. From `Frisco's sexual underground to the boardrooms in the city's sky, Harry plunges into a blood-streaked manhunt that will leave only one survivor.
[edit] Massacre at Russian River
(July 1982) A lot of grass-the illegal kind-grows in the hills of Northern California. Where there's marijuana, there's money. Where there's money, there's murder. And where there's murder, there's Dirty Harry. In a wilderness where even the local cops are criminal, Harry must live-and kill-by a law higher than the law of the land: his own.
[edit] Hatchet Men
(August 1982) From the hills of San Francisco to the towers of Chicago, a savage struggle for power rages between the Japanese and Chinese mobsters, expert killers with hand, sword, or gun. Then they kidnap Harry Callahan's beautiful, part-time lover. Enter the dragon, Dirty Harry-Magnum blazing!
[edit] The Killing Connection
(October 1982) Anything goes in San Francisco, but now it's gone too far! Somebody is carving up beautiful lesbians- and that somebody has the right friends. Only Harry can stop the slaughter, but now both the gays and the cops stand in his way. Will he have time? The answer is at the end of a barrel- a .44 Magnum barrel!
[edit] Blood of Strangers
(December 1982) Terrorists! Airports and public places are their stage. Civilians are their targets. The spread of chaos is their game. Now Dirty Harry wants to play- for keeps. On battlefields from Frisco to Beirut to El Salvador, in the company of a beautiful TV newswoman, he leaves a trail of hot blood and bullets as he searches beyond the Libyan connection for the source of this savagery. Dirty Harry- breaking every law to get the criminals, making his law to fit the crime.
[edit] Death in the Air
(February 1983) The Magnum-powered action doesn't stop for Dirty Harry-not even on Christmas Eve. Now Harry's after a killer who celebrates the holiday season by shoving women beneath the wheels of speeding subway trains. But when he unmasks the killer as a hit-man for a renegade government scientist, Harry himself is marked for death. With the most powerful handgun ever made in his hands, Harry must blow that scientist to kingdom come or never live to see the New Year himself.
[edit] The Dealer of Death
(April 1983) That's what the papers are calling Dirty Harry. Some dude who's no friend of Harry's has lifted his prize Magnum and is blasting some of his worst enemies out of this world. Harry wants to get his name clean, his gun back, and put an end to the "dead man" who's playing Harry's hand in a game of life and death.
This would be the last Dirty Harry novel, as no further novels were made after Sudden Impact open to theatres, eight months later.
[edit] Dirty Harry Inspired Films
[edit] The Rookie (1990)
The Rookie is about Nick Pulovski, portrayed by Clint Eastwood, who has a reputation for getting rookie training partners killed. It is similar to the reputation Dirty Harry has about getting partners killed. This film spoofs Dirty Harry.
[edit] Frank Miller's Sin City: That Yellow Bastard
Frank Miller, creator of the Sin City graphic novels, revealed in an interview that he created the Sin City story That Yellow Bastard out of his dislike of The Dead Pool. Miller said: "When I went to see the last Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool, I was disgusted. I went out and said, 'this is not a Dirty Harry movie, this is nothing, this is a pale sequel.' But I walked out and said, 'that's not the last Dirty Harry story, I will show you the last Dirty Harry story.'" [3] Bruce Willis played Hartigan, the "Dirty Harry" of the story, when That Yellow Bastard was included in the film version of Sin City released in 2005. Another character in That Yellow Bastard is Nancy, who had no surname in the four previous comic books, but in That Yellow Bastard she is given the surname "Callahan". Hartigan's character is more of a pastiche or caricature with Miller's own elements of characterization and development.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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