Dirty Harry (1971)

Rajaah · Saturday at 5:38 PM

Been watching the Dirty Harry series for the first time, after 40 years on Earth. Goddamn, more people need to know/talk about these. I've only seen the first three (of five) but they're probably the most enjoyable movies I've watched in years. A cop doing his job and having to deal with a bureaucracy holding him back, as well as various societal social issues that'd also be present today (and the right reaction to all of them, by the movies). The police generally get treated like garbage by a good portion of the population (this is 70's San Francisco) and it's just something they have to deal with.

They're probably what could be considered "woke" for the era in that they do things like featuring a female cop trying to earn respect from dickish men, but really they're the opposite of woke because the woman in question insists on being held to the same standards as the men, not having anything lowered for her.

It's a breath of fresh air really. We need a modern Clint Eastwood and a modern Dirty Harry that doesn't pull any punches. The current cultural terrain is ripe for something like this if it wasn't bastardized commie gobbledygook.

Series deserves its own thread, if anybody's got any memories of it feel free to post. Most of the movies were before I was even born, so it's nostalgic for an era I never got to see, where masculinity was a necessary positive and promoted.

Every iconic movie hero has an iconic weapon, whether it's Robocop's automatic pistol or Conan's broadsword. Dirty Harry has the Smith & Wesson Model 29 chambered in .44 Magnum:

If one wants a quick dose of "breath of fresh air" from their movies, I recommend Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1977) and The Enforcer (1976) which is the third Dirty Harry. They both shoot in a lot of the same locations in San Francisco and they both promote things we could use in our media nowadays, like an overall antipathy towards insidious cultural movements. Though I'd watch them in that order, because spoiler alert, the commie revolution wins in IOTBS.

I think that's my biggest takeaway from these movies (at least the ones in the 70's), is how aware people were of avoiding various cultural pitfalls (and how much pop culture acknowledged it). Coming off the 60's where the youth went a little crazy, it makes sense that there was a big pendulum swing against commies and revolutions in the 70's (which ultimately led to Reagan and a total overhaul of American culture in the 80's). Makes me think the same thing could happen now, but I'm not sure.

Leaving this with a quote from The Enforcer, by a woman whose cop husband is hospitalized and eventually dies: "You guys are fighting a war out there aren't you? I just never realized it."

Cad · Saturday at 5:42 PM

Especially just seeing San Francisco as it was then, it's beautiful. It's hard to watch knowing what it has turned into.

Kajiimagi · Saturday at 7:52 PM

Cad said:
Especially just seeing San Francisco as it was then, it's beautiful. It's hard to watch knowing what it has turned into.

True that. Those movies , and being a SF / Montana fan as a kid were part of why I wanted to see the town for myself. Went in 2018 , had a drugged / crazy / out of his mind homeless bum screaming 'American inventor' but not that the real word we're not allowed to use at me in broad daylight. Cops just walking around noping the fuck out. This was before the current BS of allowing them to shit in the street. Just sad.

Not sure if it was part of the Dirty Harry franchise or not but another good Clint movie was 'Sharkey's Machine'

rhinohelix · Saturday at 9:12 PM

All of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Movies are great, although they swung back towards Lefty politics a bit with the sequels: Magnum Force was about a Cop Vigilante Murder Squad; The Enforcer tried to split the difference with the villains being hippy communists but Harry training a new woman partner; Sudden Impact was about a vigilante woman avenging her raped sister? This is movie Reagan made famous for "Go ahead, Make my day". And the Dead Pool, which was made in 88 and mostly past the 60/70's politics the others addressed.

Kajiimagi said:
True that. Those movies , and being a SF / Montana fan as a kid were part of why I wanted to see the town for myself. Went in 2018 , had a drugged / crazy / out of his mind homeless bum screaming 'American inventor' but not that the real word we're not allowed to use at me in broad daylight. Cops just walking around noping the fuck out. This was before the current BS of allowing them to shit in the street. Just sad.

Not sure if it was part of the Dirty Harry franchise or not but another good Clint movie was 'Sharkey's Machine'

It was Burt's attempt at a Clint movie. It still was pretty good, IIRC. I haven't seen it since 1983 on HBO, though, so YMMV.

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS · Saturday at 9:16 PM

I watched the first one for the first time in fall 2024 and it was incredible. Some cinematography/production was a bit lazy, but it holds up really well writing and acting wise.

I watched planet of the apes (1968) last night and also saw similar lazy film cinematography characteristics. More of a take the best take rather than reshoot it again until you get it right kind of thing, or you see a boom mic dip down into the shot, etc.

Contemporary movies of the 60’s and 70’s had greater attention to detail and didn’t have lazy cinematography or idiosyncratic film errors like that (2001 space odyssey, the graduate, etc).

Rajaah · Saturday at 9:45 PM

Cad said:
Especially just seeing San Francisco as it was then, it's beautiful. It's hard to watch knowing what it has turned into.

Oh yeah, that's another huge part of what I like about this series. Being brought back to the way things were before things went to shit (literally).

The beginnings of that decline can be seen here, with the movies frequently portraying the local government as clueless and more worried about restraining the good guys than they are about stopping the bad guys.

Rajaah · Saturday at 10:06 PM

rhinohelix said:
All of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Movies are great, although they swung back towards Lefty politics a bit with the sequels: Magnum Force was about a Cop Vigilante Murder Squad; The Enforcer tried to split the difference with the villains being hippy communists but Harry training a new woman partner; Sudden Impact was about a vigilante woman avenging her raped sister? This is movie Reagan made famous for "Go ahead, Make my day". And the Dead Pool, which was made in 88 and mostly past the 60/70's politics the others addressed.

I'd say it handled all those things well. Yeah, Dirty Harry 2's villains were a bunch of corrupt cops that were murdering people outside of the justice system. However, the movie didn't demonize them by having them be psychopaths or anything, and made it a point that the guys they were killing were all criminals who committed horrible crimes and had gotten away with it due to judges giving them a slap on the wrist or DAs dropping the ball / failing to prosecute.

I'd say it was just as much of an indictment of the problems that led the cops to go vigilante (doling out justice that the system had failed to dole out) than it was an indictment of the corrupt cops themselves. A lot of modern viewers would probably be cheering on the "bad guys" in their quest to take nasty guys off the street, given how bad it's gotten in the real world with our justice system dropping the ball.

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS · Saturday at 10:19 PM

Rajaah said:
I'd say it handled all those things well. Yeah, Dirty Harry 2's villains were a bunch of corrupt cops that were murdering people outside of the justice system. However, the movie didn't demonize them by having them be psychopaths or anything, and made it a point that the guys they were killing were all criminals who committed horrible crimes and had gotten away with it due to judges giving them a slap on the wrist or DAs dropping the ball / failing to prosecute.

I'd say it was just as much of an indictment of the problems that led the cops to go vigilante (doling out justice that the system had failed to dole out) than it was an indictment of the corrupt cops themselves. A lot of modern viewers would probably be cheering on the "bad guys" in their quest to take nasty guys off the street, given how bad it's gotten in the real world with our justice system dropping the ball.

I completely disassociate politics or trends from movies. I don’t even think about it or care. One of the reasons movies like Dirty Harry or Planet of the Apes (1968) still hold up is due to its timeless truths, not for its political relevancy. It’s always relevant in some cultures or some perspectives. Which is why they’re so good without being too on the nose.

it’s when movies are too blunt about their themes or too specific to modern topics that it becomes insufferable.

Chanur · Saturday at 10:27 PM

Always loved the Dirty Harry Movies. If you like those also check out Play Misty For Me.

Szlia · Saturday at 10:48 PM

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS said:
I watched the first one for the first time in fall 2024 and it was incredible. Some cinematography/production was a bit lazy, but it holds up really well writing and acting wise.

I watched planet of the apes (1968) last night and also saw similar lazy film cinematography characteristics. More of a take the best take rather than reshoot it again until you get it right kind of thing, or you see a boom mic dip down into the shot, etc.

Contemporary movies of the 60’s and 70’s had greater attention to detail and didn’t have lazy cinematography or idiosyncratic film errors like that (2001 space odyssey, the graduate, etc).

Historically, when shooting in film you just have no idea of what you have until the film is printed. So you hope the cinematographer did a good job measuring the light, the focus puller did not mess-up and the camera operator caught any and all problems peering through the viewfinder. If not, you discover that the next day and do not necessarily have the luxury of reshooting stuff. The '60s and '70s is I believe the moment video assistance becomes a thing, allowing for the director to monitor in real time what the film camera is capturing and also making it possible to immediately review a take.

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS · 2025-10-05T00:34:48-0400

Szlia said:
Historically, when shooting in film you just have no idea of what you have until the film is printed. So you hope the cinematographer did a good job measuring the light, the focus puller did not mess-up and the camera operator caught any and all problems peering through the viewfinder. If not, you discover that the next day and do not necessarily have the luxury of reshooting stuff. The '60s and '70s is I believe the moment video assistance becomes a thing, allowing for the director to monitor in real time what the film camera is capturing and also making it possible to immediately review a take.

That's probably it then. It's definitely something noticeable only in films before the mid 70s.

A couple examples off the top of my head are boom-mic coming into frame during Dirty Harry (1971), or you can hear the gear take a big breath in the first scene before diving under water to pretend she was shot. It's very loud/noticeable. The awkward zoom ins during Planet of the Apes (1968). Albeit, I watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) today and I didn't notice any of those weird cinematography issues. I will say, I don't think Beneath the Planet of the Apes added to the story in any meaningful way, and the movie should've stayed away from the weird psychic powers thing. I like the new Matt Reeves' ape movies where it's very grounded: no time travel, no FTL, no psychic powers, etc.

Tsar Bomba · 2025-10-05T00:35:47-0400

Chanur said:
Always loved the Dirty Harry Movies. If you like those also check out Play Misty For Me.

After Harry takes out the 3 bank robbers he walks past a movie theater before he does his famous "Do you feel lucky punk?" speech. Guess what's playing on the marquee...

Chanur · 2025-10-05T00:40:04-0400

Tsar Bomba said:
After Harry takes out the 3 bank robbers he walks past a movie theater before he does his famous "Do you feel lucky punk?" speech. Guess what's playing on the markee?

Yeah it's on the Marquee!

Tsar Bomba · 2025-10-05T00:53:50-0400

Chanur said:
Yeah it's on the Marquee!

Strange my tablet didnt catch the misspelling

rhinohelix · 2025-10-05T01:02:20-0400

Szlia said:
Historically, when shooting in film you just have no idea of what you have until the film is printed. So you hope the cinematographer did a good job measuring the light, the focus puller did not mess-up and the camera operator caught any and all problems peering through the viewfinder. If not, you discover that the next day and do not necessarily have the luxury of reshooting stuff. The '60s and '70s is I believe the moment video assistance becomes a thing, allowing for the director to monitor in real time what the film camera is capturing and also making it possible to immediately review a take.
[/QUOTE0

I mean, you can see the way they filmed; lots of movies looked much like TV because of the need to be sure they got it right; the lighting, mics, etc in tthe 40s and 50s were limiting. You can watch the tech advance and gloves come off in the late 50s and 60s, the craft [Edit: the comment about the boom mic being in the frame goes to show just how much you were at the mercy of the professionals on the set and everything coming together] advanced along with the technology, the look and feel advanced and eventually genres opened up. Plenty of 50's scifi with terrible effects, and then Lucasfilm blew the doors off and put everyone else to complete and total shame.

Rajaah said:
I'd say it handled all those things well. Yeah, Dirty Harry 2's villains were a bunch of corrupt cops that were murdering people outside of the justice system. However, the movie didn't demonize them by having them be psychopaths or anything, and made it a point that the guys they were killing were all criminals who committed horrible crimes and had gotten away with it due to judges giving them a slap on the wrist or DAs dropping the ball / failing to prosecute.

I'd say it was just as much of an indictment of the problems that led the cops to go vigilante (doling out justice that the system had failed to dole out) than it was an indictment of the corrupt cops themselves. A lot of modern viewers would probably be cheering on the "bad guys" in their quest to take nasty guys off the street, given how bad it's gotten in the real world with our justice system dropping the ball.

That's a fair assessment but it's just as easy to see this as a more "Clean" Harry striking back against bad cops, which is how the Left felt about all cops in the early 70s (foreshadowing ACAB 40 years later).

Reading about this movie its pretty easy to see what kind of director Clint would become; apparently he and Ted Post fought over several shots that Clint felt were unnecessary and too costly.

"As with many of his films, Eastwood was intent on shooting it as smoothly as possible, often refusing to do retakes over certain scenes.... According to second unit director of photography Rexford Metz, "Eastwood would not take the time to perfect a situation. If you've got 70% of a shot worked out, that's sufficient for him, because he knows his audience will accept it."

Rajaah · 2025-10-05T01:27:58-0400

rhinohelix said:
I mean, you can see the way they filmed; lots of movies looked much like TV because of the need to be sure they got it right; the lighting, mics, etc in tthe 40s and 50s were limiting. You can watch the tech advance and gloves come off in the late 50s and 60s, the craft [Edit: the comment about the boom mic being in the frame goes to show just how much you were at the mercy of the professionals on the set and everything coming together] advanced along with the technology, the look and feel advanced and eventually genres opened up. Plenty of 50's scifi with terrible effects, and then Lucasfilm blew the doors off and put everyone else to complete and total shame.

That's a fair assessment but it's just as easy to see this as a more "Clean" Harry striking back against bad cops, which is how the Left felt about all cops in the early 70s (foreshadowing ACAB 40 years later).

Reading about this movie its pretty easy to see what kind of director Clint would become; apparently he and Ted Post fought over several shots that Clint felt were unnecessary and too costly.

"As with many of his films, Eastwood was intent on shooting it as smoothly as possible, often refusing to do retakes over certain scenes.... According to second unit director of photography Rexford Metz, "Eastwood would not take the time to perfect a situation. If you've got 70% of a shot worked out, that's sufficient for him, because he knows his audience will accept it."

So the idea is that the shots are more "genuine" if they aren't retake #7 and they just use the first one? That or Eastwood is just lazy.

I'm definitely a big fan of Clint now, so I've made a list of his movies and I'm going to check them all out. Might try to go chronologically if it isn't too much trouble (considering I'll have to track all these down to begin with, via streaming and the local library).

I went ahead and bought the Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-Ray, which is the first time I've bought a movie set since Terminator and Highlander some time in the late 2010's. They're that good. Just make sure you get the five-movie blu-ray collection and not the four-movie blu-ray collection, which inexplicably exists, is missing the last movie, and is like the first ten results any time you search for the series collection.

Rajaah · 2025-10-05T01:33:34-0400

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS said:
I completely disassociate politics or trends from movies. I don’t even think about it or care. One of the reasons movies like Dirty Harry or Planet of the Apes (1968) still hold up is due to its timeless truths, not for its political relevancy. It’s always relevant in some cultures or some perspectives. Which is why they’re so good without being too on the nose.

it’s when movies are too blunt about their themes or too specific to modern topics that it becomes insufferable.

For me it's less "politics" and more "culture". At this point I'm really interested in gleaning where the cultural zeitgeist was at when I watch an old movie. So I pay attention to what year it was and what messages it sends about the state of culture, attitudes, etc at the time.

The first Dirty Harry is in 1971. It contains n-words, but it also has people frowning on their use. Something like that is interesting, seeing a cultural changeover of sorts as it was happening, from a word being widely-used to a word being generally regarded as distasteful (though it'll still be in the movie). Little did anyone know that decades later the word would come roaring back with rappers using it every five seconds!

Kajiimagi · 2025-10-05T02:04:02-0400

rhinohelix said:
All of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Movies are great, although they swung back towards Lefty politics a bit with the sequels: Magnum Force was about a Cop Vigilante Murder Squad; The Enforcer tried to split the difference with the villains being hippy communists but Harry training a new woman partner; Sudden Impact was about a vigilante woman avenging her raped sister? This is movie Reagan made famous for "Go ahead, Make my day". And the Dead Pool, which was made in 88 and mostly past the 60/70's politics the others addressed.

It was Burt's attempt at a Clint movie. It still was pretty good, IIRC. I haven't seen it since 1983 on HBO, though, so YMMV.

View attachment 604534

Well shit you are right, well it's been a long time since I watched it. I'll see myself out. Lol

rhinohelix · 2025-10-05T02:06:24-0400

Rajaah said:
So the idea is that the shots are more "genuine" if they aren't retake #7 and they just use the first one? That or Eastwood is just lazy.

I'm definitely a big fan of Clint now, so I've made a list of his movies and I'm going to check them all out. Might try to go chronologically if it isn't too much trouble (considering I'll have to track all these down to begin with, via streaming and the local library).

I went ahead and bought the Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-Ray, which is the first time I've bought a movie set since Terminator and Highlander some time in the late 2010's. They're that good. Just make sure you get the five-movie blu-ray collection and not the four-movie blu-ray collection, which inexplicably exists, is missing the last movie, and is like the first ten results any time you search for the series collection.

He's just about efficiency, IIRC. I may be conflating it with a Spielberg quote here, but if has what he needs, he doesn't feel the need to get the last 10%; I know he doesn't put a lot of stock in Kubrickian takes.

Kajiimagi said:
Well shit you are right, well it's been a long time since I watched it. I'll see myself out. Lol

Easy mistake to make; Burt was hoping audiences made that same mistake in 1981.

rhinohelix · 2025-10-05T02:23:50-0400

Rajaah said:
For me it's less "politics" and more "culture". At this point I'm really interested in gleaning where the cultural zeitgeist was at when I watch an old movie. So I pay attention to what year it was and what messages it sends about the state of culture, attitudes, etc at the time.

The first Dirty Harry is in 1971. It contains n-words, but it also has people frowning on their use. Something like that is interesting, seeing a cultural changeover of sorts as it was happening, from a word being widely-used to a word being generally regarded as distasteful (though it'll still be in the movie). Little did anyone know that decades later the word would come roaring back with rappers using it every five seconds!

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Dirty Harry (1971)

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