Warner Bros released Dirty Harry on 23 December 1971.
Director-producer Don Siegel saw himself as a liberal. And he spent rather too much time justifying this film. Dirty Harry is a reactionary film. It very clearly exists because of backlash to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. It is the cinematic expression of the Mulford Act of 1967. Ronald Reagan passed this gun regulation as California governor. He was afraid of the Black Panthers.
I’m not saying it’s a bad film. I like it a whole lot. It’s a fun ride. But it’s best to avoid thinking about too much.
Revenge works well in films because we know who the bad guy is. We delight in Harry blowing away Scorpio because we know Scorpio is a violent psychopath. In real life, we don’t know who the bad guys are. We have a justice system for this reason!
The Dirty Harry follow-up, Magnum Force, tells all. It seems like a big caveat for the first film. “We didn’t mean that cops should just go around blowing away people!” But that’s just what Harry does in the first film. He never makes a mistake. His justice is perfect.
But the film screams, “Forget managing the police! Just let them mete out justice!” And that’s fine! As long as it stays in the theater.
Unfortunately, the film was successful and iconic because far too many people did think we need our cities swarming with Harry Callahans. But that ain’t true at all!
The most iconic image from the film is when Harry is threatening a wounded and prone bank robber. Harry’s already killed a number of people in ways that certainly would have resulted in many innocent deaths. In the real world, Harry is a loose cannon who would get far more people killed than he could ever save.
But as a film character, he is as fun and unrealistic as Luke Skywalker. And with that in mind, have fun watching Dirty Harry!
Dirty Harry (1971) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
