Dirty Harry
blofeld#1
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Rate the Dirty Harry series . Here is mine.
Magnum Force 1973
Dirty Harry 1971
Sudden Impact 1983 / The Enforcer 1976
The Dead Pool 1988
Magnum Force 1973
Dirty Harry 1971
Sudden Impact 1983 / The Enforcer 1976
The Dead Pool 1988
Comments
Dirty Harry
The Dead Pool
Sudden Impact
The Enforcer
Magnum Force
Sudden Impact
The Enforcer
And the one where Jim Carey lip synchs Welcome to the Jungle
with alex on that 1
The Dead Pool falls in the middle, giving us an older (but still tough as nails Harry) and more than a little bit of humor, satire and self-parody, which worked well at this point in the franchise. Harry's partner (Al Quan) actually helps out for once and who can forget Liam Neeson's turn as red herring filmmaker Peter Swan.
Sudden Impact and The Enforcer bring up the rear. Both are pretty forgettable, featuring very weak villains and female leads that aren't particularly compelling or memorable, especially Tyne Daly.
I think Sudden Impact is a brutal, violent, sleaze masterpiece with a fantastic performance from Sondra Locke. Just a terrific detective/slasher and the one I view the most. Rousing build up.
I didn't like the one with Cagney, (Or Lacey), but the airplane sequence is great!
"It's not difficult to get a double 0 number if your prepared to kill people"
I kind of liked Jim Carrey's coked out primadonna Johnny Squares; he had a pretty memorable death scene and besides, he's only in the movie for about five minutes. Harry's various run-ins with the media are also pretty amusing and more than a little prophetic given the lengths that today's papparazzos go to to score a picture or a story.
I guess the reason Sudden Impact doesn't resonate with me all that much is because its very much Sondra Locke's story, and not Harrys (understandable since they were in a relationship at the time). It all seems more like a diversion than an actual case for Harry to solve, which in a sense it is since he was on leave for most of the movie.
While the idea of Harry taking on homeland terrorists is an interesting one ripe for carnage, Enforcer ends up being a surprisingly tame movie for its premise. They also took the whole "out of touch politicians" to almost absurd levels in that one. Its been a long time since I saw it but I don't remember a plane sequence; wasn't that in Magnum Force?
It was.
Here is how I would rank them:
1)Dirty Harry- an absolute masterpiece. One of the greatest films ever made, this must surely rank among the very greatest cop films of all time. Much more ambiguous than some of its critics are willing to give it credit for, it is superbly and artistically directed by the underrated and brilliant Don Siegel, with a towering performance by the masterful Eastwood. All of the performances are in fact amazing, with the use of San Francisco unsurpassed among films set in specific American cities. The screenplay is classical in terms of how all the events logically directly lead each other, but is also extremely sophisticated in terms of its nuances. The dialogue is wonderful (Harry's speech was among the first speeches I ever memorised), the action scenes are fantastic and utterly thrilling and the film only gets better with age. As a bonus, the special edition DVD is fantastic as well. 100/10
2)Sudden Impact- the only Dirty Harry film directed by Eastwood, this is also the films which features 'Go Ahead, make my day.' I love Alex's description of it ("brutal, violent, sleaze masterpiece with a fantastic performance from Sondra Locke. Just a terrific detective/slasher") as I completely agree.
3)The Dead Pool- although not at the level of the first film and Sudden Impact, this is still a fantastic film which showed that, like Clint and his directorial efforts, age was not slowing Harry down. To be honest, I'm not as big a fan of this film as I once was. I used to consider this a masterpeice. Now, not so much. However I still love this film as it has a terrific plot, great music, some cool dialogue, a couple of fantastic actions scenes and the scene at the prison was brilliant. Plus Clint was awesome as Harry as usual. What works against it is that it's a little to self-parodic for my tastes (unlike the other four films, none of whom were self-parodic at all), but I still think it's extremely entertaining. 9/10
4)Magnum Force- a great film which I wasn't originally particularly fond of, but now I love. It's funny; when I first saw this film, I was undewhelmed as I was still recovering from the dazzling brilliance of the first film. However in recent years, as I accepted that it could never match the original, I began to really appreciate it to the point where I now love it.
5)The Enforcer- the one Dirty Harry film which I would describe as a disappointment. It's got a fine performance from Clint as usal, some cool dialogue (I love how he explains why he uses a 44 Magnum) and a couple of terrific scenes. But, and I hate to say this, IMO it's boring.
*Technically The Godfather films are not a series.
Dan, who is Pauline Kael? A high brow critic from down under, perhaps?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Shocking you don't know! The late Ms. Kael was also very anti-George Lucas, so much so Lucas named the bad guy in Willow after her. There's also a famous story that, after the 1972 presidential election, she expressed disbelief that Nixon had been re-elected because "I don't know anybody who voted for him."
Pauline Kael was one of those notoriously stodgy critics who would turn her nose up at anything with even a whiff of commercial appeal to it. She was especially unkind to the action genre and positively loathed most science fiction, even calling 2001 history's most expensive home movie at one point, though she did show a glimmer of good taste once in recommending Forbidden Planet.
She always struck me as something of a snob and I can't say I ever had much use for her reviews since they were often so far removed from mainstream American tastes. Roger Ebert seems to have decided to take the same road these days, with his increasingly negative and often downright uninformed essays on any movie that the general public would have the nerve to actually enjoy.
Now I accept that not all critics share my views, and I'm not saying that Pauline Kael is a bad critic; on the contrary, she's incredibly film literate, however I will never undersand her distaste for Eastwood. It was almost as if she had a personal vendetta against him. Even with Unforgiven, she overlooked the irony of the ending. Add to it her distaste for Scorsese films like Goodfellas, and that she referred to De Niro's performance in Raging Bull as an impersonation, and she really was a critic who frustrated me (although she did love The Godfather Part II). The thing about it though is that unlike some Australian critics whom I can dismiss as hacks and idiots, I can't dismiss her that easily. She's far too intelligent and far too important to be dismissed. That's why her disliking Sudden Impact warrents a mention in my sum-up of it. :v
I had forgotten she was anti-Lucas. Not that surprising really since she liked so few genre films post-Bonnie & Clyde. As for the Nixon story, whenever some conservative want to write a story about out-of-touch liberals, they always bring that up.
I admire her for her knowledge and love of cinema, and she did make some excellent points, but when it came to Eastwood and Scorsese, I tended to ignore her. Although, as I said in my post above this, I couldn't dismiss her as a hack or an idiot (unlike many Australian critics), many of her reviews of Eastwood films were idiotic in terms of her waging a personal vendetta against him.
I have a love/hate relationship with Ebert. On one hand, in terms of my hatred for him, he refuses to acknowledge that the The Godfather Part II is a great film, loved Crash, is less than knowledgable about certain genre series such as Bond, haven't even seen The Terminator which IMO is an essential film for any wannabe film critic, can be elitist when it comes to genre films and has written various other reviews which have annoyed me. On the other hand, in terms of my love for him, he is the only American critic whom I check in on a weekly basis, often writes brilliantly entertaining reviews which constistently remind me why he has won a Pulitzer, is enormously knowledgable and appreciative of cinema, isn't a fan-boy and has provided numerous intelligent and even wise insights. Ebert annoys me sometimes, but I very much respect him and he is certainly my favourite American film critic.
I used to enjoy reading his reviews as well, even if I didn't always agree with him. But that kind of lazy indifference goes a little too far for me. Its one thing to genuinely critique a movie for reasons that you may think are valid, even if others disagree with you. Its quite another to dismiss a movie outright simply because you're burned out by the genre or are in a bad mood that day or simply don't feel like watching it anymore. Hundreds of people put in thousands of hours to get those kinds of films made and dismissive reviews like the ones Ebert has been submitting lately are just plain disrespectful. If you can't muster enough interest to pay attention while watching a movie so that you can at least give an informed review, then you really have no business offering an opinion at all any more.
As I said in my earlier post, I have a love/hate relationship with Ebert; his dismissal of (genre) films like The Terminator and his refusal to classify The Godfather Part II as a great film are reasons why I hate him. However, I really do love reading his reviews, and I guess I have to accept that he's incredibly flawed; he's still however one of the best critics in the business.
*He also questioned why Skynet would want to destroy humankind, however I thought that was obvious. ?:)
Agreed. Let's not even mention that other *grunt*, film.
Still it's good to know that you like both Bond and Dirty Harry; I don't think you can go wrong with that combination.
You made a powerful enemy today...
Just kiddin'.
Yeah, it's a great testosterone martini.
Dirty Harry - Classic
Magnum Force - Pretty good follow up.
Sudden Impact - pretty seedy at times with a great performance from Locke, I liked it
The Enforcer - Has some moments, but average at best
Dead Pool - Didn't seem like the same Harry, at times seemed like a parody
One quick comment on Pauline Kael, she was a fan of Straw Dogs, my favorite film of all time, and was a big fan of Sam Peckinpaugh, so she is OK with me.
2. Dirty Harry
3. Sudden Impact
4. The Dead Pool
5. The Enforcer
I'm glad it wasn't, there's something about a retired detective taking the law into his own hands, to me it just doesn't feel right. Callaghan pushed the rules quite a bit, but this might have been a bit too far.
Now for me it, it's Dirty Harry, then Magnum Force, then the rest.
Independent, one-shot comic books from the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.
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"Dirty Harry" Is a stand alone great film, It features the best use of San Francisco as a set EVER. I went to college in SF a couple of years after DH was filmed and believe me they filmed SF as it really looked back then. Heck I used to ride the street-cars and often rode the "K" car #1138, sitting in Harry's seat!!!
"Magnum Force", Pretty enjoyable. not real beliveable. I like the scene shot at the Police Shooting Range. It is/was very near my college and I visited it once. Could hear the shooting from my dorm.
"The Enforcer", I always liked the Tyne Daly charecter. She proved she had the mettle for the job in spite of the horrid way she was treated. I enjoyed all the charecter interaction, even if the plot is somewhat turgid.
"Sudden Impact", I'll accept the "trashy masterpiece" description. I always disliked the way they under-utlitzed Albert Popwell. He was a fine actor and now that he's gone, we could use a few more minutes with "Harry" and "Horace".
"The Dead Pool", for me the title really says it all. They should have tossed in the towel and left this flick on the cutting room floor.
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
Actually I would have loved a film with Dirty Harry retired in the early 90's and using the rumored story about a Scorpio Killer copy cat. That would be a good execuse to get Harry back in action. I would probably do a fan story but I am lazy.
I love Hal Halbrook in this film for some reason, I can't articulate why. I just think he's the perfect white collar film.
I think the story had the right idea but the whole film felt too sit-com-esque.
The rest are about equal, entertaining but nothing special.