Dirty Harry is a classic Clint Eastwood film that anyone who knows or loves film or Hollywood has heard about even if you haven’t seen it. I actually fell into the latter category with this one, which is shocking because the rogue cop or person doing what needs to be done, authority be damned, is a subgenre I love; so to have not seen what many perceive as the initiator of said subgenre is surprising. It’s just one of those movies that slipped through the cracks, as while I never actively avoided it, I also didn’t seek it out for whatever reason either. Now after all these years it’s checked off the list, but did it live up to its iconic status?
In so many words, yes, Dirty Harry is an incredibly cool character that Eastwood plays perfectly. He’s got a sense of humour, he doesn’t take kindly to compliments or criticism, and he really just wants to see justice prevail at the end of the day. I wouldn’t say by any means necessary, but I also wouldn’t say he’s too worried about having to fill out paperwork when it comes to leaving body counts at crime scenes.
My favourite scene in the film comes early, when Harry Callahan goes to his favourite food joint for his regular order of a hot dog with the works. As its being prepared Harry tells the cook to call the police and tell them there’s a bank robbery in progress across the street, as he noticed a suspicious car idling out front when he entered the restaurant. Right as the call is being made and Harry is taking a bite of his hot dog the bank alarm goes off and a gunshot rings out. Harry sighs mid-chew and walks out into the street to stop the bad guys. This scene lets the audience know everything they need to know both about Harry as a character, and the type of movie this is going to be, as the robbers quickly open fire on Harry, who begins to pick them off with ease while still chewing his lunch.
Is the scene somewhat ridiculous? Sure, he’s opening fire in the middle of a crowded street, cracking jokes and dropping one-liners that are still quoted today, all without breaking a sweat. I mean, he takes some shrapnel to the leg, but it’s merely a flesh wound as far as Harry is concerned. One thing that’s both cool about this scene and frustrating later is that Harry picks these guys off with precision, all while one is driving a car towards him, another is across the street half a block away, and another is shooting at him; however, later when Harry is taking shots at the film’s antagonist, Scorpio (Andrew Robinson), he’s missing left and right. I understand why it’s done and is probably a minor gripe that many wouldn’t even notice, but it just felt odd to introduce the character as someone who can take out a group of bank robbers with a single six-shooter, and then miss repeatedly with a sniper rifle while also having the element of surprise on his side.
The film was made in 1971 so there’s some choice language at times that some may not like, but it’s not abundant or consistent enough that I’d say it should keep anyone from watching. While Harry is blunt in his actions he’s mainly just someone who wants to do his job, catch the bad guy and move on to the next. I wouldn’t say that he feels he’s above the law, but he doesn’t like when the law is bent and twisted in favour of those who do the world harm.
The film’s big bad, Scorpio, is someone who loves killing. The movie begins with him shooting a random young woman while she’s swimming. He uses a sniper rifle and picks her off clean. Harry deduces where the shot came from and goes over to check the top of the building across the street. There he finds a note left by Scorpio demanding $100,000 (again, this was 1971, which I guess shows how crazy inflation has gotten!) by the next day or else he’ll kill again.
Obviously, this isn’t enough time, though Scorpio does give the clue in his note that he’s going to kill either a black person or a priest, so the police begin to cover every rooftop around church’s and in black neighbourhoods. Listen, this is where you just stretch out the logic as the viewer, because the idea that they’d be able to catch this guy the way they attempt to is absurd, and their idea of how to lure him to a certain spot is even more ludicrous, but with movies in this genre you kind of just go with it – especially this early on when there weren’t hundreds of other similar films to compare it to.
One of the oddest choices in the movie for me was when a 14-year-old girl is kidnapped, as this sends Harry truly into motion to bring Scorpio down, as he now wants $200,000 or he won’t tell them where she’s been buried alive and she only has enough oxygen to last until 3am. That’s not the bad part, that’s actually a really solid driving force for Harry and the story at this point in the film; what’s weird (and this is a bit of a spoiler, so skip to the next paragraph if you’d rather avoid it) is that Scorpio sends her bra and a tooth as proof that he’s actually got her. Later, when they pull her out of the place she’s being kept she’s completely nude and we watch as they lift her out and lay her on the ground.
Now, nudity in cop movies isn’t shocking, as we’ve seen it from crime scenes to the morgue; however, this is supposed to be a 14-year-old! The actress is clearly an adult, but if they felt they had to show her being found naked then why not just make it so he kidnapped an 18-year-old? This is all important for Harry’s character and having it be a younger girl for some reason does give it that extra urgency, but it would’ve had the same impact had they pulled her out in a torn shirt, or even pulled her out with people around her so that the body couldn’t really be seen. The nudity in the scene adds nothing, so I’d argue why show it at all, let alone as gratuitously as they do, especially since she’s supposed to barely be a teenager.
While I did take the time to point it out it’s something that one can aim to ignore or view as a choice of the times and move on, as I don’t think there were truly any ill or devious intentions in the filming of the scene at all. I think that director Don Siegel was going for a raw and gritty film and this was a different time in filmmaking and it is what it is. As a whole it doesn’t take away from the movie, as the entire thing is actually crucial to Harry’s character development, but reviewing this film over 50 years later it’s just something that I feel should be pointed out – and probably has been before, and maybe even was by critics back then for all I know.
Dirty Harry is an entertaining movie that does a lot of things right when it comes to breaking fresh ground in the gritty cop genre of action films, and it also does some things that have clearly been learned from and improved upon as time has gone on. There are some really intriguing ideas throughout the movie that are clear inspirations for many of the films that have followed in the decades after, including how the law sometimes works against the victims and in favour of the bad guys. This isn’t a movie where we’re rooting for a crooked cop, or want someone to take the law into their own hands against everyone as though they’re judge, jury and executioner. This is a clear case of, “this is an incredibly evil person who is constantly finding ways to elude capture” and that’s where the genre of the rogue cop or rogue person taking matters into their own hands works best. It can’t or doesn’t really happen in reality and we often see the bad guys get off lighter than they should, so in movies like Dirty Harry, where we go to escape reality, it’s exciting to sit back and cheer for those who will stop at nothing to make sure justice is served.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
Dirty Harry has been sourced from an 8K scan of the original negative which allows the film to truly pop in this 4K restoration. The 2160p/HDR10 transfer, much like the other two recently released Eastwood films from Warner Bros., looks as good as it ever has for home viewing and is a must buy for both Eastwood fans, or fans of Dirty Harry. There’s still a nice amount of film grain subtly throughout that lets it be known how it was shot, though there’s also a clarity and cleanliness to it all that all will appreciate when watching Harry dole out justice.
On the audio side of things, like the other two releases, we’ve got a magnificent Dolby Atmos mix that allows for gunfire to ping and fire from all angles of the room, sound effects and environmental noises also help transport the viewer into every moment that’s happening on screen. The score for the film doesn’t hold back, sometimes blasting out in what feels like an attempt to potentially shatter windows in the room, but it does add to the intensity and immersion that a great sound mix allows for.
Special Features:
We’ve got two new brief, but welcome nonetheless, featurettes on the disc, as well as a few hefty legacy features for fans new and old to enjoy:
Generations and Dirty Harry – This is a six-minute featurette that showcases how Dirty Harry as a character transcends generations. I do feel this is true, as we all love to see that person standing up for what’s right when nobody else will, even though like I did, some here point out that not everything in the film ages well. That’s not the point here, as the focus is on Dirty Harry and all the take-no-prisoner fan favourites he’s gone on to inspire.
Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry – This is an 8-minute featurette that focuses once again on Cinematographer Bruce Surtees. He and Eastwood often work together and give off the signature look that Eastwood films are known for, and much like the other two Warner Bros. Eastwood releases that came out alongside Dirty Harry, we get to pay homage to Surtees and his work.
Legacy Special Features:
Audio Commentary – This commentary track features film critic Richard Schickel for those interested.
American Masters Career Retrospective – Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows – Here we get an almost 90-minute feature on Eastwood. It’s nice that they’ve spread these huge documentary size features out between the three recent releases, as collecting them all allows fans to have something new each time from the legacy collection.
Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malposo – This feature is almost an hour more for fans to enjoy.
Clint Eastwood – A Cinematic Legacy: Fighting for Justice – And then we’ve got an 18-minute feature that once against sets the focus on Eastwood and his action career.
Interview Gallery – We’ve got 10 small interviews here ranging from actor Patricia Clarkson, editor Joel Cox, to Eastwood, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. They’re each only a few minutes long, so it’s easy enough to breeze through them all, or pick and choose those you may want to hear from.
Dirty Harry’s Way – This is a 7-minute featurette that focuses on Dirty Harry’s way of justice.
Dirty Harry: The Original – Lastly, we’ve got a 30-minute feature that focuses on Dirty Harry creating this subgenre of action films that has inspired so many.
Disclaimer: A review copy of this Blu-ray was sent to me to cover in honest and truthful fashion.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Dirty Harry. Directed by: Don Siegel. Written by: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, Dean Riesner. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, John Larch, Reni Santoni. Running time: 102 Minutes. Rating: R. Released on 4K Blu-ray: April 29, 2025.
About Brendan Campbell
