Dirty Harry
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Short description
Dirty Harry is set in San Francisco, where a sniper calling himself Scorpio kills people at random and demands a large ransom from the city, threatening more murders if he is not paid. The case falls to Inspector Harry Callahan, a police officer whose willingness to bend the rules has made him unpopular with his superiors and with city officials. Harry's harsh methods have also earned him the nickname "Dirty Harry," and the hunt for Scorpio places him in direct conflict both with the killer and with the authorities who disapprove of how he works.
Don Siegel directed the film, his twelfth of eighteen in chronological order, following Two Mules for Sister Sara and preceding The Beguiled. He also produced it. The screenplay was written by Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink and Dean Riesner. Clint Eastwood plays Harry, with Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andrew Robinson and John Larch among the main cast; sixty-six performers and fifty-six crew members are credited. Made for about four million dollars by Warner Bros. Pictures and Malpaso Productions, it took roughly thirty-six million dollars worldwide.
Audiences rate the film 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from over 165,000 votes and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, while a film critics' rating stands at 7.8 out of 10 from fifty-four reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 2012, the film was included in the U.S. National Film Registry.
- The film originated during a time of growing public concern in the United States regarding the political situation, specifically the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. This was eroding public trust in existing laws and the political structure. This is reflected in the film: the protagonist expresses his opinion of the existing laws by calling them insane.
- The film was originally titled “Dead Right.” In 1993, British director Edgar Wright filmed a parody of “Dirty Harry” that was titled “Dead Right.”
- Paul Newman (who declined the role for political reasons) and Frank Sinatra (who declined due to an injured hand) were considered for the role of Harry Callahan.
- The plot was influenced by the story of a real-life American serial killer known as Zodiac (hence the character's nickname, "Scorpio," one of the zodiac signs).
- The final scene in which Clint Eastwood's character throws his police badge into the water is a reference to a similar scene in Fred Zinnemann's western *High Noon* (1952). Eastwood initially resisted, arguing that by throwing away the badge, his character showed he was leaving the police force. Director Don Siegel, in turn, insisted that Callahan was thereby showing his contempt for the bureaucrats entrenched in the police department. Eastwood's point of view initially prevailed, but over time he changed his mind and agreed to film the badge scene as Siegel had envisioned it.
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