Category: Crime drama
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It's the movie that put Clint Eastwood on the map and gave the western lexicon the phrase "Do you feel lucky, punk?", as well as spawned four sequels - the 1971 Don Siegel-directed masterpiece "Dirty Harry".
Now, filmmaking was a different beast back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so one of the curiosities for me when was to see how things were done "back in the day". It's also quite possible that this is the oldest movie I have reviewed so far for this blog (Editorial note - yes, it is. And by quite a margin).
But I gotta ask - how does this movie rank in 2025 with over 50 years of cinema to contrast it with? Let's find out after a plot recap!
Plot:
The movie starts off with an unnamed woman taking a swim in the sunshine in a pool atop a very tall building in San Francisco. Unbeknownst to her, a sniper is taking up position on an even higher building not too far away and has her in his sight. The sniper pulls the trigger and the woman bleeds out in the swimming pool.
Investigating the murder is Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) who surmises that the woman was shot by a sniper and when he goes up to a possible vantage point, he finds a bullet casing on the ground and a paper note left in an antennae (nowadays, ransom demands would probably be emailed). The note is from a character calling himself Scorpio (Andrew Robinson) demanding $100'000 which the mayor of San Francisco (John Vernon) wants to pay to stop further bloodshed, but Callahan is adamantly opposed.
Annoyed, Callahan goes to a diner for a lunch break where he notices a suspicious car parked in front of a bank and gets the cook of the restaurant to call the cops to alert them (this is pre-mobile phone technology, remember!). The bank alarm goes off and Callahan goes in to action to stop the perps getting away. In this scene we get the famous line which is said to a bank robber who is lying on the ground and bleeding, but eyeing a shotgun within arms reach while Callahan stands infront of him, gun pointed:
I know what you're thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?
So the line actually isn't "do you feel lucky, punk?" - but a bit too late to change course now.
The significance of the question is that Callahan's police issue revolver has capacity for six bullets, but the bank robber - on the ground and with a gun pointed at him - doesn't know if Callahan still has one shot left over after all of the mayhem. The robber could take his chances and risk being fatally shot, or maybe he could submit to the police and (hopefully) not be shot.
Callahan is back at the police station getting stitched up from all the glass shards where he is told he is working with a new partner, Chico Gonzales (Reni Santoni), a college-educated rookie who wonders why Callahan's nickname is "Dirty".
The police then decide that they will fly a helicopter over the city during the day to try spot a potential sniper - and what do you know, they find Scorpio scoping out his next target, but are unable to trap him as he escapes. That night, Callahan and Gonzales are driving the streets and spot someone matching the description given by the helicopter crew, so they decide to give chase. Callahan inadvertently looks into the residence of a couple undressing which earns him a beating from the locals who think he's a Peeping Tom, but Gonzales comes to his rescue (and finds an additional reason they call Callahan 'Dirty').
Soon after, the pair get called to inspect the body of a young boy who has been shot by a sniper at which sight Gonzales recoils, and going from Scorpio's previous letter, they deduce that Scorpio's next target will be a Catholic priest. The next day, Callahan and Gonzales - with assistance from the rest of the SFPD - lay an ambush for Scorpio which he wanders in to, but escapes due to Callahan's inability to hit his target from far away, as well as the fact that Scorpio is now carrying a machine gun. In Scorpio's escape, he shoots and kills a police officer.
Scorpio sends the police another letter in which he ratchets up the stakes - he now demands $200'000, and states that he has kidnapped a 14yo girl and has buried her alive with only enough oxygen to last until early the next morning. Running out of options, the mayor agrees to pay the $200'000, with Callahan doing the drop-off while wearing a wire that transmits to Gonzales (which was state-of-the-art tech back in the day).
Given this is pre-mobile phone technology, Scorpio and Callahan communicate by public payphone with Scorpio sending Callahan on a running spree from payphone to payphone, finally telling him to go to a large cross atop Mount Davison. While there, Callahan is disarmed and assaulted as Scorpio states his intent to kill both Callahan and the teenage girl. Gonzales comes to the rescue, but gets shot in the chest for his efforts. However, this gives Callahan enough time to stab Scorpio in the leg with his knife.
Scorpio escapes, but word reaches the police that a local doctor has treated a man matching Scorpio's description for a stab wound in the leg. The treating doctor finally remembers the man as someone who lives in the caretaker's quarters in the local football stadium, and like a dog going after a bone, Callahan enters the stadium and breaks into the caretakers room. Callahan and Scorpio get into a foot chase which ends with Callahan shooting Scorpio in the middle of the playing field, but not before Callahan plays dirty by torturing Scorpio into revealing the location of the girl - however, it is too late and the girl's (obviously naked) corpse is lifted from the ground.
Callahan is thus informed by the District Attorney (Public Prosecutor for those familiar with British legal systems) that because Callahan didn't have a warrant and didn't read Scorpio his Miranda rights (as well as the whole torture thing) there's very little admittable evidence against Scorpio that would justify the enormous cost of a trial, so they have to set him free. This angers Callahan who follows a now very rich Scorpio in his own free time from bar to bar, and in a genius move, Scorpio pays a man to beat him up in order to frame it on Callahan.
Gonzales is visited in hospital by Callahan where Gonzales states that he's stepping away from the force before the job takes a fatal toll on him.
Callahan stops following Scorpio, giving Scorpio the free time and space to rob a liquor store owner of his gun which he puts to good use by kidnapping a bus full of children (why he can't just buy a gun with his wealth is beyond me, but whatever). Scorpio makes his demands known which the mayor (again) accedes to, but because Callahan knows the route the bus is going to take, he takes the daring step of jumping on to the bus from an overhead gantry, forcing Scorpio to ditch the bus in a quarry whereupon Callahan gives chase.
The movie ends with Scorpio holding a child hostage by a lake, Callahan shoots Scorpio in the shoulder and Callahan repeats his famous line:
But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?
But this time, Callahan has one left in the chamber as he shoots Scorpio in the chest. Scorpio dies and the last scene is Callahan removing his police badge from his wallet and throwing in the water, indicating his resignation from the force.
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So many themes and story-telling tropes are evident in this movie:
The evil villain who is one step ahead. The hero who is willing to risk his life and get his hands dirty in the name of doing good. The bureaucrats who make life politically difficult for Callahan. The lack of technology. Good people who break the rules for a greater good.
A lot of reviews I have read seem to make out that this is a "right-wing" movie, and I've come to the conclusion that if I squint and tilt my head, maybe it possibly is. I suppose that if being so committed to justice and catching criminals before they harm other people that you bend the law is a right-wing thing, then yeah, I suppose you can call this a right-wing movie. I personally think it's a story of someone being so committed to a sense of moral justice that they'll bend the law.
From a technical standpoint, I did find it interesting how the opening scene was splashed with "Filmed in Panavision Technicolour!", as if that was some massive achievement - and looking back, it probably was. Jesus probably invented colour TV just five minutes before this movie was released, so maybe having a movie filmed in Technicolour was a cool thing at one point in time.
The camera work is actually fairly simple, with the odd zoom and pan here and there, but nothing mindblowing.
In terms of special effects, the most elaborate one was the bank robbery scene where the car flipped over. Otherwise, heaps of squibs to indicate gun-fire, and a daring jump on to a bus.
However, and what struck me most of all - the funk soundtrack is outstanding. You'll even notice that the funk slows then when things are slow-paced, but then once the action picks up, the funk increases back in tempo! This was a great touch.
One thing that does stand out that there is some nudity as every so often there are glimpses of breasts and female public hair, which to me leans this movie towards being an "exploitation" film and one of the things stopping it from getting a full 5/5. I'm OK with some nudity if it adds to the story, but if it doesn't, then it becomes nudity for the sake of titillation. I knocked points off of Snowtown for this sort of stuff, so I have to knock points off of this movie as well.
All in all, I think this movie deserves its place in history as a classic and seminal piece of work. Great stuff.
STAR RATING: 4.75/5
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