Dirty Harry
Encyclopedia
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime
thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel
, the first in the Dirty Harry series
. Clint Eastwood
plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department
Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
Dirty Harry was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a whole genre of police films. The film was followed by four sequels: Magnum Force
in 1973, The Enforcer
in 1976, Sudden Impact
in 1983 (directed by Eastwood himself), and The Dead Pool
in 1988.
In 2008, Dirty Harry was selected by Empire
magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
serial killer
who calls himself "Scorpio" (Andy Robinson) murders a young woman in a San Francisco swimming pool, using a high-powered rifle from a nearby rooftop. SFPD
Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood
) finds a ransom message promising his next victims will be "a Catholic priest or a nigger" if the city does not pay $100,000. The chief of police and the Mayor
(John Vernon
) assign the inspector to the case.
While in a local diner, Callahan sees a bank robbery
in progress and, alone with his revolver, he kills two of the robbers and wounds a third, challenging the man lying near a loaded shotgun:
After the robber surrenders, Callahan pulls the trigger, revealing the gun to be empty.
Assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni
), Callahan complains that he needs someone experienced because his partners keep getting injured or worse. When Scorpio kills a young black boy from another rooftop, the police believe the killer will next pursue a Catholic priest. Callahan and Gonzalez wait for Scorpio near a Catholic church where a shootout ensues, but Scorpio escapes, killing an officer.
Scorpio kidnaps, rapes, and buries alive a teenage girl, then demands twice his previous ransom before the girl's air runs out. The mayor decides to pay, and tells Callahan to deliver the money with no tricks, but the inspector wears a wire
, brings a knife
, and has his partner follow him. As Scorpio sends Callahan to various payphone
s throughout the city to make sure he is alone, the chase ends at an enormous concrete cross in a public park. Scorpio brutally beats Callahan; Gonzalez arrives and saves his partner, but is wounded. Callahan stabs Scorpio in the leg, but the killer escapes without the money. Gonzalez survives his wound, but decides to resign from the force.
The doctor who treated Scorpio tells Callahan and his new partner, Frank DiGiorgio (John Mitchum
), that he has seen Scorpio in Kezar Stadium
. Running out of time
, the officers search the killer's room without a warrant
and Callahan shoots Scorpio in his wounded leg. When Scorpio refuses to reveal the location of the girl and instead asks for a lawyer, Callahan torture
s the killer by standing on the wounded leg. Scorpio confesses and the police exhume the dead girl.
Because Callahan broke into Scorpio's home illegally
and improperly seized his rifle
, the District Attorney
decides that the killer cannot be charged. An outraged Callahan follows Scorpio on his own time. Scorpio pays a thug to give him a severe, but controlled beating, then claims that the inspector is responsible. Despite his protests to the contrary, Callahan is ordered to stop following Scorpio.
Scorpio kidnaps a school bus load
of children and demands another ransom and a plane to leave the country. The mayor again insists on paying but Callahan instead pursues Scorpio without authorization, jumping onto the top of the bus from a railroad trestle. The killer flees into a nearby rock quarry, where he has a running gun battle with Callahan. Scorpio retreats until he takes a young boy sitting near a pond as a hostage.
The inspector feigns surrender then wounds the killer. The boy runs away and Callahan stands over Scorpio, gun drawn. The inspector reprises his "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech. Scorpio lunges for his gun, and Callahan shoots him in the chest, propelling Scorpio into the water. As Callahan watches the dead body float on the surface, he takes out his inspector's badge and hurls it into the water and walks away.
and Rita M. Fink, a story about a hard-edged New York City
police inspector Harry Callahan, determined to stop Travis, a serial killer, by any means at his disposal. The role of Harry Callahan was originally written for John Wayne
, whom the Finks had just finished working with on Big Jake
(1971). When they were trying to sell their script, the Finks used him as an example of how they envisioned the character. Wayne said he was not interested in the role, however; he felt the violence in the script was unjustified and glorified. In Michael Munn’s book John Wayne: The Man Behind The Myth, Wayne gives the reasons why he refused the part: “First is that they offered it to Frank Sinatra
first, but he'd hurt his hand and couldn't do it. I don't like being offered Sinatra's rejections. Put that one down to pride. The second reason is that I thought Harry was a rogue cop. Put that down to narrow-mindedness because when I saw the picture I realized that Harry was the kind of part I'd played often enough: a guy who lives within the law but breaks the rules when he really has to in order to save others. The third reason is that I was too busy making other pictures.” Wayne later regretted turning down the role, and went on to star in his own cop film, McQ
, which was directed by John Sturges
.
Originally, it was set in New York City
, not San Francisco, California, and ended with a police sniper instead of Callahan taking out Scorpio. Another earlier version of the story was set in Seattle, Washington
. Four more drafts of the script were written. John Milius
wrote a draft dated 23 September 1970 inspired by Akira Kurosawa
's studies in lone-gun detectives. Milius has also mentioned being influenced by a friend of his, a Long Beach police officer who dealt with criminals in a rather summary fashion. According to Milius, his friend "rarely brought people back" but was, contrastingly, extremely gentle with animals. Quite a bit of Milius' script remains in the finished film, including Harry's mystique and his "Do I feel lucky?" monologue. Terrence Malick
wrote a draft of the film dated November 1970 (John Milius
and Harry Julian Fink
are also named as co-writers) in which the shooter (also named Travis) was a vigilante who killed wealthy criminals who had escaped justice.
Malick's ideas formed the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force
, though with a group of vigilante motorcycle cops instead of a single shooter.
Eventually, the Finks sold their script to Universal. Already having Clint Eastwood under contract, Universal thought of using it as a vehicle for the actor, but they never followed up on the initial plans and they let the rights to the script run out.
When producer Jennings Lang
initially could not find an actor to take the role of Callahan, he sold the film rights to ABC Television. Although ABC wanted to turn it into a television film, the amount of violence in the script was deemed too excessive for television, so the rights were sold to Warner Bros.
Although Dirty Harry is arguably Clint Eastwood's signature role, he was not a top contender for the part.
Warner Bros. purchased the script with a view to cast Frank Sinatra in the lead. Sinatra was 55 at the time and since the character of Harry Callahan was originally written as a man in his mid to late 50's (and Eastwood only then 41), Sinatra fit the character profile.
Initially, Warner Bros. wanted either Sydney Pollack
or Irvin Kershner
to direct. Kershner was eventually hired when Frank Sinatra
was attached to the title role. But when Sinatra eventually left the film, so did Kershner. Eastwood pushed for Don Siegel
when he was cast in the film.
Details about the film were first released in film industry trade papers in April, September and November 1970 with Frank Sinatra
attached as Harry Callahan and Irvin Kershner
listed as director and producer with Arthur Jacobson acting as associate producer. Originally the character of Harry Callahan was written as a man in his mid to late 50s. Robert Mitchum
, John Wayne
, and Burt Lancaster
were also offered the role. Mitchum dismissed this totemic role as "a piece of junk." In Dick Lochte‘s article, "Just One More Hangover: A Vodka-Soaked Afternoon with Robert Mitchum", he writes: Mitchum always got "those prices" in those days. "Somebody says, 'We really want you to do this script.' And I say, 'I'd need an awful lot of money in front to do that one.' And that never seems to be a problem. The less I like the script, the higher my price. And they pay. They may pay in yen, but they pay. Not that I'm a complete whore, understand. There are movies I won't do for any amount. I turned down Patton and I turned down Dirty Harry. Movies that piss on the world. If I've got $5 in my pocket, I don't need to make money that fucking way, daddy."
Sinatra actually accepted the role; however he had broken his wrist during the filming of The Manchurian Candidate
eight years previously, and during contract negotiations, he found the large handgun too unwieldy. Additionally, his father had recently died, and Sinatra decided he wanted to do some lighter material. In a 16 Nov 1970 Warner Bros. press release, it was announced that Sinatra would no longer be involved in the project. When Sinatra dropped out, so did Kershner.
After Sinatra left the project, the producers started to consider younger actors for the role. Burt Lancaster turned down the lead role because he strongly disagreed with the violent, right-wing morals of the story. He believed the role and plot contradicted his belief in a collective responsibility for criminal and social justice and the protection of individual rights. Marlon Brando
was considered for the role, but was never formally approached. Both Steve McQueen
and Paul Newman
turned down the role. McQueen refused to make another “cop movie” after Bullitt
(1968). He would also turn down the lead in The French Connection
the same year, giving the same reason. Believing the character was too "right-wing" for him, Newman suggested that the film would be a good vehicle for Eastwood.
The screenplay was initially brought to Clint’s attention somewhere around 1969 by Jennings Lang and while still in post-production for his directorial debut film Play Misty for Me
, Warner Bros offered him the part. By 17 December 1970 in a Warner Brothers studio press release it was announced that Clint Eastwood would star in as well as produce the film through his Malpaso Company.
One of Eastwood's stipulations for accepting the role was the change of locale to San Francisco. Eastwood has claimed that he took the role of Harry Callahan because of the character's obsessive concern with the victims of violent crime. Eastwood felt that the issue of victims' rights was being overshadowed by the political atmosphere of the time.
Eastwood was given a number of scripts, but he ultimately reverted to the original as the best vehicle for him. In a 2009 MTV Interview, Eastwood said, "So I said, 'I'll do it,' but since they had initially talked to me, there had been all these rewrites. I said, 'I'm only interested in the original script'." Looking back on the 1971 Don Siegel flick, he remembered, "[The rewrites had changed] everything. They had marine snipers coming on in the end. And I said, 'No. This is losing the point of the whole story, of the guy chasing the killer down. It's becoming an extravaganza that's losing its character.' They said, 'OK, do what you want.' So, we went and made it.".
Eastwood also agreed to star in the film only on the provision that Don Siegel
direct. Siegel was under contract to Universal at the time, and Eastwood personally went to the studio heads to ask them to 'loan' Siegel to Warner. The two had just completed the movie The Beguiled
(1970).
The "Bank Job" scene is different as well, and unfolds during a rainstorm. In addition to the tailpipe smoke, Harry notices that though people continue to enter, no one is exiting the bank. The biggest difference in the scene, though, is Harry's alternate "Do I feel lucky" monologue:
"You been counting? Well, was it five or was it six? Regulations say five...hammer down on the empty...only not all of us go by the book. What you have to do is think about it. I mean this is a forty-four magnum and it'll turn your head into hash. Now, do you think I fired five or six? And if five, do I keep a live one under the hammer? It's all up to you. Are you feeling lucky, Punk?"
Scorpio was loosely based on the real-life Zodiac Killer
, who had committed five murders in the San Francisco Bay Area
several years earlier. In a later novelization of the film, Scorpio was referred to as "Charles Davis" by Lt. Bressler, a former mental patient from Springfield, Massachusetts
who murdered his grandparents while still a teenager. There are significant differences between the book and the film, and it can only be presumed that the differences in the book were taken from an early script draft. Among the differences are Scorpio's point of view as he uses astrology to make decisions (including being inspired to abduct Ann Mary Deacon), Harry working on a murder case involving a mugger before he is assigned to Scorpio, and the omission of the suicide jumper and Harry throwing away his badge at the end. Audie Murphy
was initially considered to play the Scorpio Killer, but he died in a plane crash before his decision on the offer could be made. When Kershner and Sinatra were still attached to the project, James Caan was under consideration for the role of Scorpio. The part eventually went to a relatively unknown actor, Andy Robinson. Eastwood had seen Robinson in a play called Subject to Fits and recommended him for the role of Scorpio, whose unkempt appearance fit the bill for a psychologically unbalanced hippie. Siegel told Robinson that he cast him in the role of the Scorpio killer because he wanted someone "with a face like a choirboy." Robinson's portrayal was so memorable that after the film was released he was reported to have received several death threats and was forced to get an unlisted telephone number. In real life, Robinson is a pacifist who deplores the use of firearms. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would reportedly flinch in discomfort every time he was required to use a gun. As a result director Don Siegel was forced to halt production briefly and sent Robinson for brief training in order to learn how to fire a gun convincingly. Despite this, he still blinked when firing guns during certain scenes involving shootouts. Robinson was also reportedly uncomfortable about filming the scenes where he verbally and physically abuses several schoolchildren.
Shortly thereafter, they hired writer Dean Riesner
to work on the script. Riesner worked previously with both Eastwood and Siegel as a writer on Coogan's Bluff
, and Play Misty for Me
. Screenwriter John Milius' contribution was also worked in by writing a draft of the film inspired by Akira Kurosawa's studies in lone-gun detectives, while director Siegel tackled the material from the viewpoint of bigotry.
As several ideas were added, and changed, many others were dropped, including a visit to Harry's hometown and an airport hijacking.
In the former, Harry and Chico drive around Potrero Hill questioning the residents after the scene of Charlie Russell's murder. As they continue to be greeted with suspicion from everyone, Harry begins to talk about how the people are raised mistrusting cops. He tells Chico that he grew up in Potrero Hill, and learned at an early age not to depend on the police. He soon decides that this case is not one that will be solved by the usual methods of police work, and that Scorpio will not be satisfied until he has made good on his threat to kill a priest. This scene was most likely included as part of Harry's character while he was still written as an older, disillusioned cop. As Harry gets his leg bandaged, listen for Steve Rogers to confirm the Potrero Hill background with the line, "We Potrero Hill boys gotta stick together."
One of the original ideas for the film's ending included a sequence with Scorpio kidnapping a group of schoolchildren at an airport, then attempting to hijack a plane. When the studio decided that the whole thing would be too expensive to film, it was Eastwood who suggested using the rock quarry for the ending. He remembered it from his childhood; having lived nearby, he had passed it often on drives with his parents. The abduction of the school children was still worked into the end of the film, basing it again on the real-life events of the Zodiac case, where the killer threatened to hijack a school bus full of children. The airport sequence eventually found its way into the series, being worked into the plot of Magnum Force.
The idea of a car chase was also dropped as Bullitt
(1968) had already set the bar for that. However, a car chase sequence was used in the sequel Magnum Force
.
, Eastwood's costume designer since Rawhide, was responsible for creating Callahan's distinctive old-fashioned brown and yellow checked jacket to emphasize his strong values in pursuing crime. Filming for Dirty Harry began in April 1971 and involved some risky stunts, with much footage shot at night and filming the city of San Francisco aerially which the film series is renowned for. Eastwood performed the stunt in which he jumps onto the roof of the hijacked school bus from a bridge, without a stunt double. His face is clearly visible throughout the shot. Eastwood also directed the suicide-jumper scene.
The line, "My, that's a big one," spoken by Scorpio when Callahan removes his gun, was an ad-lib
by Robinson. The crew broke into laughter as a result of the double entendre
and the scene had to be re-shot, but the line stayed.
The final scene, in which Callahan throws his badge into the water, is an homage to a similar scene from 1952's High Noon. Eastwood initially did not want to toss the badge, believing it indicated that Callahan was quitting the police department. Siegel argued that tossing the badge was instead Callahan's indication of casting away the inefficiency of the police force's rules and bureaucracy. Although Eastwood was able to convince Siegel not to have Callahan toss the badge, when the scene was filmed, Eastwood changed his mind and went with the current ending.
in the Kezar Stadium
in the last game of the season and thought the eerie Greek amphitheater-like setting would be an excellent location for shooting one of the scenes where Callahan encounters the psychopathic killer Scorpio.
In San Francisco, California
:
Other locations
famous for the Mission: Impossible
theme and soundtrack, who had previously collaborated with director Don Siegel
in the production of Coogan's Bluff
and The Beguiled
, both also starring Clint Eastwood. Schifrin fused a wide variety of influences, including classical music
, jazz
, psychedelic rock
, along with Edda Dell'Orso
-style vocals, into a score that "could best be described as acid jazz
some 25 years before that genre began." According to one reviewer, the Dirty Harry soundtrack's influence "is paramount, heard daily in movies, on television, and in modern jazz and rock music."
website Rotten Tomatoes
. It was nominated at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Best Motion Picture. The film caused controversy
when it was released, sparking debate over issues ranging from police brutality to victims' rights and the nature of law enforcement. Feminists
in particular were outraged by the film and at the Oscars for 1971
protested outside holding up banners which read messages such as "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig".
Many critics expressed concern with what they saw as bigotry
, with Newsweek
describing the film as "a right-wing fantasy", Variety
as "a specious, phony glorification of the police and police brutality with a superhero whose antics become almost satire" and a raging review by Pauline Kael
of The New Yorker
who accused Eastwood of a "single-minded attack against liberal values". Several people accused him of racism
in the decision to cast four African-Americans as the bank robbers. Eastwood dismissed the political outrage, claiming that Callahan was just obeying a higher moral authority, and said, "some people are so politically oriented, when they see cornflakes in a bowl, they get some complex interpretation out of it".
Jay Cocks
of Time
praised Eastwood's performance as Dirty Harry, describing him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character", Film critic Roger Ebert
, while praising the film's technical merits, denounced the film for its "fascist
moral position." A section of the Philippine
police
force ordered a print of the film for use as a training film.
However, the film's critical reputation has grown in stature and is commonly listed among the greatest films of all time. In 2008, Dirty Harry was selected by Empire
magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. It was placed similarly on The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made list by The New York Times
. In January 2010, Total Film
included the film on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. TV Guide
and Vanity Fair
also included the film on their lists of the 50 best movies.
, on December 22, 1971. The film made an approximate total of $36 million in the U.S. theatrical release, making it a major financial success in comparison with its modest $4 million budget.
owns rights to the Dirty Harry series. The studio first released the film to VHS and Betamax in 1979. Dirty Harry (1971) has been remastered for DVD three times — in 1998, 2001 and 2008. It has been repurposed for several DVD box sets. Dirty Harry made its high-definition debut with the 2008 Blu-ray Disc. The commentator on the 2008 DVD is Clint Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel
.
. The film was ranked #41 on 100 Years…100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. Harry Callahan was selected as the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains. The movie's famous quote "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was ranked 51st on 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes. Dirty Harry was also on the ballot for several other AFI's 100 series lists including 100 Years... 100 Movies
, 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), and 100 Years of Film Scores
.
American Film Institute
Lists
. In October 1972, soon after the release of the movie in Australia
, two armed men kidnapped a teacher and 6 school children in Victoria, Australia
. They demanded a $1 million ransom. The state government agreed to pay, but the children managed to escape and the kidnappers were subsequently jailed.
On September 1981, a case occurred in Germany
under circumstances quite similar to the Barbara Jane Mackle
case (though the Mail Online
network paper states that the idea with the box was inspired by Dirty Harry): A ten-year-old girl, Ursula Hermann, was buried alive in a box fitted with ventilation, lighting and sanitary systems to be held for ransom. Unfortunately, the girl suffocated in her prison because autumn leaves had clogged up the ventilation duct. 27 years later, a couple was arrested and tried for kidnapping and murder on circumstantial evidence. This case was also dealt with in the German TV series Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst.
.
The motif of a cop who cares more for justice than rules was one subsequently imitated by a number of other films. John Wayne
, who like Eastwood was associated with the Western genre, starred in McQ
and later Brannigan
. Sylvester Stallone
's Cobra and Judge Dredd
shares many elements with Dirty Harry, a cop with an obsession for justice, a law system that is more concerned about the criminal than the victim, and a psychotic killer. The film is also an adaption of the novel Fair Game and was originally intended by Stallone to be the basis of Beverly Hills Cop
while he was involved with the project. Stallone's own movie was plagiarised by Italian film producers for the Fred Williamson
Blaxploitation
film Black Cobra
, which also mimicked the famous 'Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?' scene from Dirty Harry.
Writers Shane Black
and Steven E. de Souza
have spoken of the film's influence on their characters of Martin Riggs
and John McClane
from the Lethal Weapon
and Die Hard
franchises.
The film can also be counted as the seminal influence on the Italian tough-cop films, Poliziotteschi
, which dominated the 1970s and that were critically praised in Europe and the U.S. as well.
Dirty Harry helped popularize the Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, chambered for the powerful .44 Magnum
cartridge. The film initiated an increase in sales of the powerful handgun, which continues to be popular forty years after the film's release. The .44 Magnum ranked second in a 2008 20th Century Fox
poll of the most popular film weapons, after only the lightsaber
of Star Wars fame. The poll surveyed approximately two thousand film fans. However, the only appearances of the Model 29 in the movie are in the close-ups: Any time Eastwood actually fired the revolver, he was shooting a Smith & Wesson Model 25 in .45 Colt. In 1971, .44 Magnum blanks were not available. However, as a result of decades of Hollywood Western movies there was an ample supply of 5-in-1 blank cartridges. As the Model 25 is built on the same Smith & Wesson N frame as the Model 29, it was simple to substitute it for the Model 29 in scenes where Eastwood had to shoot the revolver.
Director Don Siegel owned the actual Model 29 used in principal photography in Dirty Harry.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
, the first in the Dirty Harry series
Dirty Harry (film series)
Dirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood...
. Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department
San Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
Dirty Harry was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a whole genre of police films. The film was followed by four sequels: Magnum Force
Magnum Force
Magnum Force is a 1973 American police thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Ted Post, who also directed Eastwood in TV's Rawhide and the feature film Hang 'Em High, directed the second film in the Dirty Harry series...
in 1973, The Enforcer
The Enforcer (1976 film)
The Enforcer is a 1976 American film, and the third in the Dirty Harry film series. Directed by James Fargo, it stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore and DeVeren Bookwalter as terrorist leader/main antagonist Bobby Maxwell.-Plot:In Marin County,...
in 1976, Sudden Impact
Sudden Impact
Sudden Impact is a 1983 American crime thriller and the fourth film in the Dirty Harry series, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood...
in 1983 (directed by Eastwood himself), and The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool is a 1988 American action thriller film about the manipulation of a "dead pool" game by a serial killer, whose efforts are foiled by a hardened detective. It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series, set in San Francisco, California and starring Clint Eastwood as...
in 1988.
In 2008, Dirty Harry was selected by Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Plot
A sadisticSadistic personality disorder
Sadistic personality disorder is a diagnosis which appeared only in an appendix of the revised third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The current version of the DSM does not include it, so it is no longer considered a valid...
serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who calls himself "Scorpio" (Andy Robinson) murders a young woman in a San Francisco swimming pool, using a high-powered rifle from a nearby rooftop. SFPD
San Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
) finds a ransom message promising his next victims will be "a Catholic priest or a nigger" if the city does not pay $100,000. The chief of police and the Mayor
Mayor of San Francisco
The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....
(John Vernon
John Vernon
John Keith Vernon was a Canadian actor. He made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada.-Early life:...
) assign the inspector to the case.
While in a local diner, Callahan sees a bank robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
in progress and, alone with his revolver, he kills two of the robbers and wounds a third, challenging the man lying near a loaded shotgun:
After the robber surrenders, Callahan pulls the trigger, revealing the gun to be empty.
Assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni is an American film, television and voice actor.Santoni was born in New York City of French and Spanish descent.He began his career in off-Broadway theatre...
), Callahan complains that he needs someone experienced because his partners keep getting injured or worse. When Scorpio kills a young black boy from another rooftop, the police believe the killer will next pursue a Catholic priest. Callahan and Gonzalez wait for Scorpio near a Catholic church where a shootout ensues, but Scorpio escapes, killing an officer.
Scorpio kidnaps, rapes, and buries alive a teenage girl, then demands twice his previous ransom before the girl's air runs out. The mayor decides to pay, and tells Callahan to deliver the money with no tricks, but the inspector wears a wire
Covert listening device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and in police investigations.A bug does not have to be a device...
, brings a knife
Switchblade
A switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
, and has his partner follow him. As Scorpio sends Callahan to various payphone
Payphone
A payphone or pay phone is a public telephone, often located in a phone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money , a credit or debit card, or a telephone card....
s throughout the city to make sure he is alone, the chase ends at an enormous concrete cross in a public park. Scorpio brutally beats Callahan; Gonzalez arrives and saves his partner, but is wounded. Callahan stabs Scorpio in the leg, but the killer escapes without the money. Gonzalez survives his wound, but decides to resign from the force.
The doctor who treated Scorpio tells Callahan and his new partner, Frank DiGiorgio (John Mitchum
John Mitchum
John Mitchum was an American actor from the 1940s in films and, later, television. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the younger brother of Julie Mitchum and Robert Mitchum, he initially appeared in only unbilled and extra roles before gradually receiving bigger character parts in middle age...
), that he has seen Scorpio in Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the...
. Running out of time
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
, the officers search the killer's room without a warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
and Callahan shoots Scorpio in his wounded leg. When Scorpio refuses to reveal the location of the girl and instead asks for a lawyer, Callahan torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
s the killer by standing on the wounded leg. Scorpio confesses and the police exhume the dead girl.
Because Callahan broke into Scorpio's home illegally
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...
and improperly seized his rifle
Suppression of evidence
Suppression of evidence is a term used in the United States legal system to describe the lawful or unlawful act of preventing evidence from being shown in a trial. This could happen for several reasons. For example, if a judge believes that the evidence in question was obtained illegally, he can...
, the District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
decides that the killer cannot be charged. An outraged Callahan follows Scorpio on his own time. Scorpio pays a thug to give him a severe, but controlled beating, then claims that the inspector is responsible. Despite his protests to the contrary, Callahan is ordered to stop following Scorpio.
Scorpio kidnaps a school bus load
Carjacking
Carjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...
of children and demands another ransom and a plane to leave the country. The mayor again insists on paying but Callahan instead pursues Scorpio without authorization, jumping onto the top of the bus from a railroad trestle. The killer flees into a nearby rock quarry, where he has a running gun battle with Callahan. Scorpio retreats until he takes a young boy sitting near a pond as a hostage.
The inspector feigns surrender then wounds the killer. The boy runs away and Callahan stands over Scorpio, gun drawn. The inspector reprises his "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech. Scorpio lunges for his gun, and Callahan shoots him in the chest, propelling Scorpio into the water. As Callahan watches the dead body float on the surface, he takes out his inspector's badge and hurls it into the water and walks away.
Cast
- Clint EastwoodClint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
as SFPDSan Francisco Police DepartmentThe San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Homicide Inspector Harry Callahan - Andy Robinson as Charles "Scorpio" Davis
- Harry GuardinoHarry GuardinoHarry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...
as SFPDSan Francisco Police DepartmentThe San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Homicide Lt. Al Bressler - Reni SantoniReni SantoniReni Santoni is an American film, television and voice actor.Santoni was born in New York City of French and Spanish descent.He began his career in off-Broadway theatre...
as SFPDSan Francisco Police DepartmentThe San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Homicide Inspector Chico Gonzalez - John LarchJohn LarchJohn Larch was an American film and television actor.After his lead role in the radio serial Captain Starr of Space , John Larch entered films in 1954. He usually appeared in westerns and action films, including Miracle of the White Stallions as General George S. Patton Jr...
as Chief of PoliceSan Francisco Police DepartmentThe San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California... - John MitchumJohn MitchumJohn Mitchum was an American actor from the 1940s in films and, later, television. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the younger brother of Julie Mitchum and Robert Mitchum, he initially appeared in only unbilled and extra roles before gradually receiving bigger character parts in middle age...
as SFPDSan Francisco Police DepartmentThe San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
Homicide Inspector Frank "Fatso" DiGeorgio - John VernonJohn VernonJohn Keith Vernon was a Canadian actor. He made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada.-Early life:...
as The Mayor of San Francisco
- Ruth KobartRuth KobartRuth Kobart was an American performer, whose six-decade career encompassed opera, Broadway musical theatre, regional theatre, films, and television.-Life and career:...
as Marcella Platt (School Bus Driver) - Woodrow ParfreyWoodrow ParfreyWoodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. e appeared on Broadway in Advise and Consent .-Biography:...
as Jaffe - Lois ForakerLois ForakerLois Foraker is a television, film, and stage actress. She was in the original Broadway cast of Godspell in 1976 and played a nurse in M*A*S*H for three years.-Filmography:* Child's Play 3 * The Exorcist III * Gremlins...
as Hot Mary - Josef SommerJosef SommerJosef Sommer is an American film actor.He was born Maximilian Josef Sommer in Greifswald, Germany and was raised in North Carolina, the son of Elisabeth and Clemons Sommer, a professor of art history at the University of North Carolina. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology...
as District Attorney William T. Rothko - William Patterson as Bannerman
- Craig Kelly as Reineke
- Albert PopwellAlbert PopwellAlbert Popwell, , was an African American actor in television and films from the late 1960s. Born in New York City, Popwell started as a professional dancer before taking up a career in acting...
as Bank Robber
Development
The script, entitled Dead Right, was originally written by Harry JulianHarry Julian Fink
Harry Julian Fink, television and film writer, wrote for Have Gun – Will Travel and was one of the writers who created Dirty Harry.He wrote for various TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, and also created several, including NBC's T.H.E. Cat, starring Robert Loggia, and Tate starring David McLean.His...
and Rita M. Fink, a story about a hard-edged New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police inspector Harry Callahan, determined to stop Travis, a serial killer, by any means at his disposal. The role of Harry Callahan was originally written for John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, whom the Finks had just finished working with on Big Jake
Big Jake (film)
Big Jake is a 1971 Western film, filmed on location in Durango, Mexico, starring John Wayne and directed by George Sherman.Big Jake was released to box-office success and generally-positive critical reviews, despite a mixed reaction by John Wayne fans....
(1971). When they were trying to sell their script, the Finks used him as an example of how they envisioned the character. Wayne said he was not interested in the role, however; he felt the violence in the script was unjustified and glorified. In Michael Munn’s book John Wayne: The Man Behind The Myth, Wayne gives the reasons why he refused the part: “First is that they offered it to Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
first, but he'd hurt his hand and couldn't do it. I don't like being offered Sinatra's rejections. Put that one down to pride. The second reason is that I thought Harry was a rogue cop. Put that down to narrow-mindedness because when I saw the picture I realized that Harry was the kind of part I'd played often enough: a guy who lives within the law but breaks the rules when he really has to in order to save others. The third reason is that I was too busy making other pictures.” Wayne later regretted turning down the role, and went on to star in his own cop film, McQ
McQ
McQ is a 1974 crime drama starring John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Colleen Dewhurst. The film made extensive use of actual Seattle locations. The beach scenes were filmed on the Pacific coast at Moclips.The film features a young Roger E...
, which was directed by John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...
.
Originally, it was set in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, not San Francisco, California, and ended with a police sniper instead of Callahan taking out Scorpio. Another earlier version of the story was set in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. Four more drafts of the script were written. John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
wrote a draft dated 23 September 1970 inspired by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's studies in lone-gun detectives. Milius has also mentioned being influenced by a friend of his, a Long Beach police officer who dealt with criminals in a rather summary fashion. According to Milius, his friend "rarely brought people back" but was, contrastingly, extremely gentle with animals. Quite a bit of Milius' script remains in the finished film, including Harry's mystique and his "Do I feel lucky?" monologue. Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
wrote a draft of the film dated November 1970 (John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
and Harry Julian Fink
Harry Julian Fink
Harry Julian Fink, television and film writer, wrote for Have Gun – Will Travel and was one of the writers who created Dirty Harry.He wrote for various TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, and also created several, including NBC's T.H.E. Cat, starring Robert Loggia, and Tate starring David McLean.His...
are also named as co-writers) in which the shooter (also named Travis) was a vigilante who killed wealthy criminals who had escaped justice.
Malick's ideas formed the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force
Magnum Force
Magnum Force is a 1973 American police thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Ted Post, who also directed Eastwood in TV's Rawhide and the feature film Hang 'Em High, directed the second film in the Dirty Harry series...
, though with a group of vigilante motorcycle cops instead of a single shooter.
Eventually, the Finks sold their script to Universal. Already having Clint Eastwood under contract, Universal thought of using it as a vehicle for the actor, but they never followed up on the initial plans and they let the rights to the script run out.
When producer Jennings Lang
Jennings Lang
Jennings Lang was an American film producer, as well as a screenwriter and actor.- Biography :...
initially could not find an actor to take the role of Callahan, he sold the film rights to ABC Television. Although ABC wanted to turn it into a television film, the amount of violence in the script was deemed too excessive for television, so the rights were sold to Warner Bros.
Although Dirty Harry is arguably Clint Eastwood's signature role, he was not a top contender for the part.
Warner Bros. purchased the script with a view to cast Frank Sinatra in the lead. Sinatra was 55 at the time and since the character of Harry Callahan was originally written as a man in his mid to late 50's (and Eastwood only then 41), Sinatra fit the character profile.
Initially, Warner Bros. wanted either Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
or Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing quirky, independent films early in his career, and then Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. -Background:...
to direct. Kershner was eventually hired when Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
was attached to the title role. But when Sinatra eventually left the film, so did Kershner. Eastwood pushed for Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
when he was cast in the film.
Details about the film were first released in film industry trade papers in April, September and November 1970 with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
attached as Harry Callahan and Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing quirky, independent films early in his career, and then Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. -Background:...
listed as director and producer with Arthur Jacobson acting as associate producer. Originally the character of Harry Callahan was written as a man in his mid to late 50s. Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, and Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
were also offered the role. Mitchum dismissed this totemic role as "a piece of junk." In Dick Lochte‘s article, "Just One More Hangover: A Vodka-Soaked Afternoon with Robert Mitchum", he writes: Mitchum always got "those prices" in those days. "Somebody says, 'We really want you to do this script.' And I say, 'I'd need an awful lot of money in front to do that one.' And that never seems to be a problem. The less I like the script, the higher my price. And they pay. They may pay in yen, but they pay. Not that I'm a complete whore, understand. There are movies I won't do for any amount. I turned down Patton and I turned down Dirty Harry. Movies that piss on the world. If I've got $5 in my pocket, I don't need to make money that fucking way, daddy."
Sinatra actually accepted the role; however he had broken his wrist during the filming of The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
eight years previously, and during contract negotiations, he found the large handgun too unwieldy. Additionally, his father had recently died, and Sinatra decided he wanted to do some lighter material. In a 16 Nov 1970 Warner Bros. press release, it was announced that Sinatra would no longer be involved in the project. When Sinatra dropped out, so did Kershner.
After Sinatra left the project, the producers started to consider younger actors for the role. Burt Lancaster turned down the lead role because he strongly disagreed with the violent, right-wing morals of the story. He believed the role and plot contradicted his belief in a collective responsibility for criminal and social justice and the protection of individual rights. Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
was considered for the role, but was never formally approached. Both Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
and Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
turned down the role. McQueen refused to make another “cop movie” after Bullitt
Bullitt
Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L....
(1968). He would also turn down the lead in The French Connection
The French Connection
The French Connection or French Connection may refer to:* French Connection, an infamous 1960s-70s drug trafficking scheme* The French Connection , a 1969 non-fiction book about the drug trafficking scheme...
the same year, giving the same reason. Believing the character was too "right-wing" for him, Newman suggested that the film would be a good vehicle for Eastwood.
The screenplay was initially brought to Clint’s attention somewhere around 1969 by Jennings Lang and while still in post-production for his directorial debut film Play Misty for Me
Play Misty for Me
Play Misty for Me is a 1971 American psychological thriller film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, in his directorial debut. Jessica Walter and Donna Mills co-star. The original music score was composed by Dee Barton.-Plot:...
, Warner Bros offered him the part. By 17 December 1970 in a Warner Brothers studio press release it was announced that Clint Eastwood would star in as well as produce the film through his Malpaso Company.
One of Eastwood's stipulations for accepting the role was the change of locale to San Francisco. Eastwood has claimed that he took the role of Harry Callahan because of the character's obsessive concern with the victims of violent crime. Eastwood felt that the issue of victims' rights was being overshadowed by the political atmosphere of the time.
Eastwood was given a number of scripts, but he ultimately reverted to the original as the best vehicle for him. In a 2009 MTV Interview, Eastwood said, "So I said, 'I'll do it,' but since they had initially talked to me, there had been all these rewrites. I said, 'I'm only interested in the original script'." Looking back on the 1971 Don Siegel flick, he remembered, "[The rewrites had changed] everything. They had marine snipers coming on in the end. And I said, 'No. This is losing the point of the whole story, of the guy chasing the killer down. It's becoming an extravaganza that's losing its character.' They said, 'OK, do what you want.' So, we went and made it.".
Eastwood also agreed to star in the film only on the provision that Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
direct. Siegel was under contract to Universal at the time, and Eastwood personally went to the studio heads to ask them to 'loan' Siegel to Warner. The two had just completed the movie The Beguiled
The Beguiled
The Beguiled is a 1971 drama film directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. The script was written by Albert Maltz and is based on the 1966 Southern Gothic novel written by Thomas P. Cullinan, originally titled A Painted Devil...
(1970).
The "Bank Job" scene is different as well, and unfolds during a rainstorm. In addition to the tailpipe smoke, Harry notices that though people continue to enter, no one is exiting the bank. The biggest difference in the scene, though, is Harry's alternate "Do I feel lucky" monologue:
"You been counting? Well, was it five or was it six? Regulations say five...hammer down on the empty...only not all of us go by the book. What you have to do is think about it. I mean this is a forty-four magnum and it'll turn your head into hash. Now, do you think I fired five or six? And if five, do I keep a live one under the hammer? It's all up to you. Are you feeling lucky, Punk?"
Scorpio was loosely based on the real-life Zodiac Killer
Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women...
, who had committed five murders in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
several years earlier. In a later novelization of the film, Scorpio was referred to as "Charles Davis" by Lt. Bressler, a former mental patient from Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
who murdered his grandparents while still a teenager. There are significant differences between the book and the film, and it can only be presumed that the differences in the book were taken from an early script draft. Among the differences are Scorpio's point of view as he uses astrology to make decisions (including being inspired to abduct Ann Mary Deacon), Harry working on a murder case involving a mugger before he is assigned to Scorpio, and the omission of the suicide jumper and Harry throwing away his badge at the end. Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy
Audie Leon Murphy was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's July 16, 1945 issue , he became one the most famous soldiers of World War II and widely regarded as the most decorated American soldier of the war...
was initially considered to play the Scorpio Killer, but he died in a plane crash before his decision on the offer could be made. When Kershner and Sinatra were still attached to the project, James Caan was under consideration for the role of Scorpio. The part eventually went to a relatively unknown actor, Andy Robinson. Eastwood had seen Robinson in a play called Subject to Fits and recommended him for the role of Scorpio, whose unkempt appearance fit the bill for a psychologically unbalanced hippie. Siegel told Robinson that he cast him in the role of the Scorpio killer because he wanted someone "with a face like a choirboy." Robinson's portrayal was so memorable that after the film was released he was reported to have received several death threats and was forced to get an unlisted telephone number. In real life, Robinson is a pacifist who deplores the use of firearms. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would reportedly flinch in discomfort every time he was required to use a gun. As a result director Don Siegel was forced to halt production briefly and sent Robinson for brief training in order to learn how to fire a gun convincingly. Despite this, he still blinked when firing guns during certain scenes involving shootouts. Robinson was also reportedly uncomfortable about filming the scenes where he verbally and physically abuses several schoolchildren.
Shortly thereafter, they hired writer Dean Riesner
Dean Riesner
Dean Riesner was a prolific American film and television writer.Riesner's father was a silent film director, and Dean began acting in films at the age of five. His career at this young age ended because his mother wanted her son to have a real childhood...
to work on the script. Riesner worked previously with both Eastwood and Siegel as a writer on Coogan's Bluff
Coogan's Bluff (film)
Coogan's Bluff is a 1968 American Universal film directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Don Stroud, and Susan Clark...
, and Play Misty for Me
Play Misty for Me
Play Misty for Me is a 1971 American psychological thriller film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, in his directorial debut. Jessica Walter and Donna Mills co-star. The original music score was composed by Dee Barton.-Plot:...
. Screenwriter John Milius' contribution was also worked in by writing a draft of the film inspired by Akira Kurosawa's studies in lone-gun detectives, while director Siegel tackled the material from the viewpoint of bigotry.
As several ideas were added, and changed, many others were dropped, including a visit to Harry's hometown and an airport hijacking.
In the former, Harry and Chico drive around Potrero Hill questioning the residents after the scene of Charlie Russell's murder. As they continue to be greeted with suspicion from everyone, Harry begins to talk about how the people are raised mistrusting cops. He tells Chico that he grew up in Potrero Hill, and learned at an early age not to depend on the police. He soon decides that this case is not one that will be solved by the usual methods of police work, and that Scorpio will not be satisfied until he has made good on his threat to kill a priest. This scene was most likely included as part of Harry's character while he was still written as an older, disillusioned cop. As Harry gets his leg bandaged, listen for Steve Rogers to confirm the Potrero Hill background with the line, "We Potrero Hill boys gotta stick together."
One of the original ideas for the film's ending included a sequence with Scorpio kidnapping a group of schoolchildren at an airport, then attempting to hijack a plane. When the studio decided that the whole thing would be too expensive to film, it was Eastwood who suggested using the rock quarry for the ending. He remembered it from his childhood; having lived nearby, he had passed it often on drives with his parents. The abduction of the school children was still worked into the end of the film, basing it again on the real-life events of the Zodiac case, where the killer threatened to hijack a school bus full of children. The airport sequence eventually found its way into the series, being worked into the plot of Magnum Force.
The idea of a car chase was also dropped as Bullitt
Bullitt
Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L....
(1968) had already set the bar for that. However, a car chase sequence was used in the sequel Magnum Force
Magnum Force
Magnum Force is a 1973 American police thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Ted Post, who also directed Eastwood in TV's Rawhide and the feature film Hang 'Em High, directed the second film in the Dirty Harry series...
.
Principal photography
Glenn WrightGlenn Wright
Forest Glenn Wright, nicknamed "Buckshot" , was a former professional baseball player who played short stop in the Major Leagues from 1924-1935. Wright would play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Chicago White Sox...
, Eastwood's costume designer since Rawhide, was responsible for creating Callahan's distinctive old-fashioned brown and yellow checked jacket to emphasize his strong values in pursuing crime. Filming for Dirty Harry began in April 1971 and involved some risky stunts, with much footage shot at night and filming the city of San Francisco aerially which the film series is renowned for. Eastwood performed the stunt in which he jumps onto the roof of the hijacked school bus from a bridge, without a stunt double. His face is clearly visible throughout the shot. Eastwood also directed the suicide-jumper scene.
The line, "My, that's a big one," spoken by Scorpio when Callahan removes his gun, was an ad-lib
Ad libitum
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
by Robinson. The crew broke into laughter as a result of the double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
and the scene had to be re-shot, but the line stayed.
The final scene, in which Callahan throws his badge into the water, is an homage to a similar scene from 1952's High Noon. Eastwood initially did not want to toss the badge, believing it indicated that Callahan was quitting the police department. Siegel argued that tossing the badge was instead Callahan's indication of casting away the inefficiency of the police force's rules and bureaucracy. Although Eastwood was able to convince Siegel not to have Callahan toss the badge, when the scene was filmed, Eastwood changed his mind and went with the current ending.
Filming locations
One evening Eastwood and Siegel had been watching the San Francisco 49ersSan Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
in the Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the...
in the last game of the season and thought the eerie Greek amphitheater-like setting would be an excellent location for shooting one of the scenes where Callahan encounters the psychopathic killer Scorpio.
In San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
:
- 555 California Street
- California Hall, 625 Polk StreetPolk StreetPolk Street is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood traversing through the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill neighborhoods. The street takes its name from former U.S....
(until recently, the California Culinary AcademyCalifornia Culinary AcademyThe California Culinary Academy is an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu, and is located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1977, the academy has trained more than 15,000 people for restaurant careers through its 30-week baking and pastry chef program and 16-month culinary arts degree program...
) - San Francisco City HallSan Francisco City HallSan Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
- Hall of JusticeHall of JusticeA Hall of Justice is an occasional term for a city's police headquarters, and exists in cities across the United States. In some cases, the facility may also house courts as well as jails...
- 850 Bryant Street - Forest Hill Station
- Hilton San Francisco Financial DistrictHilton San Francisco Financial DistrictHilton San Francisco Financial District is a 27 story hotel located Chinatown's Portsmouth Square in San Francisco, California at 750 Kearny Street. Formerly the Holiday Inn San Francisco, the hotel re-opened in January 2006 after a renovation....
, 750 Kearny Street - rooftop swimming pool in opening scenes - Kezar StadiumKezar StadiumKezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the...
- Frederick Street, Golden Gate ParkGolden Gate ParkGolden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a... - Dolores ParkDolores ParkMission Dolores Park is a San Francisco, California, city park located in the neighborhood of Mission Dolores, at the western edge of the Mission District, which lies to the east of the park. To the west of the park is a hillside referred to as "Dolores Heights" or considered a part of the Castro...
, Mission District - Mount Davidson
- Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Washington Square, 666 Filbert Street
- Washington Square, North BeachWashington Square, San FranciscoWashington Square is a park in the North Beach district of San Francisco, California. The popular destination, for both locals and tourists, is surrounded by eating establishments and the Sts. Peter and Paul Church...
- Big Al'sBig Al'sBig Al's was one of the first topless bars in San Francisco and the United States since the mid 1960s. It was the first bottomless bar in San Francisco....
, 556 Broadway St. - Roaring 20's strip club, 552 Broadway
- North Beach, San Francisco
Other locations
- Larkspur LandingLarkspur LandingLarkspur Landing is the main Golden Gate Ferry terminal in Larkspur, Marin County, California. The terminal is a regional hub receiving heavy service from throughout the North Bay for commuter ferries to downtown San Francisco....
— scene of Callahan and Scorpio's showdown, known as the Hutchinson's Rock Quarry when filmed - Greenbrae, CaliforniaGreenbrae, CaliforniaGreenbrae is a small community in Marin County, California. It is located south-southeast of downtown San Rafael, at an elevation of 33 feet , located adjacent to U.S. Route 101 at the opening of the Ross Valley. Part of Greenbrae is an unincorporated community of the county while the remaining...
- Mill Valley, CaliforniaMill Valley, CaliforniaMill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay...
- Universal Studios HollywoodUniversal Studios HollywoodUniversal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...
— San Francisco Street (Hot dog café / Bank robbery sequence)
Music
The soundtrack for Dirty Harry was created by composer Lalo SchifrinLalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
famous for the Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
theme and soundtrack, who had previously collaborated with director Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
in the production of Coogan's Bluff
Coogan's Bluff (film)
Coogan's Bluff is a 1968 American Universal film directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Don Stroud, and Susan Clark...
and The Beguiled
The Beguiled
The Beguiled is a 1971 drama film directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. The script was written by Albert Maltz and is based on the 1966 Southern Gothic novel written by Thomas P. Cullinan, originally titled A Painted Devil...
, both also starring Clint Eastwood. Schifrin fused a wide variety of influences, including classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
, along with Edda Dell'Orso
Edda Dell'Orso
Edda Dell'Orso is an Italian singer, especially known for her collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone for which she provided wordless vocals to a large number of his film scores...
-style vocals, into a score that "could best be described as acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
some 25 years before that genre began." According to one reviewer, the Dirty Harry soundtrack's influence "is paramount, heard daily in movies, on television, and in modern jazz and rock music."
Critical reception
Dirty Harry was well received by critics and is regarded as one of the best films of 1971. The film holds a 95% approval rating on the review aggregateReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. It was nominated at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Best Motion Picture. The film caused controversy
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
when it was released, sparking debate over issues ranging from police brutality to victims' rights and the nature of law enforcement. Feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
in particular were outraged by the film and at the Oscars for 1971
44th Academy Awards
The 44th Academy Awards were presented April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Jack Lemmon. One of the major highlights of the evening was the appearance of Betty Grable, who was battling...
protested outside holding up banners which read messages such as "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig".
Many critics expressed concern with what they saw as bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
, with Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
describing the film as "a right-wing fantasy", Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
as "a specious, phony glorification of the police and police brutality with a superhero whose antics become almost satire" and a raging review by Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
who accused Eastwood of a "single-minded attack against liberal values". Several people accused him of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in the decision to cast four African-Americans as the bank robbers. Eastwood dismissed the political outrage, claiming that Callahan was just obeying a higher moral authority, and said, "some people are so politically oriented, when they see cornflakes in a bowl, they get some complex interpretation out of it".
Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks is a film critic and motion picture screenwriter.He is a graduate of Kenyon College. He was a critic for Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines, before moving into film writing....
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
praised Eastwood's performance as Dirty Harry, describing him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character", Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, while praising the film's technical merits, denounced the film for its "fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
moral position." A section of the Philippine
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
force ordered a print of the film for use as a training film.
However, the film's critical reputation has grown in stature and is commonly listed among the greatest films of all time. In 2008, Dirty Harry was selected by Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. It was placed similarly on The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made list by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. In January 2010, Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
included the film on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
also included the film on their lists of the 50 best movies.
Box office performance
The benefit world premiere of Dirty Harry was held at Loews Theater on Market Street (San Francisco)Market Street (San Francisco)
Market Street is an important thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It begins at The Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building at the northeastern edge of the city and runs southwest through downtown, passing the Civic Center and the Castro District, to the intersection with Corbett Avenue in...
, on December 22, 1971. The film made an approximate total of $36 million in the U.S. theatrical release, making it a major financial success in comparison with its modest $4 million budget.
Home media
Warner Home VideoWarner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
owns rights to the Dirty Harry series. The studio first released the film to VHS and Betamax in 1979. Dirty Harry (1971) has been remastered for DVD three times — in 1998, 2001 and 2008. It has been repurposed for several DVD box sets. Dirty Harry made its high-definition debut with the 2008 Blu-ray Disc. The commentator on the 2008 DVD is Clint Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
.
Legacy
Dirty Harry received recognition from the American Film InstituteAmerican Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
. The film was ranked #41 on 100 Years…100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. Harry Callahan was selected as the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains. The movie's famous quote "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was ranked 51st on 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes. Dirty Harry was also on the ballot for several other AFI's 100 series lists including 100 Years... 100 Movies
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
, 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), and 100 Years of Film Scores
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
.
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesAFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesThe first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 ThrillsAFI's 100 Years... 100 ThrillsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 heart-pounding movies in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 12, 2001, during a CBS special hosted by Harrison Ford....
- #41 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
:- Harry Callahan - #17 Hero
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesPart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
:- "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"- #51
- AFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresAFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
Real life copycat crime and killers
The film inspired a real-life crime, the Faraday School kidnappingFaraday School kidnapping
The Faraday School kidnapping occurred on 6 October 1972 at a one-teacher school in the village of Faraday in Victoria, Australia.- Incident :...
. In October 1972, soon after the release of the movie in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, two armed men kidnapped a teacher and 6 school children in Victoria, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. They demanded a $1 million ransom. The state government agreed to pay, but the children managed to escape and the kidnappers were subsequently jailed.
On September 1981, a case occurred in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
under circumstances quite similar to the Barbara Jane Mackle
Barbara Jane Mackle
Barbara Jane Mackle is an American heiress who was the survivor of a notorious crime. Her book about the ordeal was the basis of two television movies.-The crime:...
case (though the Mail Online
Mail Online
Mail Online is the name of the website of the Daily Mail, a newspaper in the United Kingdom. It contains almost all the stories from the Daily Mail and includes a large archive of main stories...
network paper states that the idea with the box was inspired by Dirty Harry): A ten-year-old girl, Ursula Hermann, was buried alive in a box fitted with ventilation, lighting and sanitary systems to be held for ransom. Unfortunately, the girl suffocated in her prison because autumn leaves had clogged up the ventilation duct. 27 years later, a couple was arrested and tried for kidnapping and murder on circumstantial evidence. This case was also dealt with in the German TV series Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst.
Influence
Eastwood's iconic portrayal of the blunt, cynical, unorthodox detective who is seemingly in perpetual trouble with his incompetent bosses, set the style for a number of his later roles and, indeed, a whole genre of "loose-cannon" cop films. The film resonated with an American public that had become weary and frustrated with the increasing violent urban crime that was characteristic of the time. The film was released at a time when throughout 1970 and 1971 there were prevalent reports of local and federal police committing atrocities and overstepping their authority by entrapment and obstruction of justice. Author McGilligan, argued that America needed a hero, a winner at a time when the authorities were losing the battle against crime. The box-office success of Dirty Harry led to the production of four sequelsDirty Harry (film series)
Dirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood...
.
The motif of a cop who cares more for justice than rules was one subsequently imitated by a number of other films. John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, who like Eastwood was associated with the Western genre, starred in McQ
McQ
McQ is a 1974 crime drama starring John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Colleen Dewhurst. The film made extensive use of actual Seattle locations. The beach scenes were filmed on the Pacific coast at Moclips.The film features a young Roger E...
and later Brannigan
Brannigan (film)
Brannigan is a British action film set principally in London, directed by Douglas Hickox, and starring John Wayne and Richard Attenborough...
. Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
's Cobra and Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd (film)
Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Danny Cannon, and starring Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante, and Max von Sydow. The film is based on the strip of the same name in the British comic 2000 AD...
shares many elements with Dirty Harry, a cop with an obsession for justice, a law system that is more concerned about the criminal than the victim, and a psychotic killer. The film is also an adaption of the novel Fair Game and was originally intended by Stallone to be the basis of Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American comedy-action film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox...
while he was involved with the project. Stallone's own movie was plagiarised by Italian film producers for the Fred Williamson
Fred Williamson
Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is an American actor, architect, and former professional American football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s.-Football career:...
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
film Black Cobra
Black Cobra (film series)
Black Cobra is an Italian Blaxploitation series of four action films. All of its films are centered around Robert 'Bob' Malone , a maverick police detective who deals out his own brand of justice....
, which also mimicked the famous 'Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?' scene from Dirty Harry.
Writers Shane Black
Shane Black
Shane Black is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He contributed to some of the biggest blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including work on Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout...
and Steven E. de Souza
Steven E. de Souza
Steven E. de Souza is an American producer, director and screenwriter. He is among a handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the worldwide box office.-Life and career:...
have spoken of the film's influence on their characters of Martin Riggs
Martin Riggs
Martin Riggs is a fictional police officer and protagonist from the Lethal Weapon franchise. He is played in all four films by Mel Gibson.- Military career :...
and John McClane
John McClane
John McClane is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Die Hard film series, portrayed by Bruce Willis.-Development and description:...
from the Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American buddy cop action film and the first in a series of films, all directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a mismatched pair of LAPD detectives, and Gary Busey as their primary adversary...
and Die Hard
Die Hard
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
franchises.
The film can also be counted as the seminal influence on the Italian tough-cop films, Poliziotteschi
Poliziotteschi
Poliziotteschi films constitute a sub-genre of crime and action film that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s...
, which dominated the 1970s and that were critically praised in Europe and the U.S. as well.
.44 Magnum
The .44 Remington Magnum, or simply .44 Magnum, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After introduction, it was quickly adopted for carbines and rifles...
cartridge. The film initiated an increase in sales of the powerful handgun, which continues to be popular forty years after the film's release. The .44 Magnum ranked second in a 2008 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
poll of the most popular film weapons, after only the lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
of Star Wars fame. The poll surveyed approximately two thousand film fans. However, the only appearances of the Model 29 in the movie are in the close-ups: Any time Eastwood actually fired the revolver, he was shooting a Smith & Wesson Model 25 in .45 Colt. In 1971, .44 Magnum blanks were not available. However, as a result of decades of Hollywood Western movies there was an ample supply of 5-in-1 blank cartridges. As the Model 25 is built on the same Smith & Wesson N frame as the Model 29, it was simple to substitute it for the Model 29 in scenes where Eastwood had to shoot the revolver.
Director Don Siegel owned the actual Model 29 used in principal photography in Dirty Harry.