Stars: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, John Mitchum, Andrew Robinson, John Larch

Director: Don Siegel

Summary: Clint stars as Harry Callahan, a truculent San Francisco police detective well known for his vicious take-no-prisoners attitude toward criminals. With the city of San Francisco being terrorized by the psychotic killer known only as Scorpio (a character that is firmly based on San Francisco's Zodiac Killer), Harry is assigned by the mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler to try to stop him, pairing him with reluctantly accepted new partner Chico. Scorpio kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and buries her alive, demanding a $200,000 ransom for her return. Harry is to bring him the money--alone.

A tremendously controversial film, both decried as an apologia for fascism and hailed as the solution to a decade of rising crime, DIRTY HARRY propelled Clint Eastwood's career into the stratosphere while adding another archetype to join his Man with No Name in film iconography. Clint stars as Harry Callahan, a truculent San Francisco police detective well known for his vicious take-no-prisoners attitude toward criminals. With the city of San Francisco being terrorized by the psychotic killer known only as Scorpio (a character that is firmly based on San Francisco's Zodiac Killer), Harry is assigned by the mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) to try to stop him, pairing him with reluctantly accepted new partner Chico (Reni Santoni). Scorpio kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and buries her alive, demanding a $200,000 ransom for her return. Harry is to bring him the money--alone.

What follows is one of the most exciting ransom deliveries in film history. The prototype for most of the action films through the rest of the century, DIRTY HARRY rises far above most of them due mostly to an excellent script and Eastwood's gripping acting. That said, the main character's contemptuous attitude toward the Miranda law seems far more damning now that it did in the early 1970s.

Callahan's exploits proved extremely popular and the inevitable sequel, MAGNUM FORCE was released two years later, and in turn was followed by a further three sequels, THE ENFORCER (1976), SUDDEN IMPACT (1983) and THE DEAD POOL (1989). Though the sequels are of varying quality, none diminish the importance of the original, which is now considered a classic.

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"Dirty" Harry Callahan was one of the first screen characters to embody contemporary fears about crime--and the uncompromising response to it that much of the audience would liked to have seen. Clint Eastwood's laconic rogue cop became an instant screen icon; his catchphrases ("Do you feel lucky?", "Make my day") were and still are endlessly quoted, and he even inspired a futuristic comic-strip counterpart in the person of Judge Dredd. Made at the time when the real "Zodiac" serial killer was terrorising San Francisco, the original Dirty Harrystruck a frighteningly realistic note in 1971: aside from Eastwood, director Don Siegel's taught, pacey direction, Lalo Schifrin's nervy jazz score and Andrew Robinson's cackling psycopath "Scorpio" all make a strong impact. Such was the film's success that it gave rise to no less than four sequels, none of which are its equal but all of which get by on the charisma of Eastwood's anti-hero, even when he's increasingly trapped by the character's one-dimensional persona.

This five-disc box set contains all the "Harry" movies: Dirty Harry(1971); Magnum Force(1973, with David Soul as a vigilante bike cop); The Enforcer(1976, with Tyne "Lacey" Daly as Harry's new and reluctant partner); Sudden Impact(1983, the weakest of the lot costarring Eastwood's then-partner Sondra Locke) and The Dead Pool(1988, a surprisingly upbeat end to the series). --Mark Walker

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Documentary - 1. CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF AN AMERICAN HERO, Interviews, Documentary - 1. DIRTY HARRY THE ORIGINAL (3O mins), Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical
Year:	1971
Release Date:	July 4, 2005
Runtime:	98 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 021516
Keywords:	Special, Action, Dirty, General, Edition, Harry, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure