DIRTY HARRY
"I know what you're thinking . . . "(1971) Director: Don Siegel
The movie opens with a scrolling of the names of fallen
police officers on a memorial, but it's all about Clint! (In
case you don't get that from the poster, which makes it look
like the name of the movie is "Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry".)
Eastwood appears as his name comes on screen in an above-the-line credit. He is "Inspector 'Dirty Harry' Calahan", a renegade cop with an overdeveloped sense of justice (or is it?). In this the ends-justifies-the-means opus, he is let loose on San Francisco to bring down an alarmingly sick individual [as creepy (for his time) as Hannibal Lechter] who is killing the innocent.
Calahan is a big weapon carrying a bigger one. The credits
should have read: Introducing the
.44 Magnum!
"The
most powerful handgun in the world." Big man, big
gun, big attitude—It's really all an Action Movie needs; provided he's
allowed to use them. And it's not like they can stop him: you gotta
love that!
DEADLY SCORPIO
Investigating the murder of a young
woman who was shot while swimming in a high-rise rooftop pool,
Calahan finds the shooter's perch and a note left to the City of San
Francisco demanding $100,000, or he will kill one person
every day until the money is paid (the note says he'll kill a
priest or an 'n-word'). The killer signs the note "Scorpio". (Probably inspired by
the Zodiac killer
who terrorized San Francisco in the
late 1960s.) The actor playing the part is Andy Robinson.
He is so creepy and so good in the role, it followed him.
According to
an interview with Robinson: "In the
business, once you get associated with a character as defining
and as strong as the Scorpio killer, people don't want to hire
you for the good guy . . .. I was so identified with that one
particular 'heavy' because . . . it was the first of its kind."
Robinson is modest, crediting the role and not his performance
of it. Robinson should have gotten an award for this part, but Action
Movies almost never get the recognition they deserve.
Scorpio's note is
then read by the Mayor who is meeting with Calahan's boss and
the Chief of Police. The Mayor has decided they will not pay,
but will put an ad in the paper (as instructed) to stall. During
this discussion, Calahan is left outside in the reception area.
When he's finally called in and the Mayor asks what he's been
doing, Calahan answers (with attitude):
"For the past
three-quarters of an hour I've been sitting on my ass in your
outer office, waiting on you."
Clearly,
he doesn't have much respect for authority (an Action Movie standard), and feels he was wasting precious time over
protocol. Calahan wants to
handle things his way. At this point, the Chief of Police
turns his back on Calahan. The Mayor tells
Calahan he doesn't want to have a repeat of the way he
handled the last incident he was involved in (he blew the
suspect away). When you hear Calahan explain it, he was clearly
in the right, and you begin to be on his side. You also see that
it's going to be Calahan's methods versus the police
department's, and the law . . . and just :09 minutes into the movie (thanks
Syd Field) we have the set up: Stop the
killer before he kills again: but which way is going to work,
Calahan's or the City's? It's a nice visual association that the Chief
of Police is in dress uniform with the same gold shield seen on
the memorial. As a symbol, it suggests that their way gets cops
killed. Also, when they cut away from the shield in the memorial
at the opening of the movie, Scorpio's rifle seems to be aimed
at it.)
ENTER THE MAGNUM
In the next scene, on his way to a greasy spoon ("Burger Den")
for lunch, Calahan spots a car parked in front of a bank,
engine running. ( A tell-tale sign it's been there a while is the
chain-smoking driver's cigarette butts on the street.) Calahan parks his car, enters Burger Den
[MOVIE TRIVIA (photo above): the movie on the marquee in the theater nearby is "Play Misty
For Me"], is
greeted by name, and orders "the usual". The cook asks "The
usual lunch or the usual dinner?" Calahan answers "Well, what difference does it make?" Apparently
he eats the same thing for both: a jumbo hot dog. (A man with regular habits and a down-to-earth
palate. This kind of man can be relied on.) While the cook gets
it for him, Calahan asks the cook if the car is still there. He
tells the cook to call the police department and say there is a
"two-eleven in progress". Telling himself to wait for backup to
arrive, he takes his first enormous bite of his jumbo hot
dog, but then the bank alarm sounds, and he has to go it alone. He walks out to the street to
investigate, gun drawn, still chewing the hot dog. (I LOVE THAT!
What a bad ass.) A cowboy walking calmly into chaos with a
cannon.
The bank robbers come out and Calahan yells "Halt". The first bank robber out the door fires at Calahan. Calahan's gun is so powerful, one bullet takes out anyone he hits. He gets the first robber, but misses the second who then dives into the getaway car. The car speeds straight for him, but Calahan stays rooted to the spot—cool as a cucumber—and shoots the getaway driver, but misses the second robber, and the car wrecks.
The second robber gets out of the car and makes a run for it, firing at Calahan. There is a point where a shot is fired but you only hear it, they don't show who fired it, so you're not sure whether to count it or not. Counting it, Calahan returns fire with his last shot (but you don't know that for sure yet) at the second robber, taking him down. At this point, still chewing the hot dog, Calahan notices he's been shot in the leg (buckshot by the look of the blood pattern and the fact that Calahan didn't even flinch: nice contrast to the stopping power of the .44). He just keeps walking, no limp, and goes to stand over the first wounded robber in front of the bank door, gun still drawn and the (VERY BIG) barrel aimed at the camera. This is the iconic shot from this movie.
For its time, this gun battle in the street was as shocking as the gun battle in Heat (DeNiro/Pacino). It had that world-gone-mad feel, and Calahan stepped in all alone to clean it up, like BAM BAM BAM! The wounded robber seems as if he's going to try to grab for his gun, which has fallen within reach on the sidewalk. I like to think he didn't think of it before (grabbing his gun and shooting at Calahan as he approached) because he felt it was over, but after he saw Calahan's face, the robber probably thought he was about to be shot, so then he thought about grabbing his weapon.
What we hear next is
ACTION MOVIE HISTORY:
"I
know what you're thinking . . ."
did he fire 6 shots or only 5? Well, to tell you the truth in
all this excitement, I've kind of lost track myself. But being
as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world,
and would blow your head clean off, you gotta ask yourself one
question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
The robber
backs down and Calahan picks up the robber's gun and starts to walk away but
the robber tells Calahan he has to know (whether or not he
had a bullet left). How Callahan
shows him is by firing. That's cold! But it lets you know that Calahan knew exactly
how many shots he fired. He was just playing with the perp. He stone
faced pulls the trigger, then laughs and walks away. You have to
marvel at the balls it must have taken to walk over there knowing his gun
was empty. You also see that Calahan's take-no-shit way is deadly
effective in law enforcement. He is putting his life on the
life. You shoot at him and miss, I think it's only fair he
shoots at you. The .44 Magnum just makes sure you never get up again.
Callahan's way sure saves money on bullets and trials.
THE
"DIRTY" TRUTH
It takes a 'dirty' cop to clean up a mess, and the
Mayor's refusal to pay the ransom creates one. They give
us lots of reasons Calahan's called "Dirty" Harry.
•The first is a joke—"Harry hates everybody". This scene was not meant to imply Harry is racist, rather that he's a loner (self-reliant), and as a little hazing for his new (Mexican) partner. [Later when he's being treated for the wound in his leg, they show Calahan's doctor is African American and that they are friends—the doctor mentions the neighborhood they both grew up in, and we learn Harry was married (they hint at it and we learn later that his wife died).]
•The second is that Harry might be a pervert. "I just had another thought . . . about why they call you 'Dirty' Harry". This is a funny scene as Calahan is thought to be a peeping Tom. He isn't though, as the garbage can he is standing on gets knocked out from under him before he sees anything, so we don't know for sure if he would have looked anyway. The topless 'lady' in question, "Hot Mary" is rather heavy (I'm being nice), and runs to the window to look out without covering herself, then runs around to pull the shade on another window without bothering to cover herself. And where's her 'boyfriend' while she's standing there on view? (You can't 'peep' on an exhibitionist.) Just before they ended up outside Hot Mary's window, Calahan and his new partner "Chico Gonzalez" were on patrol in the red light district. He remarks, and his partner agrees, that he'd like to put a net over the whole thing to round up all the crazies. Gives you an idea what the cops are up against.
•The third, Harry delivers himself: "Now you know why they call me 'Dirty' Harry: Every dirty job that comes along". Calahan is asked to talk down a jumper, and rides up to the rooftop ledge on a cherry picker. He's hardly sympathetic. In fact, he doesn't try to be nice at all. He's such a "rotten bastard" to the guy that he pisses him off to the point that he tries to punch Calahan. So Calahan knocks him out and brings him down, further demonstrating Calahan's got his own way of doing things. (This scene was copied but kicked up a notch later in Lethal Weapon for Mel Gibson.)
•The fourth, his partner comes up with regarding the way the
Police Department treats Calahan:
"He always gets the
shit end of the stick."
DOING IT THEIR WAY
When the City's stalling tactic doesn't work, their method cost more
lives. When he sees their reply in the paper, Scorpio tries to
kill an African-American man. Thwarted from this by a daytime
helicopter patrol, Scorpio's second victim is an African-American boy
(as promised in his note). Calahan thinks Scorpio's going to
kill a priest as well anyway but under cover of night this time, so
he and Gonzalez wait for him on another
rooftop near the one overlooking the church where Scorpio was spotted earlier. [This
scene makes you realize how useful night vision goggles will
be.] Harry (and the movie audience) now get to peep a little as
there is some more gratuitous female nudity that
distracts Calahan long enough to let the killer get onto the
roof. This scene shows us Calahan's a man and can't help but
look (the woman answers her door naked like it's nothing so
again it kinda doesn't count 'cause she's so willing to
expose
herself) , but also what he says makes us realize it's probably been
a long time since he's seen a woman naked, and that
means he's
probably still grieving and/or works too much (both of which
make him more likeable). After a gun battle between Clint
and Scorpio, Scorpio gets
away and a cop in the wrong place at the wrong time is killed in the process;
more blood on the City's hands. (Scorpio has an automatic
weapon but Calahan uses a
.458
(Winchester) Magnum rifle which can "stop an
elephant" and has one
hell of a recoil. This scene was
kind of unbelievable at the time. The .44 Magnum was already
crazy big but the rifle was so over the top—it was great!)
Now Scorpio is really mad and kidnaps a 14-year-old girl, threatening to kill her by 3:00 AM if he doesn't get the money. With two more dead and a clock started, the city finally comes up with the money, which Scorpio has doubled ($200,000). Calahan is sure that even if they find the girl in time, she will already be dead, but he agrees to be the bag man. Stupidly, the Inspector's orders are for Calahan to go alone and he refuses to let Gonzalez tail Calahan; but he's kinda stuck in the middle.
The kidnapping was no doubt based on the Barbara Jane Mackle kidnapping dubbed "the girl in the box", the most shocking crime of its time (December 1968), predating the Manson murders by 8 months (August 1969). The idea of being buried alive who knows where while the kidnappers waited for the ransom, and the thought that she wouldn't be found in time and would die, was horrific for the time (and now, but now we've since been desensitized by worse). If you're too young to remember this photo probably looks tame to you, but at the time it created feelings as deep as only the most graphic photos can today). Luckily, the real life girl was rescued alive after 3 days.1
DOING IT CALAHAN'S WAY
Scorpio sends Calahan on a wild goose chase just to make sure he is
alone. He isn't. His partner (off duty) is following, and hears
what's going on on a wire. Since the Department wouldn't let Gonzalez come
along on the delivery, Calahan's way was to get the boss
to give Gonzalez the night off, and then the two work together anyway.
(You gotta love
Calahan's do-it-my-way/get-it-done methods!)
On his run from phone booth to phone booth (just try to find
one of those these days), Calahan almost gets mugged/robbed, and
he is propositioned.
San Francisco sure seems 'alive' at night: what with red light
district, peeping toms
in alleys, muggers in tunnels, and necking kids and desperate gay men in parks .
. . Callahan arrives at Scorpio's chosen destination and
is disarmed. Scorpio then kicks the shit out of him and is about
to shoot him, but Gonzalez arrives just in time to save his life.
(Good thing Calahan made sure he wasn't alone, huh?) Scorpio
fires back at Gonzalez and gets stabbed in the leg
by Calahan. This is an epic moment
as
Scorpio squeals like a stuck pig.
[Do you need further proof that you can find
ANYthing on YouTube?] Scorpio escapes but drops the money.
Gonzalez is wounded and ends up in the hospital, so Calahan gets up paired with "Frank 'Fatso' DiGiorgio". They catch a lucky break when the doctor in the emergency room who treated Scorpio for his knife wound remembers that Scorpio lives in a nearby stadium. Calahan busts into Scorpio's apartment (where he finds his rifle) and then hunts Scorpio down chasing him across the football field, just as "Fatso" turns the stadium lights on. Scorpio just won't shut up and Calahan takes aim and BAM!, shoots that cannon and down goes Scorpio. Next, Calahan steps on Scorpio's wound (he barely nicked his bad leg) to try to get him to tell him where the girl is. You can bet Scorpio tells, all the while screaming about his rights, but Calahan gets him to tell where the girl is buried and, of course, Calahan was right: They find the girl 'in time' but she was already dead when she went in. (Calahan looks away when they pull the girl out of the hole in the ground. She's naked, so it shows some respect on his part and an attempt to give her some dignity in death.)
Calahan's methods come back to bite him in the ass as
the District Attorney says they can't use the weapon found in
Scorpio's apartment, and that because Calahan tortured Scorpio while
questioning him, this violated his civil rights. Love this line:
"Well, I'm all broken up about that man's rights." The D.A. cites Escobedo and
Miranda. (Escobedo v. Illinois
was 1964 and
Miranda 1966.
By this time there was some backlash over criminals getting over
on technicalities.2 A theme further explored in the 2nd movie in
the Dirty Harry series, "The Enforcer".) So Scorpio
walks.
DEADLY INTENTIONS
Calahan is convinced Scorpio will kill again—that it's just
a matter of time. He follows him (what would be considered stalking
now) to keep an eye on him, so Scorpio hires someone to beat him
up so he can say Calahan did it and get him off his back. When
Scorpio does make another move, he takes a busload of school
kids as hostages. The Mayor now decides (4 victims later) to
fully cooperate.
Overhearing Scorpio say where he'll be, Calahan refuses to be
the bag man this time, but takes off on his own to lie in wait for Scorpio.
Another great moment! When Scorpio sees Calahan standing on the
overpass, he takes a major dump. It's like a mythic moment.
Totally Super Cop.
DEADLY FORCE
Scorpio flees the school bus in total terror of Calahan abandoning all
those hostages but grabs a kid who happens to be fishing as a
hostage. He tells Calahan to drop his weapon. When you see
Calahan lower his weapon, you can't believe he could have come this far
just to lose because he has been put in this situation. Distracted with satisfaction,
Scorpio moment of victory ends when Calahan, instead of dropping
the gun, whips it back up to shoot Scorpio—the kid makes a
run for it. Now Scorpio's wounded and on the ground, weapon
nearby, and we're back where we started:
"I know what you're thinking . . .."
What we're thinking is, we forgot to count! This time the suspect grabs for his weapon, and this time Calahan has a bullet left. Such a justified kill the satisfaction fairly bursts from the screen.
The moral of the story: never drop the gun—'drop' the
suspect!
BIG BAM BOOM
The movie began with the symbolic badge, and ends with Callahan flinging his badge
(hard) into the river. After his conversation with Gonzalez's
wife about why he still does it (police work) since his wife
died (killed by a drunk driver), Calahan seems to wonder
himself. Following what happens in this movie, I was surprised
to see he was still on the force in the next movie but it's as
if the pendulum swings to the other extreme and that makes for
more interesting cops versus criminals debate. In the end,
this movie works so well because it's a one-man show and the man
is Clint Eastwood. I get tired of people who think he can't
act because he's the opposite of Al Pacino. There's a lot
of power and strength (and restraint and maturity) in silence.
Who are you more afraid of, the screaming idiot or the guy who
stands still and just stares at you? (Just like men don't
like women who talk a lot, women don't like men who talk a lot
either!) I like the irony of Scorpio
wearing a peace sign belt. Seems another clear indication that
Scorpio was crazy. While the Mayor's office did a 180-degree
turnaround on paying criminals not to commit crimes, Calahan
stayed true to his way of doing things throughout the movie. He
even gave up his job to do the right thing (stop Scorpio). And
if he hadn't appeared to handle the situation, you can bet that Scorpio would have killed all those kids.
This is one of the few times I disagreed with movie critic
extraordinaire Pauline Kael.
She brought too much personal baggage to her view of the movie
and of the San Francisco police. She sides with the criminal
(instead of Harry) "But
since crime is caused deprivation, misery, psychopathology, and
social injustice, Dirty Harry is a deeply immoral movie."
I couldn't disagree more. She leaves out evil. I think
there comes a point when no one gives a damn about what caused a
person to do what they did. I believe there is evil. This movie
was so popular because it hit a nerve with people who believed
in this case Harry was right to dispense justice with a .44
Magnum. Take that-BAM! With Harry's way, nobody but the
killer got killed. That speaks for itself. NONE of the
rest of us (action movie fans) was broken up over that man's
rights.
3
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1 I remember this particularly because she was from my hometown (Coral Gables), but also because I can never forget that photograph.
2 http://www.kamalaharris.org/media/102 "By the early 1970s, there was a backlash to the liberal jurisprudence of the 1960s. The Supreme Court lost Earl Warren, who was replaced by Warren Burger. The country was split over the war (Vietnam 1959-1974). And so there came increasing calls for a crack down on crime and subsequently the development of a national model of crime suppression."
3 I always wondered why Inspector Callahan is number 71 but his badge number is 2211.
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Great Dirty Harry locations site: http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/DirtyHarry/ San Francisco is a star in the movie and the cinematography gives us a great sense a sense of scale and the personality of the City.
