Review of Dirty Harry (1971) by Jim H — 24 Jul 2012

A police officer who has no respect for the law tracks a killer holding the city for ransom.

I don't think it's only because I didn't like the eponymous character that I didn't like the film as a whole. The killer has no motivations for his actions other than the cliched "He's just crazy," and the establishment's actions, personified by the mayor and police chief's conservative dealings with the killer, wreak of a contrived set-up to make Harry appear "heroic" - what the film considers "heroic" - by contrast. How heroism is constructed in this film is what makes it most interesting. I don't see it as a satire; rather, I think the film honestly thinks of Harry Callahan as a hero. And who is he? Well, he taunts victims, kills often, has no respect for the law, and takes matters into his own hands with aplomb. I can understand why America would take him as a cultural icon; we don't like rules and restrictions and often valorize rugged individualists. So I understand why Dirty Harry was made, and I understand why people like it, but America was founded on a combination of communitarian and individualist values, a fact the film elides.

Overall, Dirty Harry is a cliched action film, and the only thing about it that's interesting is why people like it.