Review of Dirty Harry (1971) by Jayson Q — 02 Mar 2010

Violent, rough, and visceral, "Dirty Harry" starts off with a startling shooting and continues to blow away your expectations as it goes. Arranged as vignettes attached to a main plot, the film is all about showing us how abnormal Harry is as a cop/person.

There is a small disconnect where you start to question how Callahan miraculously keeps coming upon these crime scenes where every other officer is clueless to what they need to do, but Eastwood is so mesmerizing that you put that aside and just get giddy to see him punch or shoot someone else.

What also helps to keep the audience interested is the beauty of the gorilla camera work. Siegel chooses some visually exciting locations to place his camera and characters in, which counteracts a smaller budget.

But besides all that (and this comes from being a guy), what is still most shocking/impressive/exciting are the stunts and gore effects. They are tangible and believable in a way that CGI cars or blood or explosions will never be.

It's just simple, down and dirty filmmaking that the 70's excelled at.