Review of Dirty Harry (1971) by Jeongjun P — 06 Aug 2010

Sometimes we feel hard to judge what should I do or what shouldn't I do. Usually that is caused by crush between my justice and public justice. In this movie, 'Dirty Harry', there ase also that kind of trouble. Which one is right? Which one should I choose?

Wild police officer vs. a psycho. It's everything about this movie. The main character Harry Kallahan's nickname is 'dirty harry' and he is a cop. He do every dirty job in city like commit suicide , bank robbery, murder case and so on. All of situation is his work even every doesn't want a case, he took that case. But he never complain about that. He seems he fit to his job, policeman.

One day, he get a case about a psycho named Scorpio. Scorpio is a serial killer and he kidnaped a 14-year-old girl. He make demend on the police department for money. The police department have no choice because he threat with people's life. So, the police department send Harry to carry money to Scorpio. Harry start to contact with Scorpio using public phone.

In this movie, enemy of Harry was Scorpio but I don'y think so. I think Harry's real enemy was the law. He had to make decision between the law and his own justice. He chose his own justice and he skipped Miranda rule. I think he must not do that. Principle is a common rule. People make principle based on their experiences and usually that is most safe and effective. If someone start to ignore the principle that causes huge problem. Even if the person who ignored the principle made great job that still have huge problem. Because the success may make him arrogant. And it also affect to another organisms so eventually they all won't follow the principle and that make the situation more danger. Harry was a veteran cop so he shouldn't have to skip the Miranda rule. And the last scene, he should have to save hostages first but he didn't do that and chased Scorpio. He even took care of hostage but he made dangerous situation, and if they were unlucky they had car accident and they all dead.

This society needs that kind of men who handle all kind of work without complain even if it is dirty. Harry was fit to this condition but he leave everything to his luck. It's not rational. Person who protect people should not have to do that-it's my opinion.

I felt bored when I watching this movie because there are many movies which had same kind of plot, wild policeman and his agony. And I don't like their acting about gunfight scene. Harry used magnum 44' but he never use two hands when he shoot. He seemed he never traind well but he hit very well(magnum 44' have very huge recoil and we should keep two hand when we use a pistol for safe and good hit). And they didn't cover their body well so they always had chance to get hit. (We, korean male are very care about that).

But I like one scene when Harry shoot Scorpio's leg and tortured him and camera recede away and Scorpio's scream resounded. That was good because director made us to imagine what happen in there.

I don't like this movie because there were some weak point like gunfight and also was against my principle-what should cops do. With great power, comes great responsibility. In this case I would tell that with many people's life, comes more careful.