Dirty Harry - Don Siegel (1971)

I had seen this movie before - it has one of my favourite scenes in a movie EVER! It involves the line....'You have to ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky? Well...do ya...punk?' And '..this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and can blow your head clean off..'

So one of the things that I have learned in film class is that films are a reflection of the times that they are made. One might say...duh! But that never really struck me before. It's one thing that a film will be set in the time - such as 'Blow Up' that was a total 60s movie. This is more subtle. The fact is that certain issues or frustrations of a society (or even of the film maker) will come through in the film, even if it's not intentional. This movie is a reflection of frustration of the havoc that criminals were wreaking on society. And here comes a 'rogue cop' Harry Callahan to save the day. He does it his way and in the end, gets his man. On the way, he goes against all the rights of the criminal and police protocol. Because of that, Roger Ebert said that 'the movie's moral position is fascist. No doubt about it.' Well, Mr. Ebert, I think that might be a bit harsh. I think of the 'Die Hard' franchise for example, same difference. And probably hundreds of other movies since 1971 have the same message. It could be that I have seen so many of them that I am immune to the 'fascist message', hard to say.

I think that this movie is fantasy. It's nice and comforting to think that there is someone out there who is looking for justice at any cost. And that's what makes us like Callahan. He's looking out for 'us'. Is that so wrong to believe...even for two hours?

One word to describe 'Dirty Harry': Punk.