Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
classic, 22 Jun 2008
Dirty Harry is just a stone wall classic movie. Released in 1971 it caused controversy because of Harrys rogue maverick police methods and character. Clint really delivers a superb performance as Harry Calahan as the troubled cop who hates the system and beuracracy and borders between staying on the right side of the law to dispense justice. (A theme which would be the basis of the sequel magnum force) Also of note is Andrew Robinsons bravu debut performance as the killer scorpio. This ranks for me as the best performance ever in a villian role,the character robinson created is so disturbed and bizarre it matches no other i've seen..an amazing performance.
DH comes to blu ray in a new print. This is the best ive seen this fim look and have had it on both vhs and dvd and this blows both away but is substandard pic wise to the quality of the sequels on blu ray. The newer the film,the better the pic quality and as this is the oldest comes off worse but thats not to say this isnt a vast improvement over all previous versions.
GET THIS CLASSIC FIM WITH SOME GREAT NRE SPECIAL FEATURES TOO..GO AHEAD..MAKE YOUR DAY!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BLURRING THE DISTINCTIONS, 25 Jun 2008
They say first is always best and never has that been more true than here. Four progressively inferior sequels follow DIRTY HARRY, charting not only a decline in script quality but also in the general believability of a character who ends up being little more than a one-note lethal weapon rather than the maverick detective who, finding himself up against the SFPD's interminable bureaucracy, prefers to let his Magnum .44 do at least some of the talking. Okay, THE ENFORCER and MAGNUM FORCE just about hold their own but Clint's age is beginning to show by the time SUDDEN IMPACT appears and, frankly, the less said about THE DEAD POOL the better.
There's so much in this film that bears repeated viewings. It's certainly a brutal affair, and definitely non-pc, with director DON SIEGEL blurring the distinctions between cop and killer to the point where it's not always easy to tell one from the other by behaviour alone. But thanks to a brilliant turn by ANDY ROBINSON as the lip-quivering psychopath SCORPIO, it's somewhat less difficult to brush aside any misgivings about Harry Callahan's unorthodox methods. Not so much 'cake and and eat it' as knife and twist it.
Great support from RENI SANTINO assigned to be yet another of his initially indifferent colleague's 'unlucky' partners, CHICO, taking the bullets in the superbly choreographed bloodbath set in Golden Gate Park. Surviving the machine-gunning, he is clearly wiser after the event as to the type of lawman Callahan represents, re-affirming just what the 'Dirty' prefix means as a bottom line definition.
The fast-paced direction ensures that there's a very real sense of tension in the race to rescue a young girl (kidnapped and subsequently buried alive by Scorpio) and prevent her from dying by suffocation. The fact that Harry is frustrated in his attempts and ultimately fails - leading to the discovery of her pallid corpse - only increases his determination to sidestep the law-enforcement 'establishment' and go after Scorpio in the way he knows gets results - much to the dismay of media-courting and increasingly irritable Mayor (JOHN VERNON) and Callahan's own exasperated boss, Lieutenant Bressler (HARRY GUARDINO). A terrifically downbeat ending is a reminder that those who are supposed to protect and serve occasionally cross the line and that sometimes it simply has to be that way. Depends how lucky a person feels on the day, I suppose.
QUOTED ENDLESSLY BECAUSE IT'S SO DAMN GOOD:
"...I know what you're thinkin', punk. You're thinkin', 'did he fire six shots or only five?' Now to tell you the truth, I've forgotten myself in all this excitement...but being this is a forty-four Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head clean off...you've gotta ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya...PUNK?!!"
MOST POWERFUL SCENE(S): in the football ground under the floodlights as Harry steps on Scorpio's bullet wound to the leg; Scorpio's smashed-to-a-pulp face as he demands "every penny's worth..." of the beating he's arranged in order to frame his never-far-from-sight nemesis.
BLU-RAY PICTURE QUALITY: Superb, with a lot of detail not present on the regular DVD - you really get to know about a person's skin complexion via this format. There is still, however, a small amount of grain visible in the darker scenes, but that only adds to the gritty nature of the film as a whole and is not an issue.
BLU-RAY SOUND QUALITY: Excellent, bright and punchy in uncompressed 5.1. Brings to the fore composer LALO SCHIFRIN's cool and very 70's score.
A brilliant film, in it's best possible showcase. And Clint has never been more magnetic. Don't miss it.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best ever presentation of Dirty Harry, 21 April 2009
Do you feel lucky, punk? You will when you see what's on offer in this Blu-ray edition of Dirty Harry. The movie looks and sounds great in HD with improved sharpness, colour and depth of blacks over the original DVD release. This is a dark movie with much of the action taking place at night, so it's perhaps not the best example to showcase the virtues of Blu-ray, but that's not to say this presentation is lacking. This edition (and the equivalent two disc DVD edition) contains all the original extras from the original DVD release, plus comprehensive new extras including an audio commentary by historian and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel, retrospective Dirty Harry documentary, two lengthy documentaries on the career of Clint Eastwood, and a trailer gallery of all five Dirty Harry movies. Warner Bros have delivered their usual high standard. Picture score: 9 out of 10, sound score 9 out of 10, extras score 10 out of 10, overall score 9.5 out of 10.
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