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From Amazon.co.uk
Whether or not you can sympathise with its fascistic/vigilante approach to law enforcement, Dirty Harry (directed by star Clint Eastwood's longtime friend and directorial mentor, Don Siegel) is one hell of an American cop thriller. The movie makes evocative use of its San Francisco locations as cop Harry Callahan (Eastwood) tracks the elusive "Scorpio killer" who has been terrorising the city by the Bay. As the psychopath's trail grows hotter, Harry becomes increasingly impatient and intolerant of the frustrating obstacles (departmental red tape, individuals' civil rights) that he feels are keeping him from doing his job. A characteristically taut and tense piece of filmmaking from Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Shootist, Escape from Alcatraz), it also remains a fascinating slice of American pop culture. It was a big hit (followed by four sequels) that obviously reflected--or exploited--the almost obsessive or paranoid fears and frustrations many Americans felt about crime in the streets. At a time when "law and order" was a familiar slogan for political candidates, Harry Callahan may have represented neither, but from his point of view his job was simple: stop criminals. To him that end justified any means he deemed necessary. --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:DVD
"You've got to ask yourself, do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?" - This film is just superb, from the excellent camera work showing of the San Francisco location well, to the genius of Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack. For me, Clint Eastwood is not a great actor, but in this role he excels. His character is humourous yet serious, and has a dark side that you just have to take notice of. Andy Robinson is the crazy 'Scorpio' who holds the city at ransom. The plot is far fetched, which is no great surprise, but you're hooked until Scorpio is disposed of. I own this on VHS also, but the DVD is a must for the picture and sound quality. Don't buy the special edition, save yourself some cash and buy the regular version - the extra 30 minute documentary is not worth paying for. But the film is definately worth the money, buy it, watch it and savour it.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
What can I say? DIRTY HARRY is a classic, slick action masterpiece which started off the renegade cop genre. Some may argue that it was THE FRENCH CONNECTION, but DH is a better film, as it's more exciting, humorous and offers more food for thought regarding its protagonist. Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan is a San Francisco cop, relentless, bitter, jaded and extremely tough, who never lets anything get in his way when he's hunting criminals. Whether it be shooting a would-be rapist armed with a butcher knife or injuring a murder suspect in order to extract a confession from him, Harry immediately dispenses with the 'niceties' of the law so that he can get results. My favourite scenes of the film are when Harry foils a bank robbery with his awesome .44 Magnum handgun, when he chases mad killer Scorpio to the football ground and the action-packed finale featuring the timeless ' do you feel lucky?' line. I was amazed to find out that John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Bob Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and even Paul Newman were offered the role of Dirty Harry. With the right amount of wit, cynicism and all-out hardness, this is Clint's role. Andy Robinson did a sterling job as well, portraying the twisted psychopathic gunman, dubbed 'Scorpio'. He must be one of THE most imitated bad guys in the history of action thrillers. These days, they don't come any better than this.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Fluclo
Format:DVD
"Harry Callahan is a tough, streetwise San Francisco cop whom they call Dirty Harry. A rooftop sniper (Andy Robinson) named Scorpio has killed twice. Harry Callahan will nail him... one way or another... no matter what 'the system' prescribes. Filming on location, director Don Siegel made the City by the Bay a vital part of one of the best police thrillers ever made."
Audio: English, German and Spanish
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, English for the Hearing Impaired, German for the Hearing Impaired.
Special Features: English Commentary by Richard Schickel, two featurettes called "Dirty Harry: The Original" and "Dirty Harry's Way", Interviews with Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson, Robert Urich and (yes, I was surprised at this one...) Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are also trailers for Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool. All features are English audio, and with subtitles in English, Czech, Danish, Finish, German, Greek, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
It should be noted that this version does have a slight suppression of audio at 6½ minutes into the feature, although the word omitted is displayed on the screen.
Audio: English, German and Spanish
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, English for the Hearing Impaired, German for the Hearing Impaired.
Special Features: English Commentary by Richard Schickel, two featurettes called "Dirty Harry: The Original" and "Dirty Harry's Way", Interviews with Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson, Robert Urich and (yes, I was surprised at this one...) Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are also trailers for Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool. All features are English audio, and with subtitles in English, Czech, Danish, Finish, German, Greek, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
It should be noted that this version does have a slight suppression of audio at 6½ minutes into the feature, although the word omitted is displayed on the screen.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Kelvin J. Dickinson
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Blu-ray
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.... Read more ›
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.... Read more ›
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Clint Eastwood film
Dirty Harry is a classic film and a great entertaining thriller, fully recommend that you watch it at least once. Read more
Published 2 months ago by TomP10
3.0 out of 5 stars
A FILM OF TWO HALVES
This is by far the best of the Dirty Harry Films, but it is flawed. The first half is a superb drama which ends with the shocking torture scene in Kezar Stadium and finding the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stephen Goldsmith
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Quintessential Cop Film
Dirty Harry exploded into the 70s with smash and forged it's place as one the most iconic movies of the period. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Joseph
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blu ray quality? Yes, good enough in my opinion
The quality on this Blu ray of Dirty Harry has come under question from some. I personally would like to put this issue to bed and say that I could see the obvious improvements... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. A. C. Cummins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Dirty Harry DVD
It's great to see Clint Eastwood in this, the first of the Dirty Harry series of films, once again. The product is first class as was the delivery schedule and packaging from... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Amazonhunter
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should see it at least once.
Great soundtrack, great backdrop, great lead actor, great lines and a great big gun. That just about sums up Dirty Harry for you. Read more
Published 14 months ago by The Truth
5.0 out of 5 stars
do ya feel lucky punk
this is the all time cop classic,its a no frills tough cop thriller.harry callaghan is the hardest racialist anti feminist cop you will ever see but also fair cause he hates... Read more
Published 15 months ago by jed
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not impressed
I was told to buy this because it was 'amazing'. I totally disagree, I could not wait for it to finish and it was boring in my opinion, it got slightly better at the end but... Read more
Published 17 months ago by jwest
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top film
The first and best of the series. Clint plays a frustrated homicide detective and he's hammpered by the system which protects criminals but not victims. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Junius
5.0 out of 5 stars
I know what you're thinking.....
Did I buy five films or did I buy six. Well in all this excitement I kinda lost count myself. And seeing as how this is a 102 minute DVD, the most powerful and iconic of its time,... Read more
Published on 22 May 2011 by Squeakyboythomas
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