Dirty Harry (1971)

[Neville]

A recent topic about Clint Eastwood's early career in general and the dirty Harry series in particular made me think again about the first dirty Harry film. It's been a long time since I last saw the movie, and more than its evident attractives (for me, the film remains as engaging and dynamic as the first time I saw it, and I still think about it as the finest thriller I have ever seen), what keeps on making me think about it are its ethical implications. Dirty Harry, you see, has been an enormous influence on modern thrillers. It has spawned up to four sequels, thousands of imitations, and can be seen as the seed of vigilante movies such as the "Death Wish" series. I can't tell what the critic's reaction was in the USA, but in Europe the film has always carried the label of being a fascist film. Personally, I disagree. Eastwood himself hasn't varied his idea about it, and in every recent interview the topic has been arisen he uses to point out that for him the movie, and Harry's character, are apolitical. Wether he is sincere or it is a response carefully studied to avoid further polemics, I can't tell.

My thoughts about it run more or less in the same direction, but are more elaborate. You can take them seriously, at the risk of tainting your own visions on the film, or carefully discard them as the rambling of a lib that can't accept liking a fascist movie and over-analyses it. Here it goes:

I have always thought of the first dirty Harry movie not as a crime movie, but as the story of a mutual fascination / obsession between two characters who happen to be a cop and a criminal. As seen in the movie, both characters are far from being the archetypical cop or criminal (though they would be now), but they are pariahs in their own circles. Just examine the few scenes they share with fellow cops or fellow criminals and you will see what I mean. Even more interesting: when the process of mutual obsession starts, both break the codes of their own circles, becoming even less representative of the standard cop / criminal. When we first meet Scorpio, he is already a vicious criminal, but his plans are a meticulously planned scheme to obtain money (he blackmails the SF major: either he is paid money or he will kill random citizens). There's nothing "personal" about it. Scorpio doesn't involve himself in his acts more than a regular criminal would do. It is after his first encounter with dirty Harry that he starts acting insane, that he involves himself more personally in his actions and they become more emotional.

And something similar happens to Harry. He is a wasted individual that has created his own way of dealing with crime, and doesn't care about what his superiors will say about it right from the start. But there's nothing ideological beyond his actions (think instead of Cobra's tagline: "You [the criminal] are the disease, I am the cure."), nor does he considers his own actions an example to follow. Even when he criticizes the media for caring more for Scorpio's rights than his victim's or says he hates minorities, he is not being entirely literal: He hates the media for the circus they have created to sell more newspapers, and he simply doesn't like to have any kind of companions. Later, when he is paired with a Mexican cop, there's nothing remotely racist in the way he treats him. That he is aware of the need of social rules and that he has broken any reasonable limit is also fairly evident in the last scene of the movie. After killing Scorpio, thus getting rid of his personal obsession, Harry throws his badge to the water, something it would be conveniently forgotten in the following sequels.

To sum up, I think there is a clear difference between "Dirty Harry", a film where the main character, an antihero,  decides to take justice into his own hands, despite it is not the only option available, and others like "Cobra" or the "Death Wish" series, where we are led to believe that said option is the only possible one, plus the main character is an unquestionable hero.

So, what do you think about it?

[Flangepart]

Good work, Neville.
Your conclusions sound pretty accurate. The aspect of harry not comming across as a racist is telling. Harry Callahan is not a hatefull man, nor could be, and be accapted by the audience. I got the impression that Harry just liked to tweak the nose of anybody who tried to bully him, or who he thought was takeing themselves too seriously.
Remember the smile he gave the guy at the beginning, after the shoot out at the bank, and they did the "Do you feel luckey, punk?" routine? He was serious as...well, a shootout...till he had everything under control. He KNEW he had an empty gun, and bluffed the guy into giveing up. And it amused him.
Scorpio was , to me, more the typical cold blooded nutcase, and i did not have the same view you did, but your description does have some legs, i think. I'd say, his more emotional outbursts were inevitable, espchualy when Harry showed him just how Vunerable HE could be, after he put that bullet in his leg, and made him squeal.
Tis a bit of thought inspired by this missive, sir. Keep it up!