Dirty Harry (film series)
Dirty Harry | |
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Created by | |
Original work | Dirty Harry (1971) |
Owner | Warner Bros. |
Years | 1971–1988 |
Print publications | |
Novel(s) | List of novels |
Films and television | |
Film(s) |
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Games | |
Video game(s) |
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Miscellaneous | |
Pinball | Dirty Harry |
Dirty Harry | |
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Directed by |
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Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | Clint Eastwood |
Cinematography |
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Edited by |
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Music by |
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Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | 1971–1988 |
Running time | 530 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $66 million (four films, except 2) |
Box office | $309.9 million (worldwide) |
Dirty Harry is an American
Callahan is notorious for his unorthodox, violent and ruthless methods against the criminals and killers he is assigned to apprehend. At the same time, he is assigned a partner who is usually either killed or seriously injured during the film.
Films
Dirty Harry (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971) was directed by
It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1971 after Fiddler on the Roof, The French Connection, and Diamonds Are Forever.
Magnum Force (1973)
Magnum Force (1973) was directed by Ted Post. The main theme of this film is vigilante justice, and the plot revolves around a group of renegade traffic cops who are executing criminals who have avoided conviction in court. Despite Harry's penchant for strong-arm methods, he does not tolerate coldblooded murder of the accused and resolves to stop the killers. In this film, Harry's catch-phrase is "A man's got to know his limitations".
The Enforcer (1976)
The Enforcer (1976) was directed by
Sudden Impact (1983)
Sudden Impact (1983) was directed by Clint Eastwood. Aging, but still bitter, Callahan is sent to a small town to follow up a lead in a murder case, which leads him directly to a rape victim who is out to avenge herself and her
The Dead Pool (1988)
The Dead Pool (1988) was directed by Buddy Van Horn. Harry finds that he is among the subjects of a dead pool, a game betting on deaths of celebrities. Someone tries to rig the game by killing the celebrities on one player's list. Harry's catch phrase in this movie was "You're shit out of luck".
After this film, Eastwood retired from playing the Dirty Harry character, as he felt his age (58 in 1988) would make Harry a parody.
Cast
Character | Films | ||||
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Dirty Harry | Magnum Force | The Enforcer | Sudden Impact | The Dead Pool | |
1971 | 1973 | 1976 | 1983 | 1988 | |
Harry Callahan
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Clint Eastwood | ||||
Frank DiGiorgio | John Mitchum | ||||
The Mayor | John Vernon | John Crawford | |||
Al Bressler | Harry Guardino | Harry Guardino | |||
Scorpio | Andy Robinson | ||||
Chico Gonzalez | Reni Santoni | ||||
Bank Robber | Albert Popwell | ||||
Lt. Neil Briggs | Hal Holbrook | ||||
Charlie McCoy | Mitchell Ryan | ||||
John Davis | David Soul | ||||
Red Astrachan | Kip Niven | ||||
Mike Grimes | Robert Urich | ||||
Phil Sweet | Tim Matheson | ||||
Earlington "Early" Smith | Felton Perry | ||||
J.J. Wilson | Albert Popwell | ||||
Kate Moore | Tyne Daly | ||||
Bobby Maxwell
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DeVeren Bookwalter | ||||
Lalo | Michael Cavanaugh | ||||
Karl | Dick Durock | ||||
Abdul | Kenneth Boyd | ||||
Miki | Jocelyn Jones | ||||
Father John | M. G. Kelly | ||||
Big Ed Mustapha | Albert Popwell | ||||
Jennifer Spencer | Sondra Locke | ||||
Mick | Paul Drake | ||||
Ray Perkins | Audrie J. Neenan | ||||
Lester Jannings | Pat Hingle | ||||
Horace King | Albert Popwell | ||||
Capt. Jerome McKay | Bradford Dillman | ||||
Capt. Briggs | Bradford Dillman | ||||
Lt. Donnelly | Michael Currie | ||||
Samantha Walker | Patricia Clarkson | ||||
Peter Swan | Liam Neeson | ||||
Al Quan | Evan C. Kim | ||||
Harlan Rook | David Hunt | ||||
Johnny Squares | Jim Carrey |
Reception
Year | Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Box office[1] | Inflation adjusted (as of 2019)[1] |
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1971 | Dirty Harry | 88% (49 reviews)[2] | 87 (10 reviews)[3] | $35,976,000 | $196,886,800 |
1973 | Magnum Force | 70% (27 reviews)[4] | 58 (7 reviews)[5] | $39,768,000 | $202,884,200 |
1976 | The Enforcer | 69% (35 reviews)[6] | 58 (7 reviews)[7] | $46,236,000 | $196,014,600 |
1983 | Sudden Impact | 57% (37 reviews)[8] | 52 (13 reviews)[9] | $67,642,693 | $187,900,400 |
1988 | The Dead Pool | 55% (33 reviews)[10] | 46 (15 reviews)[11] | $37,903,295 | $83,276,600 |
Influence on other productions
Sin City: That Yellow Bastard
Bruce Willis played Hartigan, the "Dirty Harry of the story", in the Sin City (2005) film.
The Protector
This 1985 film featuring Jackie Chan was Chan's second American feature film. The movie was noted for being similar to the Dirty Harry series, with inspiration taken from there by director James Glickenhaus.
The Rookie
Directed by and co-starring Clint Eastwood; the film features an aging, tough cop who partners with a rookie cop, played by Charlie Sheen. Upon the film's release critics and audiences noted the similarities between Eastwood's two characters.[13]
Gran Torino
Eastwood returned to acting after a four-year self-imposed hiatus[14] in this 2008 film, which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed Korean War veteran alienated from his family and angry at the world. Walt's young neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, is pressured into stealing Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino by his cousin for his initiation into a gang. Walt thwarts the theft and subsequently develops a relationship with the boy and his family.
Biographer Marc Eliot called Eastwood's role "an amalgam of the
Home media
Warner Home Video owns rights to the Dirty Harry series. The five films have been remastered for DVD three times — in 1998, 2001 and 2008. They have been packaged in several DVD box sets. The Dirty Harry films made their high-definition debuts with the 2008 Blu-ray discs. Warner's marketing plan calls for only "The Dead Pool" film to be available as a separate Blu-ray, requiring fans who want the other four movies in high definition to buy the box set.[21] In 2010 all five movies were released as a Blu-ray box set, "Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Collection".
Other media
Novels
In the early 1980s,
Video games
In 1995 Williams Electronic Games (WMS) created a Dirty Harry pinball machine, inspired by the 1971 film. 4,248 units were manufactured. Notable features include a gun handle shooter, a moving cannon used to shoot playfield targets and custom audio callouts recorded by Clint Eastwood. Game modes, sounds and dot matrix animations reflect events in the film, such as a car chase, barroom brawl, defusing bombs and "Feel Lucky" mode.[23]
Dirty Harry is a 1990 video game based on Dirty Harry film series. It incorporates several references to the film series.
Dirty Harry, originally scheduled for a 2007 release, is a canceled video game by The Collective based on the 1971 film of the same name.
References
- ^ a b "Franchise: Dirty Harry". boxofficemojo.com.
- ^ "Dirty Harry". rottentomatoes.com. December 24, 1971.
- ^ "Dirty Harry". metacritic.com. December 24, 1971.
- ^ "Magnum Force". rottentomatoes.com. January 1, 1973.
- ^ "Magnum Force". metacritic.com. January 1, 1973.
- ^ "The Enforcer". rottentomatoes.com. January 1, 1976.
- ^ "The Enforcer". metacritic.com. January 1, 1976.
- ^ "Sudden Impact". rottentomatoes.com. January 1, 1983.
- ^ "Sudden Impact". metacritic.com. January 1, 1983.
- ^ "The Dead Pool". rottentomatoes.com. July 13, 1988.
- ^ "The Dead Pool". metacritic.com. July 13, 1988.
- ^ Robert, Daniel (August 3, 2005). "Interviews > Frank Miller Creator Of Sin City". Suicidegirls.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ^ "Variety Reviews - The Rookie - Film Reviews - - Review by Variety Staff". Variety.com. December 31, 1989. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (December 12, 2008). "Review: 'Gran Torino'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 26, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-307-33688-0.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (December 12, 2008). "Hope for a Racist, and Maybe a Country". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- ^ Modleski, Tania. "Clint Eastwood and Male Weepies." American Literary History. 2010. Volume 22, Issue 1. p. 136-158. DOI 10.1093/alh/ajp051. First published online on November 20, 2009.
- ^ Biancolli, Amy. "Gran Torino." Houston Chronicle. Thursday January 8, 2009. Retrieved on March 16, 2012.
- ^ Charity, Tom. "Review: 'Gran Torino' offers great Eastwood." CNN. January 9, 2009. 2. Retrieved on March 16, 2012.
- ^ Serba, John. "Scowls, subtlety make 'Gran Torino' classic Clint Eastwood." The Grand Rapids Press. Friday January 9, 2009. Retrieved on March 16, 2012.
- ^ "New Dirty Harry DVDs: We're in luck - DVD Spin Doctor". Dvdspindoctor.typepad.com. March 10, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ^ Used book ad for the French version of The Long Death. Archived October 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Internet Pinball Machine Database".
External links
- Dirty Harry filming locations
- The Best Dirty Harry Movies from American Movie Classics