Dirty Harry: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Go ahead, make my day."''|'''Harry Callahan''', ''Sudden Impact''}}

* ''The Dead Pool'' (1988): Callahan investigates a series of celebrity deaths who had been predicted to die in a ''dead pool'' racket -- and finds that his own name is on the list.

 

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* [[Accidental Pervert]]: "Now I know why they [[Incredibly Lame Pun|call you]] Dirty Harry."

* [[Badass]]

* [[Badass Boast]]: After Scorpio pays a man to beat him severely as part of a frame up, Harry defends himself from Scorpio's claim that Harry beat him, saying that "(Scorpio) looks too damn good" to have been beaten by Harry.

* [[Barrier-Busting Blow]]

* [[BFG]]: The giant harpoon from ''The Dead Pool''. Needless to say, it leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMOA.]]

* [[Calling Your Bathroom Breaks]]: Kate does this drunkenly during a deleted scene in ''The Enforcer''

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Captain Briggs in ''Sudden Impact'' is essentially Captain McKay from ''The Enforcer'' especially given that they're played by the same actor.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: It's safe to assume any ridiculously powerful weapon introduced at the beginning of a Dirty Harry movie will be used later. The best example would definitely have to be {{spoiler|the enormous [[Harpoon Gun]] used to impale Rook at the end of The Dead Pool}}.

** Lt Briggs mentions that he has never once taken his weapon out of its holster. {{spoiler|When he does, it's to give [[The Reveal]] that he's the [[Big Bad]]}}.

* [[Cool Shades]]: Harry's.

* [[Da Chief]]: Every one of Harry's superiors to varying extents. Lt Briggs from ''Magnum Force'' is a subversion in that {{spoiler|he's the [[Big Bad]]}}.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Harry Callahan himself

'''Harry Callahan:''' Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That's ''my'' policy.

'''The Mayor:''' Intent? How did you establish that?

* [[Dead Partner]]: Pretty much all of Callahan's partners end up dead or in the hospital, as he notes.

* [[Description Porn]]:

* [[Double Don't Know]]: In ''The Enforcer'', one of the terrorists wants to know something:

{{quote|'''Bobby''': Did Wanda deliver the [Ransom Note] tape to the cops?

* [[Interrupted Suicide]]: Harry Callahan disgusts a jumper by saying how much blood and guts are going to be on the floor and how he doesn't want to go down with him, eventually Harry tricks him onto a fire truck.

* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]] (on Scorpio on the football field)

* [[Mean Character, Nice Actor]]: Andy Robinson plays the gleefully bigoted, psychopathic Scorpio in Dirty Harry. Whereas the vegetarian, liberal pacifist Robinson is a gentle and, by all accounts, sweet-natured guy who'd never even held a gun before this role (for which he had to be coached out of his habit of screwing his eyes shut and flinching whenever he fired it).

** What makes this disturbing is that Robinson actually received [[Fan Dumb|death threats]] after the movie was released.

** Presumably goes for Eastwood himself, too, given the actor has a reputation for being a fairly nice guy, whereas Harry is.. Well, Harry.

* [[Nausea Dissonance]]: In ''Magnum Force'', Harry is called to the scene of a murder with his partner. One of the cops there comments on how the inside the victim's car is just filled with all kinds of brain parts (the audience doesn't see this) and generally goes into the most gross bodies he's seen. Harry is unaffected but his partner looks at the body and then turns to go puke.

* [[Noble Bigot with a Badge]] (in his initial meeting with Gonzales in the first movie, and with his female partner in "The Enforcer")

** [[Straw Man Has a Point|Harry did have some valid and very legitimate concerns]] about their choice of a female partner for him. They were promoting an officer who had never made an arrest to be a detective, and he wasn't sure that someone with zero street experience could cut it as a detective - regardless of gender.

*** And since she {{spoiler|gets shot in the end, he might have even been right.}}

** The conversation with Gonzales was more hazing the new guy than real bigotry:

Harry Callahan: Especially Spics.*winks at Di Georgio* }}

* [[Off on a Technicality]] None of the evidence Harry gets from Scorpio in the first movie can be used, since he used torture getting it. Still, he should have been able to charge him with assault, attempted murder and kidnapping-on himself.

** And his partner could also have laid charges; he was close by and saw the whole thing, and Scorpio shot at him, too.

*** You're forgetting that Scorpio did all that while wearing a balaclava.

** The same thing happens at the beginning of ''[[Sudden Impact]]'', although we only see the trial.

** In ''Magnum Force'', watch the pimp's reaction when he sees the traffic cop's revolver pointed at his face and realizes he's about to get shot.

* [[Once an Episode]]: Harry will run into someone committing a robbery and stop them.

* [[Police Brutality Gambit]]: Pulled by Scorpio in the first movie. Harry can tell immediately that it isn't him. How? "'Cause he looks too damn good, that's how!"

* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: Scorpio says he would consider it a pleasure to "kill a Catholic priest or a nigger."

** Also, {{spoiler|he follows through on the latter}}. Needless to say, {{spoiler|the black guy Scorpio pays to beat him up so he can frame Callahan for it}} sure seems to enjoy the job. He kicks Scorpio again after throwing him out the door, saying "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|this one's on the house!]]"

* [[Rape and Revenge]]: Forms the plot of Sudden Impact.

* [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil]]: Harry responds to the mayor's policies on police brutality with the fact that he "shoots the bastard" when it comes to intent to rape. Also, he lets Jennifer off the hook with her revenge killings of her rapists when Mick is found with the murder weapon on his person.

* [[Reassigned to Antarctica]]: Harry starts ''Magnum Force'' in the Stakeout Squad, and in ''The Enforcer'' gets reassigned to Personnel after ram-raiding a hostage situation.

{{quote|'''Harry:''' Personnel? But that's for assholes!

'''Harry:''' Yeah... }}

** Also in ''Sudden Impact'' he got sent to another town after he killed a bunch of rapists in self-defense.

* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]

* [[The Seventies]]: The films don't indulge in the groovier aspects of the decade, but it's wide neckties, ugly dun-colored suits and giant sedans for everybody!

** Here's a weird one: [[Corrupt Cop]] "Red" Astrachan is named after a variety of apple. Weirder still is that [[Rambo|he's not the only guy in an action series to have that distinction]].

* [[Take That, Critics!]]: The film critic murdered in ''The Dead Pool'' is based on Pauline Kael, in response to her accusing the first film of promoting "fascism." Something about this woman seems to rub directors the wrong way, since she got another [[Take That]] in ''[[Willow]]''.

* [[Television Geography]]: Just try to go to the same places in San Francisco that Scorpio had Harry do for the money drop, in the same order, on foot and under an hour. It's impossible.

** [[Fridge Brilliance|Considering that Scorpio said he was going to let the girl die anyway, that was probably his intention]].

* [[Title Drop]]: His partner in the first film wanted to know why people call inspector Callahan, Dirty Harry. He gets mixed answers. It wasn't until after Harry talks a man out of jumping by insulting him, that he tells his new partner the real reason:

{{quote|'''Harry:''' Now you know why they call me Dirty Harry. Every dirty job that comes along...}}

* [[Unbuilt Trope]]: Harry's methods aren't actually shown all that positively. His interrogation of the Scorpio killer is [[Gory Discretion Shot|downright horrific]], and ends up doing no good anyway. And in the end, {{spoiler|he throws away his badge after disregarding his orders and endangering innocents}}.

* [[Vigilante Man]]: ''Magnum Force''. Hard to believe that it isn't Harry. Even harder to believe he opposes them. But then again, they {{spoiler|killed a cop}}.

** But it just doesn't add up. Harry spends most of his time complaining about how the system doesn't work, he rarely manages to convict any of his suspects, so he often ends up shooting them, he never follows the rules and yet, according to the logic of this film, he's somehow FOR the system? How does that work?

*** "Briggs, I hate the goddamned system. But until somebody comes along with some changes that make sense, I'll stick with it!"

** He shoots them if they are in the process of committing a crime; he doesn't hunt them down and kill in their home or when they are driving around, never mind that the bad guys didn't stop at the criminals, but killed witnesses, innocent bystanders, {{spoiler|Harry's partner, ''their own partner''}}, and anyone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. With explosives and machine guns too, so they clearly aren't worried about collateral damage. And unlike Harry, they were ''enjoying'' it; [[The Reveal]] even comes when you see one of them cheerfully smiling for the camera after {{spoiler|murdering another cop.}} They are in it for the glory and the thrill as much as any pretensions of justice.

** Callahan also resorts to lethal force only in self-defense and when facing extremely dangerous criminals (like the psychopathic Scorpio). He is perfectly happy if the criminals end up behind bars instead of six feet under. The first scene when ''do I feel lucky'' speech appears shows this well. Callahan actually taunts the robber to grab the gun, so he might could him in self-defense, but leaves calmly when the robber yields, even though seconds earlier the latter tried to kill and even managed to wound Harry.

*** Harry isn't trying to taunt the robber into grabbing the gun so he can shoot him; he's bluffing him into giving it up because ''Harry's gun is empty''.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Scorpio seems to suffer it every time his plans are thwarted, like when he is caught and shot in the leg by Callahan in the stadium.

* [[Wag the Director]]: Eastwood apparently took over a lot of the directorial duties on ''Magnum Force'' after the director that they originally hired turned out not to be up to the job.

** According to Wikipedia, the director (Ted Post) would often want to do retakes when Clint was happy with a shot.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]

* [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]: Scorpio {{spoiler|pays some black guy to beat him up, just so he could frame Callahan for it}}. [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|Understandably, said black guy evidently enjoys the job.]]

* [[You Look Familiar]]: Albert Popwell played mooks in most of the films. This sets up a nice subversion of his typecasting as a mook in ''Sudden Impact'' when he creeps up on Harry with a shotgun only to be revealed as a colleague from the department.

 

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[[Category:Film Series]]

[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]