Dirty Harry: Difference between revisions

** 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.