A classic Clint Eastwood film that I had not seen until tonight. Harry is a normal cop in San Francisco except that he doesn't always play by the rules. He tends to shoot first and ask questions later, but he does help justice to be done so the police force continues to work with him. In this movie (one of several they made) he is tracking down a psycho killer who is killing at random and is pretty disturbed (to say the least). Although Harry isn't a very friendly guy, he does help out people and has a gruff manner that seems to help things get resolved. He was able to talk a suicide jumper out of jumping by making him so mad he wanted to punch him rather than jump. Part of me can understand why this movie became so popular. A macho guy who doesn't always like things the legal way so he goes his own way. Maybe he isn't the nicest guy, but he helps justice to get done, right? Well, not quite - as a movie it is entertaining to watch a guy like this bring the bad guy to justice, but his attitude is very proud and self-assured and those traits are made to look admirable in a movie like this. Not only that, Dirty Harry's way of being merciless and torturing the bad guy until he gets what he wants may work when Harry is right, but that is assuming Dirty Harry is never wrong - a very dangerous assumption to make. Maybe I am over-analyzing this movie, but throughout the movie the character Dirty Harry decides that playing by the rules in law enforcement doesn't pay off. Those that do in this movie, end up allowing a murderer walk free due to all the laws that protect the rights of the suspect. Those are laws that are in place to protect the innocent, yet this powerful movie almost seems to imply they just help the criminal to go free. More importantly, movies like this show that when no one else will help, you should do things your way. Hmmm. Sounds like rebellion and leads to vengence, and many times murder. I was glad that Dirty Harry doesn't shoot unless usually in self-defense, but due to the overall messages and some inappropriate scenes I can not recommend this movie. This movie made me think about a verse found in Proverbs 14:12"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
5 comments:
Go on, Paul, make my day!
Looked violent to me - I liked my book and hot cocoa better.
-Chrystal
What about Jack Bauer from 24? He's got a lot in common with Dirty Harry.
Actually I think Jack Bauer went to the Dirty Harry school of justice. He is definitely a protege of Dirty Harry fighting terrorism.
Alright bro, totally disagree on this one, come on Clint eastwood, is the man in dirty harry and he gets the job done, and oh the rules sometimes do help the bad guys come on, don't you remember anything called O.J simpson, it is all about who has the money. I hope your not that niave that you think our justice system, is always right on far from it, sorry bro you got me on a roll here, and that additute that Harry has, you sometimes have to have that in his line of work, you have to have that in the military to, when you deal with tough guys from society . So come bro, sometimes in this life, you have to say, go ahead and do it make my day!! and another great line that eastwood used in the movie "outlaw joesy wales" was "are you going to pull those pistols or whisle dixy" great line.Eastwood is the man on those one liners.
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