Warner - Dirty Harry Documentaries (2008)Part 2 The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry

In 1971, during a time of massive transition in Hollywood and of social upheaval in America at large, director Don Siegel and actor Clint Eastwood created one of the most memorable figures in all of action cinema, a bad-tempered San Francisco policeman “Dirty” Harry Callahan, not averse to bending the rules to get his man. The maniacal 'Scorpio Killer' is on the loose and Callahan disregards procedure in his efforts to track him down, using his trusty Magnum .44 to dispense his own brand of justice. A cop whose disdain for bureaucracy led to unconventional methods — such as torturing a suspect in order to extract information — Callahan could be viewed as a maverick hero or a fascist psychopath, depending on one's political persuasion. Siegel's ambivalent presentation and Eastwood's stoic mannerisms left plenty of ambiguous shadings for the viewer to consider. While critics of the time debated the value of Siegel's violent vision, audiences recognized a new kind of action hero and made the movie a smash hit. The character would eventually go on to appear in four popular sequels, Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988).

Part 2 The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry

An in-depth retrospective of the film directed by Gary Leva with plenty of interviews from critics, film historians, the cast and crew, featuring interviews with Clint Eastwood, cinematographer Jack N. Green, writer John Milius as well as co-stars in the series like Andrew Robinson and Hal Holbrook as well as fans including Joe Carnahan, Shane Black, Michael Madsen, David Ayer, Peter Hyams, Joel Cox, John Badham and several others, all of whom provide thoughtful comments on the movie's political and aesthetic impact. This 25 minute featurette takes a look at the cult icon that the character Dirty Harry has become over the decades, highlighting the mood of the 70's America and why the film and character would go onto influence so many other films.

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