Warner - Dirty Harry Documentaries (2008) Part 4 The Business End Violence in Cinema

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 4 The Business End Violence in Cinema

An unflinching look at the ongoing debate on violence in movies and its effect on the audience. In the contemporary fascination with images of crime, violence gets under our skin and keeps us enthralled. Violence in movies has been a source of controversy since cinema was in its infancy. From the black and white gunplay of the gangster movies of the '30s, to the slow-motion shootouts of Arthur Penn's landmark 1967 film, “Bonnie and Clyde,” to the rivers of blood flowing in Quentin Tarantino movies, the depiction of violence in film has long polarized critics and audiences. And that debate continues today. Clint Eastwood, John Milus and Andrew Robinson are the ones connected to DIRTY HARRY who speak here but we get other interviews from filmmakers and authors who have written about violence in movies.

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