Thanks Nova. I grew up in the '70s and Clint was and is one of my Hollywood heros.
I almost snagged the boxed set with all the movies, but like I said the sequels just aren't the same as this movie.
In the first movie I can picture Harry as a real person, albeit one that is borderline being thrown off the force. If it wasn't for the fact that he was so good at bringing in the bad guys I'm sure he would have been crucified for police brutality and breaking not only the 'rules' but the law. The thing about Harry though is he never crosses the line into becoming a vigilante, which is the story line of Magnum Force. Because of that, his superiors tended to look the other way. Just like the scene before Harry is taking the money to Scorpio and he's in Bressler's office and asks for some tape so he can hide a switch blade on his leg. Bressler says "Tsk tsk"... waves his finger, and says "It's a shame a cop should know how to use a weapon like that." Thing is, he wasn't condemning Harry as much as he was coyly saying 'Do what you need to do'. Like I said, Harry wasn't immoral or a cop on the take, he just got all the tough and dirty jobs is all... because he was the man that got the job done.
In the sequels things started to fall into the Hollywood trap where everything had to top the last movie. It really is a shame because this franchise could have remained an action drama series instead of turning into an action parody of itself. The second movie was plausible enough for me, but it just lacked something. I can't put my finger on it, but something was off. Maybe it was the ease Harry takes out the vigilante cops, I really don't know... maybe it was the ending... a bit of a let down and blowing up your boss? I'd rather have seen Harry do to Hal Holbrock's Lt. Briggs what Briggs said he was going to do to Harry... let the system that Harry sometimes despises be the thing that takes him down. I understand it wouldn't have been as climactic, but it would have been much more realistic.
By the time The Enforcer comes around, Harry is now a full blown Hollywood caricature of himself from the first movie. The Magnum wasn't even enough of a show down weapon, Harry had to use a bazooka! (LAWS rocket actually)
Sudden Impact- Sondra Locke... need I say more? It did give us the classic line "Go ahead... Make my day!" But what happened to the .44 magnum being the most powerful handgun in the world? The scrawny thug he shot in the arm looked and acted like he was hit with a .22 not a .44!
The Dead Pool gives us wild RC exploding car chases, and again the famous .44 is abandoned in favor of a whale harpoon gun!
They really could have kept the series grounded and real and I think people still would have flocked to them, in fact they may have even fared better if they were true police drama's instead of action parody shticks.
That's why I like Dirty Harry. I can see this really happening. Nothing was too over the top, no wire stunts, no outrageous exposions... it was more of a drama than action, yet it had action... That's really what sets this movie apart from the rest in my opinion.
I am surprised that the transfer wasn't better than it was. Clint is Warner's magic man, they even re-released Dirty Harry on the big screen for a limited run for the nostalgia. Check out the
Warner Website for Dirty Harry. I wish I could have put that video in my review!
Clint is such a power house with Warner that I bet if he would have say "Unh Unh... No Bluray, I like HD DVD, go Bluray and I walk." I really bet Warner might have actually stepped back and thought about their decision... he really is that big and brings a lot to the Warner table (and bank accounts too). So why Dirty Harry doesn't look absolutely pristine is beyond me. They did a 4K transfer, that's a known fact. Maybe Richard Haines can chime in with his thoughts on why this doesn't look better.
It's not grain either. I actually like a little grain, it makes it look like a movie to me and not a Video Cam recording... It is possible this is the best they could do with the film stock. I mentioned the early Bond flicks and how well they look after a 4K transfer, they look so good you'd swear that you were looking at HD when it's just SDVD... so why was Dirty Harry so bad in some scenes?
My guess and speculation is that Siegal didn't have a 'Bond' budget, and there are different grades and qualities of film. It makes sense to me that the Bond flicks would have been shot on the best film available, as well as properly stored in temperature controlled vaults. Dirty Harry most likely was shot on whatever the budget allowed, which may not have been the best quality film stock available. Nobody really expected Dirty Harry to become what it did, so I can see the studio saying we'll pay for this, but not for that.
Richard, if you're out there and read this, let us know your thoughts.
Again, the transfer still looks better than my SDVD version, even with the SDVD upconverted. For $23 I didn't mind buying this one at all, and the book is really cool. I'll wait until I see my brother's boxed set and decide if I want to get them all on BD or just settle for the best Dirty Harry on Bluray and just upconvert the rest.