[Richard W. Haines]

Just read the review. Very fine.

In terms of the transfer, it all has to do with the condition of the negative. The Bond negatives
were processed and stored in England which has very good lab work. Even though "Dirty Harry"
was a Technicolor movie, that lab was getting sloppy in the seventies and was in the process
of moving into Eastmancolor to save costs. In fact, only three years after this picture, they
shut down their famous dye transfer line which is what made Technicolor "glorious" and shut
down their lab and moved into another facility at a new location and only offered the same
Eastmancolor as other facilities even though they claimed they were 'still the best name in
color' which sounded a bit desperate. They ended up being no better or worse than any
other Eastmancolor lab in the US (Metrocolor, Pathe etc.) which is to say sloppy and substandard
back then.

In any event, the Bond negatives were carefully stored and processed so when they digitally
scanned them in at 4K, they looked as good as they did back in the sixties. Obviously the
"Dirty Harry" negative wasn't as meticulously processed or stored and while you can do a lot
with digital restoration in terms of color correcting fully exposed pre-print and removing wear,
there is less you can do with underexposed negatives which tends to affect night scenes
which get a little murky and lose their 'snap'. The original dye transfer Technicolor prints of
the movie looked fine but only film collectors have those now (studios rarely save prints of
movies, just the negatives) so they had to work with the surviving elements 'as is'. Perhaps
as the digital machinery keeps being upgraded and changed, they'll find a way of adding contrast
and detail in underexposed scenes from pre-1983 negatives that have faded and lost some quality.

Post 1983 negatives are labeled as 'low fade' which is an improvement over the earlier 'quick
fade' Eastmancolor negatives but still a far cry from the 'no fade' Technicolor prints and earlier
3 strip cameras which photographed each color record in black and white. So far 1983 negatives
and prints are holding their color but of course they don't look as good in terms of the release
prints as dye transfer copies.


I liked "Dirty Harry" when I saw it when it came out and in revivals in the New York repertory
cinemas of the late seventies. This movie and "Death Wish" were what you might call cinematic
backlashses to the counter culture cinema that dominated at the time as well as the Warren Court that gave all sorts of extra protection for criminals, often at the expense of the safety of regular citizens which is why vigilante movies were popular back then.