i watched .. the Dirty Harry marathon !!
1. Dirty Harry 1971
The cultural-phenomenon we all know and love, this film is all about "Dirty" Harry Callahan; dirty because he knows every dirty trick in the book, but behind the facade of uncaring, arrogant cop, Callahan is a profoundly good and honest man who wants to protect his people at all costs. And he gets off at people thinking he's something that he is not .. for example, a racist.
The plot is, in a sense, irrelevant. There is a (fantastic Andy Robinson) killer known as Scorpio, a psychopath who delights in the chaos he causes, and who hates the rigidity and determination that Callahan stands for.
But the core of the film is putting Callahan in all these situations where his character can come through, to see this hardened cop who doesn't take shit from anyone, be it criminals .. or penpushers.
I don't know why director Dan Siegel decided to comment that "(Callahan) is . in his way, as evil as (Skorpio)", when the film shows him in a completely different light.
Maybe i just don't see Callahan that way because he appeals to me the same way that he appeals to everyone that loved the film, because he is a cop that does "the right thing", with what "the right thing" is being widely debatable. Having said that, it's still not really a great film, at least today. Sure, the classic scenes are there, but the lithmus test is when watching the film in pieces on YouTube is better than watching it in whole, you know the film hasn't aged well.
All considered, 6.5/10
2. Magnum Force 1973
The weakest of the bunch. It's just a one-episode police show that's too long, and while Callahan is a fun character, it doesn't do much to help the script, because the script here is "Callahan does" instead of "Callahan is", the way the first film was structured.
A bunch of rogue cops are killing every criminal they can find, ex-judicially, because reasons. The plot is laid bare both for the viewer, but also for the protagonist, when the cops show
up and say "we're guilty, we did it, hey why don't you join us".
That and the funky 70s soundtrack really do not do much to elevate this over your made-for-tv one-shot police serial. The "twist" at the end gives it a bit of ooomph until you realize that the secretly-evil character has bene acting against his own interests the whole time, pushing the protagonist towards finding the guilty party .. himself.
It's just boring. The title card is literally just Eastwood's hand holding a gun for a solid 2 minutes.
my vote: 5/10
3. The Enforcer 1976
Probably the best of the bunch if seen on its own. Funnier than the others, and back to focusing on Callahan as a character, rather than just being a crime show. The move of introducing a straight man (Tyne Daily) as the rookie inspector is brilliant, because it highlights how uncooperative Callahan is, it exhalts the aspects of the character than we love the most. And also, the bad guys kill her, which is the perfect motivation for the protagonist to have that moment of righteous fury that ends with him executing one of the bad guys by LAW rocket.
Plot-wise, it kinda sucks, bunch of random wannabe revolutionaries land a bunch of military weapons, but it has some decent intrigue in the police affairs. Daily is a gem and she works really well alongside Eastwood.
My vote: 6.5/10
4. Sudden Impact 1983
Once again closer to a single-shot, but crammed with more, !more stuff that Callahan does. More shootings, more punchings, more dressing-downs by the chief of police, all surrounding a really weak plot of a woman bent on revenge, who Callahan then decides she's not that bad, despite, you know, the murders. Ah yes, those murders.
Better direction and pacing than Magnum Force; still not worth watching.
The switch from a 70s funk wah-wah soundtrack to slap bass and synth is *so* 80s. The star of the show is/was the Automag .44 pistol, practically science fiction in those years.
My vote: 5.5/10
5. The Dead Pool 1988
lololol
aside from having GnR "Welcome to the Jungle" in the soundtrack, it's a scene where Jim Carey is a buddy rock artist shooting a video, and Lian Neeson playing the director. And Slash - yes that guy - firing a harpoon gun in a cameo.
Again like 2 and 4 this is just a normal cop film with Callahan as the protagonist, but overall it's better in every way to the other two. Better direction, better pacing, a couple of funny scenes, and the petite Patricia Clarkson as the love interest doesn't hurt either. Certainly suffers from what the 80s considered "badass".
My vote: 6/10