From his debut, Callahan became the template for a new kind of film cop: an antihero who does not hesitate to cross professional boundaries in pursuit of his own vision of justice, especially when the law is poorly served by an inept, incompetent bureaucracy.
All of the Dirty Harry films feature Callahan killing criminals, mostly in gunfights. Phrases he utters in armed stand-offs, "Go ahead, make my day" and "[...] you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" have become iconic. As the 1971 film was criticized for carrying "authoritarian" undertones, the sequels attempted to be more balanced by pitting Harry against villains from a broader ideological spectrum, notably in 1973's Magnum Force, in which Harry is shown fighting vigilantism after it goes too far.[1]
Biography
Callahan is an Inspector with the San Francisco Police Department, usually with the Homicide Division, although for disciplinary or political reasons he is occasionally transferred to other less prominent units, such as the Personnel Division (in The Enforcer) or Stakeout (in Magnum Force) or just sent out of town on mundane research assignments (in Sudden Impact). Callahan's primary concern is protecting and avenging the victims of violent crime. Though proficient at apprehending criminals, his methods are often unconventional; while some claim that he is prepared to ignore the law and professional and ethical boundaries, regarding them as needless red tape hampering justice, his methods are usually within the law – he takes advantage of situations that justify his use of deadly force.
When a group of men holding hostages in a liquor store in The Enforcer demand a getaway car, Callahan delivers one by driving the car through the store's plate glass window and then shooting the robbers. Rather than following the rules of the police department, Callahan inserts himself into the scene of the event at a time when the imminent use of deadly force by the criminals justifies his use of deadly force against the criminals.
Conversely, in Sudden Impact when he finds out that Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke), the person responsible for a series of murders in San Francisco and San Paulo, was a rape victim killing her unpunished rapists, he lets her go free, indicating that he feels her retribution was justified. In The Dead Pool, Callahan shoots a fleeing and unarmed Mafia assassin in the back and kills the villain in the end with a harpoon knowing that the man's pistol is out of ammunition.
Callahan goes a step further in Dirty Harry, in which he shoots serial killer Charles "Scorpio" Davis after Davis surrenders and put his hands in the air. Determined to know the location of a 14-year-old girl that Davis has kidnapped and buried alive, Callahan then presses his foot onto Davis' leg wound, ignoring Davis's pleas for a doctor and a lawyer until Davis gives up the location of the kidnapped girl. Callahan is later informed by the District Attorney that because Callahan kicked in the door of Davis's residence without a warrant, and because Davis's confession of the girl's location was made under the duress of torture, the evidence against him is inadmissible, and Davis has been released without charges filed against him. Callahan explains his outlook to the mayor, who asks how Callahan ascertains that a man he had shot was intending to commit rape; the inspector responds, "When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross."[2]
While his partners and many other officers respect and admire Callahan, others see him as unfit to serve on the police force. He often clashes with superiors who dislike his methods, and judges and prosecutors are wary of handling his cases because of frequent violations of the Fourth Amendment and other irregularities. A police commissioner admits that Callahan's "unconventional methods ... get results", but adds that his successes are "more costly to the city and this department in terms of publicity and physical destruction than most other men's failures". (The publicity makes him well known; in Sudden Impact, the police chief of another city calls him "the famous Harry Callahan", and by The Dead Pool he is so well known that the department wants to transfer him to Public Relations, even while he destroys three police cars in one month and causes a TV station to sue the department.) Callahan is often reprimanded, suspended, and demoted to minor units. At the start of Magnum Force Lt. Briggs transfers him to Stakeout. In The Enforcer, Captain McKay assigns him to Personnel. In Sudden Impact he is threatened with a transfer to Traffic and being fired, in The Enforcer he begins a 180-day suspension imposed by McKay, and in The Dead Pool he is only allowed to stay off desk duty with a new partner. According to film critic Roger Ebert, "it would take an hour in each of these movies to explain why he's not in jail".[3]
The films routinely depict Callahan as being a skilled marksman and strong hand-to-hand combatant, killing at least one man with his bare hands.[4] He is a multiple winner of the SFPD's pistol championship. In the five films, Callahan is shown killing a combined total of 43 criminals, mostly with his trademark revolver, a Smith & Wesson Model 29.44 Magnum, which he describes as "the most powerful handgun in the world". He refuses to join the secret police death squad in Magnum Force, as he prefers the present system, despite its flaws, to the vigilante alternative. In his fight against criminals, however, including the fellow officers on the death squad, Callahan is relentless and shows no hesitation if he has to use ultimate force.
In Dirty Harry, several explanations are suggested for his nickname. When his partner Chico Gonzalez asks about the nickname's origins, Frank DiGiorgio says, facetiously, that "that's one thing about our Harry; [he] doesn't play any favorites. Harry hates everybody: limeys, micks, hebes, fat dagos, niggers, honkies, chinks - you name it." After being called to talk down a jumper, Callahan claims he is known as "Dirty Harry" because he is assigned to "every dirty job that comes along". When Harry is ordered to deliver ransom money to Scorpio, Gonzalez opines "no wonder they call him Dirty Harry; [he] always gets the shit end of the stick". In Dirty Harry, Gonzalez humorously suggests that Callahan's nickname may have an alternate origin given that he twice ends up peeking through a naked woman's window and later follows a suspect into a strip club.
The films reveal little about Callahan's personal background. In the first film, Callahan tells Chico Gonzalez's wife that his wife was killed by a drunk driver. She appears in Magnum Force in an old photograph which Harry turns around. The doctor tending to him after the first film's bank robbery intimates that "us Potrero Hill boys gotta stick together". The first film's novelization explains that Callahan grew up in this neighborhood and describes a hostile relationship between the police and the residents. Callahan recalls once throwing a brick at a police officer, who picked it up and threw it back. The following sequels show that Harry lives within the city limits in a small studio apartment on Jackson Street in the Nob Hill area, so unfamiliar with his neighbors that they refer to him only as "the cop who lives upstairs". Also Harry Callahan served in the Marines and, possibly, he is a Korean war veteran. In Magnum Force Harry's friend Charlie McCoy says "We should have done our 20 in the Marines", indicating that they served (or could/should have served) together in the armed forces. In The Dead Pool, a coffee mug on Harry's desk at the police station bears the United States Marine Corps seal and in The Enforcer it is clear he has already been checked out on the LAWS rocket, a USMC weapon.
His hobbies appear to consist of target shooting and playing pool (which we see him doing in The Enforcer). He appears to subsist on a diet of hot dogs, hamburgers and strong black coffee which he takes without sugar and is so unchanging that he simply orders 'The usual' from the staff of his regular eateries (in The Dead Pool he samples his girlfriend's unknown dessert but does not have one himself). He drinks beer, and on one occasion apple juice, and both runs and weightlifts in the gym. In Sudden Impact he acquires a pet bulldog called 'Meathead' but there is no sign of him in The Dead Pool. ('Meathead' is brutally castrated and presumably dies from his injuries in Sudden Impact.)
Callahan uses different pairs of sunglasses throughout the series. His sunglasses in Magnum Force are the Ray-Ban Balorama.[5] In The Enforcer, he uses Ray-Ban B&LAviator Style A. In Sudden Impact, he wears Gargoyles ANSI sunglasses.[6]
Partners
When Al Quan becomes Callahan's partner in The Dead Pool, the inspector respects Quan's experience but does not want to work with anyone because, he says, "most of my partners end up in the hospital or dead". He also warns Quan to "get a bulletproof vest", which ends up saving Quan in an explosion.
In the course of the films, most of his partners are killed or wounded while working with him. In Dirty Harry, he mentions two unseen partners named Fanducci and Dietrich, who is in the hospital having been shot, while Fanducci is dead, having been killed in 1968, according to a line in The Enforcer. Callahan's partner in Dirty Harry, Chico Gonzalez, survives being shot by Scorpio and later retires to become a college teacher, as Callahan later mentions in Magnum Force.
His partner in Magnum Force, Earlington "Early" Smith is killed by a bomb planted in his mailbox. In The Enforcer, Kate Moore is killed by terrorists while saving Callahan's life. She had previously mentioned Fanducci and Smith's names to Harry, to demonstrate that she is aware of the risks of being his partner. Of all Callahan's partners seen on screen, Quan and Gonzalez are the only two to survive. Gonzalez saves Callahan's life by shooting at Scorpio right before Scorpio is about to shoot Callahan. Callahan's partner in Sudden Impact, played by Albert Popwell, also played a bank robber in Dirty Harry, a community activist in The Enforcer, and a pimp in Magnum Force.
More than once Callahan resents the partners assigned to him: Gonzalez because he is a rookie college graduate, and Moore because she is a woman lacking field experience. However, they eventually earn his respect and both go on to save Harry's life.
In Dirty Harry it is established that Callahan's unnamed wife, whose portrait is on display in his apartment, has recently died. In Magnum Force he begins a relationship with Sunny, an Asian neighbor who seeks to sleep with him on their first meeting. In Sudden Impact he establishes a sexual relationship with vigilante Jennifer Spencer. The Dead Pool implies a romantic relationship with news reporter Samantha Walker, and the film ends with her and Callahan walking away together.
Cultural recognition
Callahan is considered a film icon, so much so that his nickname, "Dirty Harry", has entered the lexicon as slang for ruthless police officers. Harry Callahan was voted number 23 by Empire Magazine on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters.[8] Callahan was voted the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains.[9] He was also named one of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture by Entertainment Weekly.[10] He was also ranked 42nd by Premiere magazine on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.[11] The character also received recognition from the American Film Institute. Callahan's trademark weapon, the Smith & Wesson Model 29.44 Magnum revolver, was named the second greatest movie weapon of all time, behind the lightsaber from Star Wars.[12]
2."I know what you're thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?"
The former phrase was borrowed by US President Ronald Reagan in a March 1985 speech to the American Business Conference. Promising to veto any proposed tax rises, he challenged those who wanted them to: "Go ahead, make my day."[14] It has also given its name to a law in Colorado, the Make My Day Law, which protects homeowners who use lethal force against intruders.[15]
Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first appearance as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. The film drew upon the real-life case of the Zodiac Killer as the Callahan character seeks out a similar vicious psychopath.
Magnum Force is a 1973 American neo-noir action thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Ted Post, who had previously worked with Eastwood on Rawhide and Hang 'Em High, directed the film. The screenplay was written by John Milius and Michael Cimino. The film score was composed by Lalo Schifrin. This film features early appearances by David Soul, Tim Matheson and Robert Urich. At 123 minutes, it is the longest of the five Dirty Harry films.
The Enforcer is a 1976 American neo-noir action thriller film and the third in the Dirty Harry film series. Directed by James Fargo, it stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore, and DeVeren Bookwalter as criminal mastermind Bobby Maxwell. It was also the last film in the series to feature John Mitchum as Inspector Frank DiGiorgio.
Sudden Impact is a 1983 American neo-noir action thriller film, the fourth in the Dirty Harry series, directed, produced by and starring Clint Eastwood and co-starring Sondra Locke. The film tells the story of a gang rape victim (Locke) who decides to seek revenge on her rapists 10 years after the attack by killing them one by one. Inspector Callahan (Eastwood), famous for his unconventional and often brutal crime-fighting tactics, is tasked with tracking down the serial killer.
The Dead Pool is a 1988 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry film series and is set in San Francisco, California.
Prince of the City is a 1981 American neo-noir epic crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the life of Robert Leuci, called ‘Daniel Ciello’ in the film, an officer of the New York Police Department who chooses, for idealistic reasons, to expose corruption in the force. The screenplay, written by Lumet and Jay Presson Allen, is based on a 1978 non-fiction book of the same title, by former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley.
Evan C. Kim is an American actor. He is best known for playing Harry Callahan's partner Inspector Al Quan in the fifth, and final, "Dirty Harry" film The Dead Pool (1988).
Reni Santoni was an American film, television and voice actor. He was noted for playing Poppie on the television sitcom Seinfeld, Tony Gonzales in Cobra, and Chico González in Dirty Harry.
Part of the American Film Institute's 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS. The program was hosted by Pierce Brosnan and had commentary from many Hollywood actors and filmmakers. A jury consisting of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians selected "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", spoken by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the 1939 American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, as the most memorable American movie quotation of all time.
Dirty Harry is a canceled video game that was in development by The Collective intended to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive. The game was to continue the story of the 1971 film of the same name starring Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, the protagonist. Eastwood was intended to reprise his role, lending his voice and likeness as well as consulting and creative input. The game was to follow the same storyline of the film, with the San Francisco detective tracking down a serial killer named Scorpio. Versions were planned for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, with a release in 2007.
Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller, based on "Dirty" Harry Callahan by Harry Julian Fink and R. M. Fink. She first appeared in "The Hard Goodbye" before becoming a more prominent character in later stories, most notably That Yellow Bastard.
Dirty Harry is an American neo-noir action thriller film series featuring San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. There are five films: Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Clint Eastwood portrayed Callahan in all five films and directed Sudden Impact.
"Go ahead, make my day" is a catchphrase from the 1983 film Sudden Impact, spoken by the character Harry Callahan, played by Clint Eastwood. The iconic line was written by John Milius, whose writing contributions to the film were uncredited, but has also been attributed to Charles B. Pierce, who wrote the film's story, and to Joseph Stinson, who wrote the screenplay. In 2005, it was chosen as No. 6 on the American Film Institute list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
Code of Silence is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Dennis Farina and Molly Hagan. It was released in the United States on May 3, 1985.
David Ramon Toschi was an American law enforcement officer widely known for his efforts in the San Francisco Police Department as an inspector in the Zodiac Killer case. His personal style was the model for Bullitt and Dirty Harry.
McQ is a 1974 American Panavision neo-noir crime action film directed by John Sturges and starring John Wayne. It costars Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Al Lettieri, and features Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston, Julian Christopher, Roger E. Mosley, and William Bryant in supporting roles. The film was shot in the State of Washington, making extensive use of locations in Seattle and with a sequence near the end filmed on the Pacific Coast at Moclips.
Albert Popwell was an American stage, television and film actor with a career spanning six decades.
Dirty Harry novels include film novelizations and original tie-ins based on the Dirty Harry film franchise. Like the films, the novels portray Inspector "Dirty Harry" Callahan as he ruthlessly fights criminals.
Wait Until Dark is a 1967 American psychological thriller film directed by Terence Young and produced by Mel Ferrer, from a screenplay by Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Carrington, based on the 1966 play of the same name by Frederick Knott. The film stars Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman, Alan Arkin as a violent criminal searching for drugs, and Richard Crenna as another criminal, supported by Jack Weston, Julie Herrod, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
References
↑ Paul Smith, "The Opposite of Fascism", in Clint Eastwood: A Cultural Production, U of Minnesota Press, 1993, 101–108.
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