DIRTY HARRY COLLECTION

Dirty Harry - 1971; Magnum Force - 1973; The Enforcer - 1976; Sudden Impact - 1983; The Dead Pool - 1988
Starring: Clint Eastwood
Director: Dirty Harry - Don Siegel
Magnum Force - Ted Post
The Enforcer - James Fargo
Sudden Impact - Clint Eastwood
The Dead Pool - Buddy Van Horn
Running Times: Dirty Harry - 99 mins
Magnum Force - 118 mins
The Enforcer - 93 mins
Sudden Impact - 113 mins
The Dead Pool - 87 mins
Certificate: 18

DIRTY HARRY

Harry Callahan the policeman is the man to wipe out the scum of the city. He’s mean, bad, very, very bad, and most importantly, he’s Clint Eastwood. On his first outing, he meets Scorpio, a psychopath who stalks his victims then kills them mercilessly. Scorpio, not content with killing people, holds the city to ransom for £100,000 (it was a big sum then) or...he kills again. What will Harry do?

It’s the original, and way ahead of the rest for it’s style, and alluring 70s cool. A great soundtrack accompanies some classic Eastwood acting, as the man himself demonstrates why he is still one of Hollywood’s very best. The good guy with little regard for the usual rules runs riot in this great action movie. The disc is good, although not the best, but is easily the best version of the film on release. There’s a tasty documentary charting Harry’s influence on movies up until 2001, and another doc on the film itself. This being a special edition disk, you wouldn’t be wrong in expecting something a little more “special”. The documentaries are average, but just becuase this disc comes in the box set, don’t be fooled into being satisfied for less than you are paying. However, the film is still a classic, and the small amount of extras still deliver the goods, especially with the clear digital transfer and the awesome soundtrack score.

Documentary “Dirty Harry - Celebrating Thirty Years on An American Hero”; Interview Gallery; New documentary :Dirty HArry the Original”; Trailer; Dolby Digital 5.1

MAGNUM FORCE

Around the city, bad-ass cops are delivering their own form of justice, after underworld figures are being topped. With San Francisco as the setting, Harry Callahan begins to investigate, completely ignoring the direct orders of his senior officer. With Harry displaying a more personal side to himself, we see even more emotion as people stand in the way of a really pissed off Clint Eastwood. Just watch as the bodies begin to fall...

Sequels seem to have gained a bad reputation, and I’ve no idea why. There’s no reason why Magnum Force is any worse than the original Harry movie. The directing of Ted Post is not really any obviously different from that of the original’s maker Don Siegel and the film still manages to keep it’s atmospheric violent basing. If anything, there’s too much of it to handle. At just under two hours, it’s the longest Harry movie of the five, and even though it’s a pretty average running time, it still seems a bit too much if you’ve seen the original. With two extras on this disc, you will be left feeling cheated, especially as one of them is a trailer. A good film, but I feel as if it could’ve been accompanied with more of a blockbuster kind of disc, the sort a film like this one deserves. The lack of extras brings it down.

Behind the scenes documentary “The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today”; Trailer; Dolby Digital 5.1

THE ENFORCER

Harry’s had his ass busted down to personnel, after dealing with a routine robbery the only way he knows how. However, when the mayor gets kidnapped and terrorists blackmail the city for two million dollars (a tenth of Will Smith’s wage packet...sorry) the cops of San Francisco know that there’s only ONE MAN for the job. Mr Callahan is called in, and upon him is forced a partner. Tyne Daly (a woman in a Dirty Harry movie?) is Harry’s female friend as the two begin to do some major terrorist butt-kicking.

How to ruin a legacy: make a third installment. It almost always happens. Somehow, The Enforcer manages to avoid all the obvious tell-tale signs of a bad add-on by providing the audience with the usual style we’ve come to know and love. We get to see Harry’s reaction to the ladies, which provides some genuinely funny moments (just watch Harry’s face) but unfortunately, Dirty Harry number three fails to deliver what the previous two movies held. The story line runs a little weak at times, and I couldn’t hepl but think that this movie invented a whole new cliche for the future. Again, an irritatingly small extras disc, with just the typical documentary and trailer. You’ll be able to stand The Enforcer, but it will definately worry you, after all, there’s two more Harry films left to come.

DVD Extras: Behind the scenes documentary “Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films”; Trailer; Dolby Digital 5.1

SUDDEN IMPACT

Harry’s bosses are getting irritated with him, and send him out of town on an assignment that will keep him busy, and more importantly, out of the way. A rape victim has chosen to live her life on a permanant personal vendetta, and is hunting down her attackers and killing them off one - by - one. Harry is sent to stop her, before she goes too far.

Directed by Eastwood himself, and coming seven years after The Enforcer. Ever wondered where this infamous line came from: “Go ahead, make my day?” Sudden Impact is the mother of it, as we see Harry Callahan back on form. There’s the fire and passion of the original in this film, and it has everything that The Enforcer lacked. The direction of Eastwood shows his obvious talent that we have seen blossom over the years. However, the extras are, and lets be kind here, utterly pathetic. What is a trailer in a box set? There’s no question about it, the customer has been screwed over this disc, and with Sudden Impact being such a good film, it seems unfair to have to mark it down because of the lack of extras.

DVD Extras: Trailer; Dolby Digital 5.1

THE DEAD POOL

A horror movie director plays a game called The Dead Pool, where he makes a list of ten local celebrities who he thinks are going to die. However, it turns sour when the entries on the list begin turning up dead, and Harry Callahan turns nasty when he finds out his own name is on the list. The director in the film, Peter Swan, is played by Liam Neeson.

The Dead Pool to me, was very much out of character in comparison with the rest of the Harry films because of it’s excellent originality and inventive ideas. The Dead Pool could’ve made a great film on it’s own, but of course, aging Harry had to be the star, and to be straight with you, I was bored. It’s the shortest Harry movie at 87 minutes, and by far the one I wanted to end quickly. No real atmosphere, and Harry seemed to be pretty lightweight. Some of the cutting edge violence has been lost, and without the cool, and style that the other films possessed, this film is just a tired ending to an already dead leagacy. No doubt about, Harry should have retired after the fourth film, and with only another God-damned trailer to the extras name, this is a sad attempt at an action movie. The worst of the bunch by far.

DVD Extras: Trailer, Dolby Digital 5.1

Overall Box Set

Guest Review by Jay Em

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