DIRTY HARRY

US, 1971, 107 minutes, Colour.
Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson, John Vernon.
Directed by Donald Siegel.

Dirty Harry is the fifth film by Eastwood and Siegel. Siegel directed Eastwood in Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara and The Beguiled, and appeared in Play Misty for Me. This is their best. It tells of a tough policeman in San Francisco, dedicated to his job of hunting criminals, although he cannot explain his motives. The core of the story is Harry's pursuing a psychotic sniper, his violent handling of the case and the difficulties he encounters with civil authorities and the letter of the law.

The film takes a stand for the police being allowed to get on with their job unhindered, for their getting more powers. The caution is that violence is the risk when the police are like Harry. There has always been the same problem with the tough private eyes. The most outstanding example of the obsessed policeman is Popeye Doyle in The French Connection,
Whatever the implications for law and order and for police violence. Dirty Harry is always an interesting and exciting film. Time Magazine considered it one of the ten best of 1971.

1. Was this a tribute to American police as the opening indicated or an attack on aspects of the police force as the ending, with Harry throwing away his badge, indicated? Why?

2. Why was Harry really called 'Dirty'?

3. How dirty do you think Harry's methods were? Mere they justified? How?

4. Was Harry a sympathetic character? Did you like him? Why? How did he relate to his superiors, to the Mayor, to his colleagues, to Chico? Did his treatment of the would-be suicide impress you? His conversation with Chico's wife and the information about his own wife's death?

5. What picture of American society and violence did the film give, especially regarding the sniper and his various attacks, kidnappings and threats, the danger to ordinary citizens, e.g. in Harry's shooting at the bank robbery at the beginning, the violence of the police?

6. How well does this film show the dangers and difficulties for police in their work - the constant crimes, the risks with madmen, the criminals who don't work according to rules, the respecting the rights of criminals, the attempts to anticipate moves, the irregular hours of being on a job, the continual surveillance of roof-tops etc?

7. What does the public expect of the police? How well does the public respect its police and co-operate with them?

8. How do you explain psychopaths, like the killer in this film? Did you have any sympathy for him at all? Why did he choose the victims he did?

9. Why did the killer have an obsession against the police and against Harry? Why did he go to such lengths to accuse Harry, especially his being beaten up by the Negro?

10. How well did the Mayor appear in the film? Did he take the correct course of action? Was he to blame for any of the deaths? Did he assist the police as well as he should?

11. Were you shocked when the killer was allowed to go free because the evidence against him was inadmissable? Are the laws protecting individual rights necessary or do they hinder the administration of the law?

12. Why did Harry throw his badge away at the end? Was this film for or against the police?