Dirty Harry

This was the start of a whole thing, wasn't it? Who doesn't recognise the line 'Do you feel lucky, punk?' (Although I always think there is the line 'what about the rights of the little girl?'... but there isn't.)

Even today, you wonder how far would Scorpio get, citing his rights? PCism is cited as being rampant, so I'm not thinking he'd have that any more difficulty wriggling out of things than he does in the movie. (Although, as they point out in the commentary, he would likely be held under suspicion for something!) And we are definitely saying 'Go Harry!' when it comes to the finale when he casually guns Scorpio down, laws or no. Definitely an iconic figure there.

Even the production is great! Yes, there are some scenes that do take a fair bit of time, but you don't care! For this movie, I was more than happy to go along for the ride. Harry Callaghan running the money across town, I'm watching. Harry peeking in on a guy carrying a suitcase, I'm snickering along. Scorpio getting beat up... well, less interested, but definitely an interesting moment given Scorpio's prejudices.

While police procedurals were not new, this definitely created a niche that would be flogged for years to come.

[END]