The Ultimate Dirty Harry Collection

On DVD

Had anyone said to me in the 70s, as I was feeding my addiction to film, that Clint Eastwood, the star of Dirty Harry (1971) and Every Which Way But Loose (1976), would one day be one of the three finest American film directors, a four-time Academy Award winner and twice nominated for best actor, I would have laughed, long and hard into their faces.

Yet here we are, with Eastwood having won Academy Awards for Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), both best director and best picture, and nominated as best actor for each.

His world fame began with a spaghetti western, his American fame with a 44 magnum gun and detective's badge.

From Warner Brothers comes this new collection of the five films featuring Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, a San Francisco detective who tends to bring his own brand of justice to the criminals of the Bay area. We first encountered this character in 1971 in the original film, Dirty Harry (1971, ****) directed by Don Seigel, a mentor for Eastwood. The role had been offered to John Wayne, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra, who was actually cast before having to leave the film due to an injury. Eastwood stepped in and became an American icon with his performance, making the part his signature role through the 70s. Though often criticized for his acting through the decade, audiences loved the films and flocked to the box office to see each one.

Dirty Harry remains the best of the five films, a gritty thriller about Harry's search for a demented serial killer terrorizing the area. As portrayed by Andy Robinson, this is among the more chilling villains in film in that decade. Harry breaks all the rules his superiors have thrown at him and eventually gets his man, but not before taking the audience on a rollercoaster ride. Now is Harry as tough as playing Hamlet? Of course not. It is what it is and Eastwood is terrific as the tough cop.

The second of the films, Magnum Force (1974, **) was written by no less than a young Michael Cimino, who would later win an Oscar for best director for The Deer Hunter (1978) before bankrupting United Artists Studio with Heaven's Gate (1980). This Dirty Harry film sees Harry cleaning up the corruption on the police force, recognizing he can trust no one, including his fellow cops.

The Enforcer (1976) saw the series bring a woman into the mix with a strong role for Tyne Daley as Harry's new partner. Daley would later go on to Emmy Award-winning work in Cagney and Lacey. Once again Harry is out to get the crooks disrupting San Francisco, with the help of his new partner. If there is one thing the Harry films were never credited for, it was bringing in roles for women.

Sudden Impact (1983, ***), the only one of the films Eastwood directed, has a plum role for Sondra Locke as an avenging angel, killing the men and woman who raped her and her sister years earlier. When Harry learns that it is she who is the killer he seeks, he is faced with the moral dilemma as to what to do... turn her in, arrest her and send her to jail, or allow her to kill the maniacs who did her horrible damage. Filmed largely at night, the film is vintage Eastwood, with cartoon villains for Harry to wipe out. It was in this picture he uttered the infamous "Go ahead, make my day."

The last Harry film was The Dead Pool (1988) in which a serial killer is knocking off people in the news -- a rock star portrayed with gusto by a young Jim Carrey, then billed as James, and a director portrayed by Liam Neeson. Harry makes the list as well, but of course will find his man before the killer has the chance to do him in. Once again there is a strong role for a woman, a reporter portrayed by the resourceful Patricia Clarkson.

With the collection comes the outstanding documentary Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows, a study of Eastwood's emergence as one of the great American directors. There are also two documentaries created for this set about Eastwood's evolution as a filmmaker and another on the overall impact of the first film. An excellent collection, well worth a look.