Dirty Harry

"Detective Harry Callahan. He doesn't break murder cases. He smashes them."

1971 1h 42m EN

👍

7.5

SOLID

🍅

89%

FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.7

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 2,871🍅89%Rotten Tomatoes●87Metacritic★7.7IMDB · 179,853

ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath.

“Detective Harry Callahan. He doesn't break murder cases. He smashes them.”

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Cast

Clint Eastwood
Harry
Harry Guardino
Bressler
Reni Santoni
Chico
John Vernon
The Mayor
Andrew Robinson
Killer
John Larch
Chief
John Mitchum
De Georgio
Mae Mercer
Mrs. Russell

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Don Siegel
Writers: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, Dean Riesner
Languages: Spanish, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $4.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 9.0× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

55 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Dirty Harry Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Don Siegel, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lalo Schifrin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Carl Pingitore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Don Siegel directs. Bruce Surtees behind the camera. Lalo Schifrin scores. Carl Pingitore cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Spanish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $4.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 9.0× over at the box office.
355 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.
5Part of the "Dirty Harry Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Don Siegel, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Lalo Schifrin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Carl Pingitore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Clint Eastwood and Harry Guardino and Reni Santoni carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Detective Harry Callahan. He doesn't break murder cases. He smashes them.".
11IMDB entry: tt0066999 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 31 themes, including "sniper", "police", "ambush", "chase".

The technical file

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees
Original score: Lalo Schifrin
Editing: Carl Pingitore
Makeup / hair: Jean Burt Reilly
Sound: Sergio Reyes
Stunt coordinator: Buddy Van Horn
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $4,000,000
Box office: $35,976,000
Return: 899% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Dirty Harry (1971)
Rotten Tomatoes: 89% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 87/100
IMDB rating: 7.7/10 · 179,853 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

2 wins & 4 nominations total

Part of

Dirty Harry Collection

Dirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels featuring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood's character also helped popularize the .44 Magnum, as Harry Callahan is famously shown wielding his Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver.

Also by

Don Siegel

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-09-12
★ 9/10
More than iconography here in dynamite Siegel/Eastwood teaming. The film opens with a shot of a memorial wall in praise of the San Francisco Police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, a SFPD badge is prominent as the camera scrolls down the ream of names on the wall. Cut to a rooftop sniper shooting a girl taking a swim in a swimming pool, cut to the coolest looking cop you have ever seen making his way to the rooftop scene, he stands and surveys the whole of the San Francisco bay area, this is, his area, and we know we are in for a very special film indeed. Dirty Harry is now something of an institution, the film that pushed the boundaries of cops versus bad guys movies, some of the film's dialogue became part of modern day speak, and it's the film that propelled Clint Eastwood into the stratosphere of super stardom. Often tagged as a fascist film, I think it's more a cynical look at the rights of criminals because Harry is everyone who has ever been a victim of crime, he will do what it takes to take down the criminals festering in society, you break the law and Harry will get you any way he can. Here Harry is on the trail of Scorpio, a ruthless sniper killing at random, Scorpio kidnaps a teenage girl and demands $200.000 from the city or she will die in the hole he has her buried in. Harry is just the man for the job of delivery boy and this sets the wheels in motion for what becomes a personal crusade for Harry to take Scorpio down at all costs. Director Don Siegel crafts a masterpiece here, creating a western within the big city landscape, the pace is energetic at times yet reeling itself in to provide genuine suspense when needed. Siegel should also be praised for sticking by Andy Robinson as Scorpio, for it's an insanely great performance from him. Yet it might never had happened since Robinson was petrified of guns, but Siegel stood by him and coaxed him through it. The result is a maniacal turn that scares and amuses in equal measure - witness his mad singing during a bus kidnap scene, you will not know whether to laugh or be afraid. Yet as good as Robinson is, he gives way to a seamless piece of magnificence from Eastwood as Harry Callahan, note perfect and enthusing the role with the right amount of dynamic cool and gusto, it's no surprise that the character became a cinematic legend after such a great acting performance. Finally I must mention the wonderful score from Lalo Schifrin, jazz/electro/beat combinations segue perfectly into each scene with maximum impact to cap off one of the finest films of the 70s, and if you don't believe me then you can go argue with Harry. 9/10
Andres Gomez2016-03-04
★ 6/10
The directing is remarkable but, the most interesting side of this film is the character created by Eastwood, a policeman who decides to take the law by his hand disregarding any kind of right or procedure. Quite like his characters in the far west ... but in nowadays U.S. The story itself is, plainly, bad and grotesque.
talisencrw2016-08-14
★ 10/10
Recently I've considered drastically negatively re-appraising Clint Eastwood's work, both directorially and as a thespian, as a knee-jerk reaction to his constant defense of the more racially-bigoted face of conservative America, but because of what his work has meant to me as a cinephile over the years, plus in tribute to everyone else's work involved in this film, particularly director Don Siegel's, that simply wouldn't be fair. As well, you're basically getting, boiled down in its 103-minute timespan, 45 years after the fact, the main dilemma facing the USA. Whose rights are more important--the good guys' or the bad guys'? If they're equal, should they be considered equal, and what does that mean to the law enforcement and judicial systems? Quite simply, THE most important American-made film of the past 50 years. NOT my very favourite (that's '2001: A Space Odyssey'), but the most significant. And it hasn't aged a single day because of it.