Dirty Harry 4K review by Bobby Blakey
2021 marked the 50th year of Clint Eastwood’s partnership with Warner Bros., which began in 1971 with the release of Dirty Harry. Since he has not only delivered an impressive resume of films both in front of and behind the camera, but more awards than you can imagine. To celebrate Warner Bros is bringing three classic films to 4K for the first time ever including the one that started it all Dirty Harry that co-stars Andy Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, and John Vernon.
​
Dirty Harry follows no-holds-barred San Francisco cop Dirty Harry Callahan in this action thriller that began an action franchise. When detective Harry Callahan is assigned to pay extortion money to a serial murderer, the payoff goes wrong. Now with the life of a 14-year-old girl at stake, Callahan refuses to allow anything--including the law--to keep him from stopping the killer.
​Outside of his western genre Eastwood is probably best known for his iconic Dirty Harry franchise that spawned films with him starring in all but only directing the 4th film Sudden Impact. This first film that started it all is a great introduction to
the character and the perfect vehicle for Eastwood. He brings that usual gruff swagger we are used to, but now in a suit and a lot bigger gun.
The story is a standard cop thriller offering up a great villain in Scorpio played to psychotic perfection by Andy Robinson. He is the kind of killer that is more terrifying in that he just loves what he does despite asking for the money. He sets a great game of cat and mouse that reminded me of Die Hard With A Vengeance which I can only assume borrowed from this classic.
The film is less of an action film and more of a crime drama but does offer up some action pieces. I have always felt the movie is great but also think that the ending is pretty anti-climactic after everything Callahan went through to get his man. I can’t imagine anyone ever taking on this role again or being able to bring what Eastwood did to it.
This new 4K release looks excellent and brings this classic flick to a whole new generation. Not sure if they plan to ever bring the four sequels to 4K as well like they deserve, but you can at least add this iconic original to your collection where it belongs.
Grab your copy of Dirty Harry when it hits 4K for the first time ever on April 29th from Warner Bros Discovery.