Do you want to see ‘Dirty Harry’?

Dirty Harry (1971)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 70,429

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Movie Info

"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood, in a role meant for Frank Sinatra) is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

Directed By: Don Siegel

Written By: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink

In Theaters: Dec 24, 1971 Wide

On DVD: Nov 18, 1997

Warner Home Video

Dirty Harry Trailer & Photos

Cast

Clint Eastwood
Harry Callahan
Harry Guardino
Lt. Bressler
Reni Santoni
Chico Sanchez
John Vernon
Mayor
Andy Robinson
Scorpio
John Larch
Chief
Maurice Argent
Sid Kleinman
Joy Carlin
Communications Secretar...
Tony Dario
Police Sergeant
Diane Darnell
Mayor's Secretary
Diana Davidson
Swimmer
Jo De Winter
Miss Willis
Vince Deadrick Jr.
Man
Charles Dorsett
Television Watcher
Lyn Edgington
Norma
George Fargo
Homicide Detective
Joe Finnegan
Men in Truck
Lois Foraker
Hot Mary
Max Gail
John Garber
David Gilliam
Homosexual
Robert H. Harris
Raymond Johnson
Craig Kelly
Sgt. Reineke
Ruth Kobart
Bus Driver
Richard Lawson
Homosexual
Mae Mercer
Mrs. Russell
John Mitchum
DeGeorgio
Kathleen O'Malley
Woman
Woodrow Parfrey
Mr. Jaffe
William Paterson
Bannerman
Angela Paton
Homicide Detectives
Albert Popwell
Bank Robber
Ernest Robinson
Robber (uncredited)
Debra Scott
Ann Mary Deacon (uncred...
Kristoffer Tabori
Melody Thomas
Ann Mary Deacon photogr...
Scott Hale
Newsman
Victor Paul
Car Driver
Josef Sommer
Rothko
Leslie Fong
Dean Webber
Al Dunlap
Christopher Pray
Tunnel Hoodlum
Charles A. Murphy
Eddie Garrett
Policeman
Stu Klitsner
Ann Noland
John Tracy
James Nolan
Liquor Store Proprietor
Andrew Robinson

Critic Reviews for Dirty Harry

All Critics (45) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (2) | DVD (34)

Clint Eastwood, in the title role, is a superhero whose antics become almost satire. Strip away the philosophical garbage and all that's left is a well-made but shallow running-and-jumping meller.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comments (12)

Variety

Top Critic

A crisp, beautifully paced film, full of Siegel's wonderful coups of cutting and framing.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

No less than Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it offers a fabulous, multifarious political metaphor. (And, as with Body Snatchers, Siegel's own liberal interpretation was trumped by a more forceful hard-right reading.

April 4, 2006 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

J. Hoberman

Village Voice

Top Critic

If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment (1)

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

What makes Dirty Harry worth watching no matter how dumb the story, is Siegel's superb sense of the city, not as a place of moods but as a theater for action.

May 21, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Roger Greenspun

New York Times

Top Critic

A significant film ideologically, this right-wing revenge crimer catapulted Clint Eastwood to major stardom and launched a whole cycle of films about taking the law into your hands.

April 16, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

"Dirty Harry" is still one of the most enjoyable films you could hope to sit down with for a couple of hours.

October 3, 2010 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com

| Comment

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

'70s rebel-cop classic is way too edgy for kids.

September 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment (1)

Charles Cassady

Common Sense Media

Don Siegel's action thriller hasn't aged a single day since its release...

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

An iconic performance by Clint Eastwood creates a cinematic immortal.

June 20, 2010 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs

| Comment

Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

Siegel makes excellent use of San Francisco locations, even if Harry makes a few implausible leaps across town from time to time. The Kezar Stadium showdown in particular is a keeper.

July 3, 2009 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Little in Dirty Harry aims above the barely cognizant.

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Projection Booth

| Comments (4)

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

Don Siegel's Dirty Harry is an apt example of a film with a vision that few people perceive beyond its violent, flamboyant surfaces. If director Siegel might be a bit uncomfortable with a close reading of his movie, he also might be pleased that the...

March 1, 2009 Full Review Source: tonymacklin.net

| Comment

Tony Macklin

tonymacklin.net

... as Inspector Harry Callahan, known to the squad as Dirty Harry, Eastwood turned his frontier persona into an urban cowboy on the mean streets of our urban world.

October 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Seanax.com

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

If you don't buy this sociological stuff and consider Dirty Harry to be little more than an above average B-picture, it's impossible to deny it is a superb action movie.

August 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

[Don] Siegel is lean, terse director who is happy leave "Dirty" Harry the vivid kind of moral conundrum that makes movies interesting...

June 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Seanax.com

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

...not only the first movie in the series, it's still the best. (Blue-ray Edition)

June 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...a taut, well-paced cop thriller with two solid adversaries in conflict.

May 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

A fascist film, or a film about a fascist cop? Either way, this is suspenseful, energetic stuff.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The Eastwood-Siegel combo packs more of a punch every year.

December 28, 2006 Comment

Carol Cling

Las Vegas Review-Journal

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Dirty Harry

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Gritty cop thriller with a great Eastwood performance and some fantastic quotes. Full review later.

April 9, 2010

Thomas Bowler

Super Reviewer

Dirty Harry is a film by Don Siegel and is quite possible the greatest crime thriller I have ever seen, and I do not say that lightly, I mean I have never seen a film that is so sure in itself that it knows that it is going to be a hit, and from the first moments of the film we know this will be a great film.. The

August 15, 2011

Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

Dirty Harry Quotes

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1. Harry Callahan: You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?
– Submitted by Tyler C (10 months ago)

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