肮脏的哈里

这部片子让人最印象深刻的，当然是哈里手里的 史密斯·韦森M500转轮手枪和期待clind eastwood 把匪徒一枪撂倒或者爆头那一刻。

我其实有两个阶段看这部片子，一个是小时候，当然觉得真爽，做警察叔叔这么过瘾。当然长大后会思考，那个年代，真的存在哈里可以在街头持枪执法，随时根据自己对法律的理解，直接街头处决罪犯吗？抢餐馆，抢银行时候，不怕枪声，误伤累及无辜吗？

所以，我一直在思考，电影情节和哪个年代的差距有多大？轻懂行的豆友提示下。当然，对美帝刻骨仇恨被洗脑过的，轻远离，我们需要的是客观事实，而不是血液上涌的义和团。

Watching the 1971 cop thriller Dirty Harry at a time when feminism and anti-racism become increasingly mainstream is indeed a nerve-racking experience. Directed by the earlier B-movie director Don Siegel, the 102-minute film, which portrays the cat-and-mouse-chase of a San Francisco police detective and a serial killer, is almost an explicit celebration of police brutality and male dominance. Although wildly politically incorrect, it is hard to ignore the movie’s immediate box office success and continued popularity.

"Do you feel lucky, punk? "

As the first instalment of the Dirty Harry series, Dirty Harry successfully introduces the main protagonist, the ‘dirty’ cop Harry Callahan, to the audience. The character is played by Clint Eastwood, who enjoys the star image of a cynical, virile, and powerful ‘man’s man’. As is expected, Callahan is almost a caricature of this iconic screen persona of Eastwood. He follows his own code of honour, and is hardly bound by any rules or social traditions. More importantly, he is always prepared to take any measures against the criminals, including torture, abuse and other forms of violence, to protect the citizens in San Francisco. As extreme as these measures seem, they are very much justified, and even encouraged in Dirty Harry, especially as the film uses an extremely perverted, evil and one-dimensional villain and an outrageously ineffective government system, in sharp contrast with Callahan’s toughness. The character’s roguish charm is even more strengthened as the film uses a nearly five-minute shot of the police officer peeping into the houses of innocent people, purely out of voyeuristic pleasure. Lalo Schifrin’s jazz score further adds to the dangerous and exotic atmosphere, giving the film a near-pornographic texture. These disturbing acts of extreme violence and female gaze are, however, normalised in the movie, and displayed as a celebration of masculinity.

The Dirty Harry Series

Dirty Harry reflects the general sentiments experienced by most conservative Americans in the 1970s. They are deeply frustrated by the liberalist movements in the 1960s, and hopes to return to traditional American values, with an unbending, strong-willed, and hyper-masculine ‘American’ hero standing up to fight against the hippy culture, corruption and moral decadence and to uphold established gender roles. These thoughts continue to stay central to the conservative political rhetoric in America even until nowadays, and form an inseparable part of the American culture, despite the growing popularity of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements in the country.

There are often discussions on the internet arguing that Dirty Harry should be ‘cancelled’ due to its right-wing tendencies (Delingpole, 2020). However, from my perspective, it is definitely a film worth to revisit, especially for people with liberal views like me, as it could potentially help us jump out of our comfort zones and try to understand how conservative politics works in the 1970s and even nowadays. At the very least, it demonstrates to us why pushing forward filmmaking that intentionally challenges the patriarchal privilege in society is still, and will continue to be important.

Works Cited

Delingpole, J. (2020, June 16). 7 problematic films that are yet to be cancelled. Spectator Life. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from //www.spectator.co.uk/article/7-problematic-films-that-are-yet-to-be-cancelled

Street, J. (2016). Dirty Harry's America: Clint Eastwood, Harry Callahan, and the Conservative Backlash. University Press of Florida.