A Very Pretty, Dirty Movie

So, what was the inaugural movie on the new TV? Well, it wasn't planned this way, but the movie I happened to have from Netflix at the time (on Blu-ray, even) was Dirty Harry.

It turned out, to my surprise, that this was actually an awesome movie for Blu-ray. Say anything else you want about the movie (and of course, I will in a moment), but it really looks gorgeous. The movie sets out to show off the city of San Francisco, and boy does it accomplish that goal. There are huge panoramas, helicopter shots, crane shots, rooftop shots, epic pullbacks, sweeping city vistas... the works. And on the new TV, I dare say it's about as close as I can imagine to actually being in San Francisco. (Though that is something I'd like to do some day.)

The movie itself didn't really thrill me nearly as much as the visuals, though. I realize that the "sorts of characters" Clint Eastwood is now known for playing is a legacy that actually began here. It doesn't change the fact that watching the film today, Harry Callahan comes off as much caricature as character. I wish I could put myself in the place where "well do ya, punk?" wasn't the worst kind of cliché, but unfortunately it just is.

I'd like to think I could still find a way to forgive all that, though, if the story wasn't so choppy. Principally, the film is supposed to be about the pursuit of a serial sniper, Scorpio (deliberately modeled after the then chillingly recent Zodiac Killer). But for the first half of the movie or so, it plays more like bite-sized nuggets of a Dirty Harry television series. See Harry in a shoot-out on the street. See Harry try to break in a new partner. See Harry talk a jumper off a ledge. Each of these mini-episodes takes five to ten minutes; each feels like it could have been the plot of a TV episode.

The Scorpio aspect really doesn't come front and center until the last half of the movie. It does mostly work, largely thanks to the performance of Andrew Robinson (whom modern Trek fans will know as plain, simple Garak of Deep Space Nine). It's a bit over the top, but somehow believably so. It's all rather predictable, but you can make some allowances for the fact that it's predictable because so many other things since 1971 were copying this.

It's not a bad movie by any stretch, but I find it's basically been outdated. It's coming up on 40 years old soon, and many others have lovingly followed in this movie's footsteps, and upping the ante in doing so. I rate Dirty Harry a C-.