Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971) Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973)
The Enforcer (James Fargo, 1976)
Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood, 1983) The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988)
Warner (USA)
Review by Gary W. Tooze
All are 2.35/2.40:1 except The Dead Pool which is 1.85:1
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
The Discs all appear to be Region-Free!
Audio: All five have - English stereo and Dolby True HD 24 bit/48 kHz 5.1 lossless mixes,
plus DUBs in French, German, Italian, Spanish. Portuguese and Castellano
Subtitles: All offer English, English (For the Hearing Impaired), French, German, German (For the Hearing Impaired), Italian, Italian (For the Hearing Impaired), Castellano, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
Supplements:
Dirty Harry Special Features
• New commentary by filmmaker and Eastwood associate/biographer Richard
Schickel
• New featurette "The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry," on the
influence and legacy of Dirty Harry
• "Dirty Harry: The Original," with Clint Eastwood and the film's
creators looking back at the creation of the Dirty Harry character
• "Dirty Harry's Way," a promotional short focusing on the
toughness of the movie's main character
• Interview gallery, with Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood,
Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Robert Urich
• "Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso," a 1993 TV program on
his life and career, including scenes from his work and interviews with
friends, fellow actors and crew members
• Trailer gallery: Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The
Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool
Magnum Force - Special features:
• New commentary by director and Magnum Force screenwriter John Milius
("in this gritty, entertaining commentary, legendary Hollywood
screenwriter Milius discusses Eastwood, the world of Dirty Harry and the
rugged resilience of crime drama in American cinema")
• New featurette "A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry,"
with filmmakers, social scientists and authors on the politics and
ethics of the Dirty Harry films
• "The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today"
• Trailer gallery
The Enforcer - Special features:
• New commentary by Enforcer director James Fargo
• New featurette "The Business End: Violence in Cinema"
• "Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films"
• Trailer gallery
Sudden Impact - Special features:
• New commentary by filmmaker and Eastwood associate/biographer Richard
Schickel
• New featurette "The Evolution of Clint Eastwood," on the film
in the context of Eastwood's career as a director
• Trailer gallery
The Dead Pool - Special features:
• New commentary by Dead Pool producer David Valdes and Dead Pool
cinematographer Jack N. Green
• New Featurette "The Craft of Dirty Harry," including the
cinematography, editing, music, and production design of the Dirty Harry
films
• Trailer gallery
This 'Ultimate Blu-Ray edition also contains:
• 44 page hardcover book
• Wallet with metal badge and removable Inspect. Harry Callahan ID card
• Five 5" x 7" lobby poster reproduction cards and an exclusive Ultimate
Collector's Edition card
• "Scorpio: Portrait of a Killer" 19" x 27" map of San Francisco
detailing Harry's hunt for the killer in the first film
• A one-page personal note from Clint
Released: June 3rd, 2008
Custom case (see image above)
Presentation:
I'll discuss the image transfers below but wanted to give a bit of input on the packaging, extraneous accoutrements and and my overall impression upon opening the boxset. Firstly, the box is a bit of a maze with two films/DVDs in one 3-tiered digipack and the other three in a separate 3-tiered digipack. Then there is a very nicely appointed hardcover book and slightly thinner than VHS-sized box which contains the map, badge, lobby cards etc. There is also a hard cardboard separator. Overall I find it very clunky and awkward. I'm also disappointed that these are not the same height as standard Blu-ray cases (even worse than Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and I'll probably be buying individual BRD cases to put them in. As I stated most emphatically in the Blade Runner Ult. Collectors Edition on Blu-ray - I am really NOT a fan of these silly bells and whistles attached to the DVD packages. But in this case I wasn't so unforgiving to the badge wallet - it's fairly realistic (not super cheap - feels like soft leather though may be imitation) and, at least, it won't end up in the garbage. The book too is a nice keepsake but the lobby cards and map are already in the bin.
I'd like to mention one positive point that I find huge plus. Warner are presently my Blu-ray heroes for not enforcing difficult-to-advance trailers and Blu-ray commercials before the main feature. It can really be a pain as many production studios are piling them on incessantly. These films start immediately upon putting the disc in with only this below screen preceding the feature presentation. Bravo!
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NOTE: At this time this 5-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition in Blu-ray contains the entire Dirty Harry series (all 5 films listed below). Only a Dirty Harry will be available separately on Blu-ray; the other four movies will only be available on Blu-ray in this set (they will NOT available in the HD-DVD format, which Warner officially discontinued at the end of May.) .
Titles
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Excerpt from Wikipedia
HERE: Harold Francis "Dirty Harry" Callahan is a fictional
San Francisco Police Department inspector in the films Dirty
Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer
(1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool
(1988). Clint Eastwood plays Callahan in all five films.
From his debut in Dirty Harry, Callahan became the template for a
new kind of movie cop: a borderline vigilante who doesn't hesitate
when crossing professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of his
own vision of justice. The "Dirty Harry" archetype does not shy away
from killing, either; all of the Dirty Harry films feature Callahan
killing criminals. He justifies such conduct by saying that it "gets
results" in cutting down crime. This rationale rarely impresses his
superiors, who have threatened Callahan with suspension and firing
many times.
Callahan's signature weapon is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum
revolver, which he uses in all of the films. The gun's prominence in
the films instantly popularized it. He said he shot .44 Special
loads, because it gave him "better accuracy and control in a gun
this size". Additionally, in Sudden Impact, Callahan used a
.44 AutoMag. Contrary to popular belief, it was not an AMT firearm,
but one built specifically for that film.
In Dirty Harry, he used a Winchester Model 70 bolt action
rifle for the night gunfight with Scorpio. Other weapons Callahan
uses initially in the final climax of other films include a bomb, an
M72 LAW rocket launcher and a harpoon.
The Films:
Dirty Harry: Uncredited writer John Milius was thinking of Kurosawa's detective movies, and of outrageous antagonists differentiated only by the badge one wears; director Siegel was thinking of bigotry and, as ever, in terms of questions rather than answers. Critics were immediately thinking of effects ('Every frame votes Nixon'). Siegel's ambiguity wins out, as it had done with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (anti-Red? anti-McCarthy?). Seminal law-and-order cinema, and the site of revival for the oldest cine-political argument of all: does an articulated theme necessarily constitute an ideological position, especially when it's so transparent (cop Callahan's fascism) that it's noticed by everyone who's ever written about the film? It's more than a little embarrassing when critics trust audiences less than film-makers do.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE
Magnum Force: Scripted by Milius and Cimino, this second Dirty Harry episode is both less violent and less morally ambivalent than its superb predecessor. Harry's back on the force after throwing away his badge in recognition of his illegal methods at the end of Siegel's movie, and here he's using his tough, no-nonsense approach to track down some rookie cops who, in emulation of his earlier vigilante deeds, are blasting the usual assortment of 'criminal scum'. While never as disturbing as the first film, it fails to convince because of the turnaround in Harry's character, and because it posits in facile fashion degrees of taking the law into one's own hands: Harry's acceptable, the gun crazy kids aren't. That said, it has some fine action sequences, and is far less objectionable than the later Sudden Impact.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE
The Enforcer: Dirty Harry part three doggedly revives the formula of its predecessors, with Eastwood again the tough San Francisco cop, at odds with his liberal superiors, stalking psychopaths, this time a supposedly revolutionary group of kill-crazy kids. Whereas the earlier films went some way to exploring the political and personal tensions of operating as a modern lawman, this simplifies to the point of crudity - 'It's a war, isn't it?' - and misuses Eastwood's monolithic presence, primarily as a butt for gags like lumbering him with a female partner. This last could have worked, especially with Eastwood tiring of his image (cf. The Outlaw Josey Wales), but the scriptwriters fail dismally to develop the relationship, opting instead for a predictable one-note comedy of encumbrance. Yet despite inferior contributions from most departments, Eastwood carries the picture, and Tyne Daly does well as the female cop against very stacked odds.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE
Sudden Impact: It's the man again; back with a flatulent dog and his brand new .44 Magnum Automatic, investigating the trail of a corpse with 'a .38 calibre vasectomy' and a woman on a rape revenge crusade. This, the fourth of the Dirty Harry cycle, finds Clint as the usual pillar of troubled infuriation, his brows creased even more deeply by the usual dilemmas of inadmissible evidence and consequent vigilante justice; the villains are the standard Hollywood collection of unshaven lowlife, lesbians and giggling psychos bent upon the familiar course of distressing the more gentle citizenry ('One false move and the retard's brains get spread across the wall'). It seems rather pointless to cry Fascist once more in the looming face of Inspector Harry Callahan. The real problem here is technical; Eastwood the director is far less sure-footed than he was with the likes of Play Misty for Me or The Outlaw Josey Wales. Eastwood the star needed a hit to bolster his flagging ratings; now that he's got it, maybe Harry will be put out to stud, with his Magnum.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE
The Dead Pool: Dirty Harry part five ain't much cop. True, the morgues and breakers' yards are filled to brimming, but the sight of Lt Callahan (Eastwood) and new partner Lt Quan (Kim) trying to look scared as they are chased through San Francisco by a 6-inch remote-controlled model car quickly un-suspends disbelief. Down in Chinatown there are murderous thugs flying through windows into his lap; worse, now that he's hit the headlines and has go-getter newscaster Samantha Walker (Clarkson) on his back, Harry fears he may become a victim in a series of psychopathic murders of local celebrities. So many ethical debates later, a prolonged burst of Uzi machine-gun fire forces Walker into his arms and his way of thinking; and the anonymously sent hit-list - the eponymous dead pool - is traced to sicko horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson). Eastwood still manages to run about almost energetically, and there are occasional flashes of the old laconic wit; but the direction is woefully loose, and can't marry the parody with the thrills.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE
Video:
Not surprisingly there is a huge improvement over previous
SD DVDs incarnations but the image quality gets better as they span the 17 years they were made (from 71-88) with Dirty Harry looking fine but the lesser of the 5 - in terms of transfer quality. Personally, I think Sudden Impact looked the best but all are the brightest and sharpest I have ever seen the films outside the theatre. The colors, detail and depth are definitely at the high end. Every facet of transfer quality seems improved. Outdoor sequences seem particularly detailed and there is some minor digital noise, in monochromatic black backgrounds, as a minor negative. I noted a couple of instances of moiring and the first two had potential shimmering but it never really evolved. I suspect if I was forced to score image out of 5 - it would be solid 4.0's to 4.5 respectively escalating for the five Dirty Harry editions.T
echnically the three are supported with their original aspect ratios, 2.35-2.40 and 1.85:1 in glowing 1080p with VC-1 compression. I would occasionally check the bitrates and it would be a quite high - in around 34-40bps.NOTE: Essentially the films look better as the series runs the gamut. These are not pristine but look exceptionally good considering the age of the films, which, believe it or not, are as much as 37 years old for Dirty Harry to 20 years old for The Dead Pool! With Warner's new 4K transfer process I expect these will look as good as they can for Home theater presentations.
Dirty Harry - Blu-Ray
Individual Cover
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Subtitle Sample
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Screen Captures
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Magnum Force
Screen Captures
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The Enforcer
Screen Captures
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Sudden Impact
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Screen Captures
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The Dead Pool
Screen Captures
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That junkie is... a 26-year old Jim Carrey!
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Audio:
Good - but not great. I have a new system and it picked up only sporadic separation to the rears for the surround options. These are mostly artificial bumps and I've never been keen on that principle. I eventually choose the competent stereo option and it sounded wholesome and true. Dialogue was always clear and consistent and the more dynamic portions of the audio were defining enough to stir the intended emotional response. That's about all you can ask. Once again as the film series progresses the sound production obviously improves greatly - this is reflected in the transfers and I had no disappointment(s) in listening pleasure for all 5 of the films.
Supplements
: In a word 'extensive'. New commentaries for each film (I sampled at least 30 minutes of each) and was encouraged to indulge further. A nice mix with biographer Richard Schickel (twice), screenwriter John Milius, director James Fargo and finally producer David Valdes teamed with cinematographer Jack N. Green giving input - a lot, so far, on Clint and his methods - an intensely hard worker and private individual - some production cues and I heard a few anecdotes. Schickel can be quite riveting and he is the true expert of the group. There are an endless stream of long and short featurettes dealing with popularity and nostalgia concerning the series, violence in cinema and specifics of police work. I really enjoyed the "A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry," with filmmakers, social scientists and authors on the politics and ethics of the Dirty Harry films. It's something most viewers never realize and the themes of the films remain fairly consistent - not piece-meal. Interesting indeed. The 1993 TV feature "Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso," is a solid addition and one fans will enjoy - even re-watching. Each disc contains a Dirty Harry trailer gallery of the 5 films available for viewing. These, especially the commentaries, are good supplements and a nice additions to the package. Fans will have a lot to indulge in.Special Feature Menus
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BOTTOM LINE: I admit I wasn't the biggest Dirty Harry fan when I started re-watching these films a few days ago but I feel somewhat converted thanks in part to the majesty of 1080P and the extensive extra features. There is certainly more to them than appeasing the middle-brow gun crazed - which is far too simple a labeling. But Eastwood should have patented that sneer/grimace as it surely a mainstay of the Callahan character. It is used multiple times in each film.
These are all (perhaps The Dead Pool aside) above-average cop thrillers with the series connection working it to give it a minor soapy quality - giving us a closer identification with the enigmatic character. Warner should be roundly commended for their diligent work in putting this magnificent package together. It will be interesting to see how Criterion responds when they venture forth to Blu-ray. As for this - fans couldn't ask for more and those keen on 'rediscovering' the series - this is positively the best way.
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