The Superbowl commercial which really got people talking this year featured Clint Eastwood …but wasn’t for a movie.
Major studios often pay top dollar for the prestigious half-time spot at the Superbowl.
Independence Day (1996) probably had the most famous one of recent times and the big ones this year included spots for Marvel’s The Avengers, Disney’s John Carter, Paramount’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Universal’s Battleship.
The price average price was $3.5 million per thirty-second ad.
He was probably asked to do this because his film Gran Torino (2008) was set and shot in the city.
CNN report that he wrote the lines himself and donated his fee to charity.
The bleak-but-hopeful tone made it feel like some kind of campaign commercial, but it was actually an advert for Chrysler who are now owned by Italian car giant Fiat.
Three parallel stories connected by life after death make for an ambitious but disappointing drama.
Clint Eastwoodâs directing career over the last few years has encompassed diverse subject matter, including female boxing (Million Dollar Baby), World War II (Falgs of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima), retired car workers (Gran Torino), missing children (Changeling) and the 1995 Rugby World Cup (Invictus).
But even by his eclectic standards Hereafter is something of a curveball, exploring how three characters across the globe are affected by the afterlife in different ways.
Scripted by Peter Morgan, best known for political dramas The Queen (2006) and Frost/Nixon (2008), the material boldly dives in to big themes but as it progresses feels curiously disjointed and more like an early draft of something more profound.
The intercutting of the three stories at first feels like a bold move but soon becomes wearying and as the film enters into the final act, the curious lack of tension or revelation for a subject as big as death feels oddly underwhelming.
All this is exacerbated by Eastwoodâs signature pared down directing style which (with the exception of the opening) keeps things low key and distant.
This gave his better films of recent years (Mystic River, Letters From Iwo Jima) a slow burning power and richness, but here it works against the material, muting the themes and emotions of the lead characters.
There are parts of the film that show promise: the San Francisco section handles the potentially laughable subject of psychics with an elegant restraint and Damon conveys the loneliness of a decent man haunted by a strange gift.
This is compounded by the London section, which not only bungles key details of the 2005 London bombings (getting the tube stations wrong) but suffers from a dramatic inertia, compounded by a bizarre final section in the city which is lacking in tension.
Morganâs initial script may have stood out in Hollywood because he wrote it on spec – rather than be commissioned by a studio – and the unusual elements might have piqued Eastwoodâs interest because they werenât chasing an industry trend.
(Strangely, films dealing with death and loss suddenly now appear to be more common, with Never Let Me Go, Biutiful, Enter the Void and Inception all exploring these themes in different ways.)
To be fair to the veteran director, his handling of the locations and interior scenes is impressive, with Tom Sternâs lean and clean cinematography featuring a little more movement than their previous collaborations.
Eastwoodâs score is also a plus, with the guitar and piano providing a nice counterpoint to the struggle of the different characters struggling to comprehend their situations.
Some scenes hint at what might have been: such as a quietly disturbing psychic reading on a first date; the startling opening sequence and a brief discussion about the commonality of near-death experiences.
The film deals with the subject of death without the loud bombast favoured by mainstream cinema and moves at a reasonable, if fractured, pace but the story never really digs deep or rises to be anything special.
A set of underdeveloped ideas and a patchwork, dislocated narrative provide a weak foundation, which means that by the curiously uninvolving climax you might have forgotten it is about arguably the biggest subject of all.
Ultimately Hereafter is a film which chooses not to stare death in the face, but give it a distracted, passing glance.
Notable for cementing his reputation as one of Europeâs finest directors, they still remain amongst his finest work and feature some exquisite cinematography from long-time collaborator Sven Nykvist.
Through A Glass Darkly (1961) is a searing family drama about a disturbed young woman (Harriet Andersson) as she holidays on a summer island with her detached father (Gunnar Björnstrand), husband (Max Von Sydow) and brother (Lars PassgÄrd). It won Bergman his second Best Foreign Film Oscar and is bleak but engrossing study of a family struggling to cope under enormous emotional and mental strains. Andersson and Van Sydow are especially outstanding in their roles.
Winter Light (1962) explores the spiritual crisis facing a small-town pastor (Gunnar Björnstrand) over a single Sunday afternoon in November. As his congregation dwindles, his remaining parishioners (Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow) have problems which reflect his own spiritual demons. Björnstrand gives one of his greatest performances and the lack of music, sparse sets, and stark black-and-white photography all add to the powerful sense of desolation. Released in the year when the world actually was on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, it is one of Bergmanâs most raw and spellbinding films.
The Silence (1963) is the enigmatic tale of two sisters: the eldest is a translator (Ingrid Thulin) with a serious illness, whilst the younger one (Gunnel Lindblom) has a young son (Jörgen Lindström). Whilst travelling back to Sweden, they stop off in an unidentified Central European country and various tensions arise. The human struggle to communicate with each other as well as God is a pervasive theme throughout and the sensual depiction of human desire is superbly evoked (so well in fact, that the film caused considerable controversy when it was released).
Tartan have remastered the films and added introductions with Marie Nyrerod speaking to the late director.
Although they are short they feature Bergman talking about his fondness for Winter Light and the censorship issues surrounding by The Silence.
The discs come in separate slim line cases along with a booklet of reviews by the late critic Philip Strick. The discs are all region free.
Clint Eastwood: The Director’s Collection (Warner Bros.): This neat compilation of Eastwoodâs more recent films as a director came out on DVD last month and has now got the Blu-ray treatment.
14 Blades (Icon Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / DVD] Centurion (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / DVD] Elvis – The Movie (Fremantle Home Entertainment) [DVD] Mongrels: Series 1 (2 Entertain) [Blu-ray / DVD] Perrier’s Bounty (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / DVD] The Killing Machine (Anchor Bay Entertainment UK) [Blu-ray / DVD] The Machinist (Palisades Tartan) [Blu-ray / with DVD] Whip It (Lionsgate UK) [Blu-ray / DVD]
A supernatural thriller centered on three people – a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy – who are touched by death in different ways.
Dirty Harry is one of the most iconic cops in the history of cinema and Warner Bros have just released a DVD box set of all five movies entitled The Dirty Harry Collection.
It is a pretty lavish affair and if you are a fan of the character or Clint Eastwood then it is well worth purchasing.
WARNING: There are spoilers in this review, so if you haven’t seen any of the films then be warned.
The first and best of the series saw Clint Eastwood take on the role of Harry Callahan – a no-nonsense cop in San Francisco who has to deal with a rooftop sniper named Scorpio.
The success of the film took his career to another level, establishing him as one of the major box office stars of the 1970s.
It remains a landmark cop film that influenced a generation of filmmakers with films like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and Speed all being inspired by it to some degree.
Revisiting the film is interesting experience – the craft of the film is quite striking and for director Don Siegel it was the high watermark of his long collaboration with Eastwood.
As a police procedural thriller it is is slick, absorbing and tightly plotted. There is very little narrative waste here but visually it is interesting too. Cinematographer Bruce Surtees and director Siegel make great use of the fabulous San Francisco locations.
The low lit night time sequences are also unusually dark – an interesting foretaste when you consider Eastwood’s fondness for low lighting as a director in later years.
As an actor Eastwood brings the same dry, distant quality that he brought to the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. The loner cop figure can be seen as an extension of the bounty hunter figure from those films – a violent avenger who understands the blurry differences between justice and the law.
As for the villain, Andy Robinson is remarkably creepy as Scorpio, with his childlike insults and temper tantrums. The clash between the cop and the sniper is interesting as it is Harry who behaves in a way that is deemed unacceptable in the eyes of the law.
It was this sense of moral ambiguity and the underlying rage at bureaucracy in the wake of the Miranda and Escbedo rulings in the 60s (the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney) that gave ammunition to the films’ critics.
Most notably, Pauline Kael of The New Yorker loathed the film, denouncing it as a:
“right-wing fantasy [that is] a remarkably simple-minded attack on liberal values”
Viewing the film now, these criticisms seem a little outlandish, but there is no doubt that the film does touch on the cultural conflicts of the times. Scorpio abuses Harry as a ‘pig’, wears a CND peace sign on his belt and also knows the rights that have been given to him by the liberal 60s.
But the film and the central character are more libertarian than right wing: Harry hates the complacency and opportunism of his bosses; is perturbed by the lack of concern towards the victim’s rights; plus, there also seems to be a lingering class resentment towards his superiors, especially in the scene where he argues with the District Attorney and a Judge.
Another aspect of the film that doesn’t often get talked about is the violence. Although by today’s standards the acts depicted on screen seem relatively tame, the sadistic behaviour of Scorpio is disturbing. He shoots a young black boy in the head, leaves a 14-year old girl to suffocate to death, hijacks a school bus and revels in his own cruelty.
Although based on the Zodiac killer, he seems to represent a new kind of murderer ushered in by Charles Manson – one who was concerned with their public notoriety as much as they were with brutalizing the innocent.
But interestingly the film points out parallels between cop and killer – they both loners who hate authority and they both break the law, albeit to very different ends. It is worth noting that Harry only brings Scorpio to justice when he is on leave and effectively outside the law.
It is also fascinating to view this film after Zodiac, the film which last year explored the killings that inspired Dirty Harry.
There are a number of intriguing parallels: Don Siegel’s film contracts to a vivid resolution whilst David Fincher’s keeps expanding to an inconclusive mystery; Harry and Scorpio represent two different sides of the same violent coin whilst Dave Toschi, Robert Graysmith and Paul Avery form a triangle of characters obsessed by a lone killer who is never truly revealed; and whilst Dirty Harry is a thriller with political overtones, Zodiac is a drama with existential vibes. Both are very different but still somehow connected.
Like a lot of first films in a series, it remains the best and none of the successive Harry films could match it.
As Harry foils the bank robbery near the beginning of the film, he walks past a theatre showing Play Misty for Me, which Eastwood directed and starred in.
Writer John Milius made a major contribution to the film (as well as Dirty Harry’s mystique). He wrote the lines Harry quotes to punks about “Did he fire six shots or five?” and the immortal “Do you feel lucky, punk?
The Smith & Wesson Model 29.44 Magnum revolver Harry uses is not actually considered a practical weapon for police officers due to the excessive recoil which makes re-aiming at the target difficult.
When director Don Siegel fell ill during the shoot, Clint Eastwood took over and directed the scene where Harry rescues a would-be suicide jumper and the encounter with a homosexual in Mt. Davidson Park.
Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood cast Andrew Robinson for the role of Scorpio after seeing him in a production of Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s The Idiot – Robinsonwas so convincing that he received death threats after the film was released.
The line where Scorpio says “My, that’s a big one” when Callahan removes his gun was an ad-lib by Andrew Robinson. The crew cracked up laughing at the double entendre but the line stayed.
Scorpio’s real name is never revealed through out the entire movie – the end credits simply list him as “killer”.
The gravel pit at the end of the film was a place Clint had gone to as a child with his parents.
The final scene where Harry throws his badge in the river is a homage to a similar scene from High Noon but Clint was uneasy about doing it until he was convinced otherwise by Siegel.
Albert Popwell who plays the ‘punk’ Harry taunts in the bank sequence would go on to appear in every “Dirty Harry” film except The Dead Pool – playing a different character in each movie.
In what seemed to be a reaction to the criticisms of Dirty Harry, the plot of Magnum Force saw Harry dealing with evil inside the police force as a group of vigilante traffic cops take the law into their own hands by killing criminals who seem beyond the law.
The film was directed by Ted Post, who also directed Clint in TV’s Rawhide and Hang ‘Em High. Although it isn’t as good as the first one, it is still of some interest.
Although it was probably a coincidence, in retrospect the plot seems to tap into the distrust of authority in the early 70s with the Watergate scandal about to end the Nixon presidency.
More interestingly, the screenplay was written by John Milius (who worked uncredited on the original film) and Michael Cimino – two writers who would go on to direct war movies that some found to be conservative (The Deer Hunter) or right wing (Red Dawn).
The vigilante officers or Magnum Force of the title also feature actors who would go on to greater fame such as Tim Matheson, David Soul and Robert Urich. Hal Holbrook also turns up in a memorable role as Harry’s boss Lt Briggs.
It moves along at a fair pace although the editing and direction are not in the same class as the first film.
Here are some facts:
At one point when Harry is in his apartment by himself, he looks at a photo of him and his wife: the only time the audience ever gets to see the late Mrs. Callahan who was mentioned in the previous film.
Harry’s tagline for this film was “A man’s got to know his limitations”, or variations on this phrase. This replaced the line from the first film “Do you feel lucky?”.
David Soul‘s performance as one of the vigilante cops, led to his being cast as Detective Ken Hutchinson in the classic cop series Starsky and Hutch (1975).
According to writer John Milius, the reason the sex scene with the Asian woman is in the script is because Clint Eastwood received many fan letters from Asian women that contained sexual propositions.
The final Dirty Harry film of the 1970s sees Callahan take on a group of left wing revolutionaries called The People’s Revolutionary Strike Force, who start to terrorise San Francisco.
It also sees Harry team up with a female partner, Insp. Kate Moore (Tyne Daly), so whilst the film was swinging back to the right politically, it also made concessions to feminism in the 70s.
Directed by James Fargo, it is a much more perfunctory film than it’s predecessors although it does have some memorable moments, especially the climax on Alcatraz prison.
Here are some facts:
Originally titled ‘Moving Target’, the script was left for Eastwood at his Carmel restaurant, The Hog’s Breath Inn, by two aspiring screenwriters, (Gail Morgan Hickman and S.W. Schurr). Â Eastwood was interested enough to turn it over to two of his favorite script doctors, Sterling Silliphant and Dean Riesner
The two militant organizations depicted in the film – the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force and Uhuru – were modeled after two real-life militant groups, the Symbionese Liberation Army (which kidnapped Patty Hearst) and the Black Panthers.
In the 80s, Daly was cast as detective Mary Beth Lacey in the hit TV show Cagney and Lacey.
Father John Voss – the priest who shields the gang – is played by M.G. Kelly – in real life a noted DJ and radio personality.
3 years later Eastwood was back on Alcatraz for the prison drama Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Although the series was meant to end with The Enforcer, the popularity of the character was such that Warner Bros persuaded Clint to do a fourth film.
This one sees Harry forced to take a vacation after a run in with a local gangster. There he comes across a vigilante (Sondra Locke) who is trying to get revenge on the criminals who raped her and her sister.
Although it is a weak entry to the series it became famous for a catchphrase that people often (wrongly) attribute to the first Dirty Harry: “Go ahead , make my day“.
As for the film, it is watchable with the usual funny one liners but is fairly pedestrian as a thriller. The reason for it’s commercial success would appear to be the presence of Eastwood and the public’s nostalgia for a cop like Harry in the Regan era.
Here are some facts:
This was the highest-grossing of the Dirty Harry film series.
It is the only Dirty Harry film not primarily set in San Francisco.
The reason the film was made at all had to do with a survey Warner Bros did for the Sean Connery Bond remake Never Say Never Again (1983). They asked movie goers to name an actor and a famous part that actor played. Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry” scored so high in the survey results, the studio told Eastwood it would be “open” to making another and Eastwood made this film as a result.
Although Clint Eastwood made the phrase “Go ahead, make my day” famous, it was originally used a year earlier by actor Gary Swanson in the movie Vice Squad (1982). Swanson, who played a Hollywood vice cop, said the line, “Go ahead scumbag, make my day,” to actor Wings Hauser, who played a pimp, during a bust.
Bradford Dillman is seen in the film as Captain Briggs; in the previous film, The Enforcer, he portrayed Captain Jerome McKay. It is unknown if McKay and Briggs are distant relatives. Hal Holbrook played Lieutenant Briggs in Magnum Force.
The fifth film in the series is almost a homage to the character – a film who’s enjoyable moments are guilty pleasures rather than anything especially substantial.
The plot sees Harry drawn into a murder plot as a serial killer bumps off several people connected with a death pool run by a film director (Liam Neeson).
The main motivation for this film being made would appear to be the fact that Warner Bros needed a reliable title for the summer of 1988.
It also coincided with a relative creative slump in Eastwood’s career when he was making too many average films (such as Pink Cadillac and The Rookie) before his renaissance in the 90s with Unforgiven.
The main pleasures here are seeing a 26 year old Jim Carrey play the obnoxious rocker who is the first victim and the presence of Guns N’ Roses on the soundtrack.
Welcome to the Jungle was chosen as the tie-in track for the film and by 1988 when the film was released they had become massive.
This was the only Dirty Harry movie not to feature Albert Popwell. He played a robber in “Dirty Harry”, a pimp in “Magnum Force”, a militant in “The Enforcer, and Horace King in “Sudden Impact”.
The extras on the DVD are extensive and are spread out on each of the discs.
Dirty Harry – Special Features:
A fine and informative commentary by longtime Eastwood associate/biographer Richard Schickel
The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry: New featurette 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:Â 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 which Milius – within the first 10 minutes – appears to call for the vigilante style execution of Enron executives – I assume he is joking!)
A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry: Another featurette with filmmakers, social scientists and authors on the politics and ethics of the Dirty Harry films.
The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today: Another featurette
The Enforcer – Special Features:
New commentary by Enforcer director James Fargo
The Business End: Violence in Cinema: Featurette on the violence in the films
Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films: Another featurette on the character.
Sudden Impact – Special Features:
New commentary by filmmaker and Eastwood associate/biographer Richard Schickel
The Evolution of Clint Eastwood: Featurette on the film in the context of Eastwood’s career as a director
The Dead Pool – Special Features:
New commentary by Dead Pool producer David Valdes and Dead Pool cinematographer Jack N. Green
The Craft of Dirty Harry: Featurette on the cinematography, editing, music, and production design of the Dirty Harry films.
The box set also contains:
Clint Eastwood: Out Of The Shadows – On a separate DVD this is a fine feature length documentary from 2000 about Eastwood’s career, narrated by Morgan Freeman.
A 44 page hardcover book on the films.
A Dirty Harry 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
A Scorpio Map: 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
Reproductions of telegrams from Warner Bros to Clint (and vice versa) throughout the making of the series.
Overall this is a highly impressive box set, even if the films themselves do decline in quality somewhat.
That said, Warner Bros deserve great credit for the care and attention they have put into this set of films from one of their most consistent and legendary stars.
Plus, as a studio they deserve special praise for allowing you to skip straight to the menu instead of being forced to watch godawful piracy ads or trailers of upcoming films. Why can’t other major studios be like this?
Anyway, the Dirty Harry Collection is highly recommended as a package, especially at the reasonable price of under ÂŁ30.
Will Eastwood ever return to the role? Let’s leave the last word to him:
