Somehow, I never got around to watching the whole movie, or if I did I don't remember anything other than the iconic "do ya feel lucky punk" scene.

Caught it tonight on Netflix as there was absolutely nothing else that even remotely piqued my interest. 1971! The movie is more than 50 years old! How is that possible? And it was still pretty darn good. No CGI, no over-the-top car chases, and when a guy got the crap beat out of him, he LOOKED like he'd had the crap beat out of him and acted accordingly.

Movie makers today could learn a few things from that.

quote:

1971!

Yep. The movie was inspired by the famous Zodiac serial killer who operated in the late '60s.

A few trivia facts:

Inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Clint was already 41 years old when he made the movie.
When Clint jumps off the overpass onto the top of the hijacked school bus, that is him actually doing it.
When the killer, at the bottom of the big cross, says, "My, that's a big one" at the sight of Harry's gun, that was an ad-lib, but left in.
There was a delay in filming when Andrew Robinson (the killer) had to be sent off for additional firearms training, as he kept flinching.

The sequels are okay. I recommend watching those only for the education in movie and popular culture.

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Originally posted by PHPaul:
I did I don't remember anything other than the iconic "do ya feel lucky punk" scene.

...and you misremembered that too.

It's "You gotta ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya? Punk?"

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Originally posted by PHPaul:
Somehow, I never got around to watching the whole movie, or if I did I don't remember anything other than the iconic "do ya feel lucky punk" scene.

Uh wow dude, this is a classic. You been freeze dried or doing hard time? . Anyhow the scene at the cross where Scorpio has Harry toss his M29 down on the concrete and you can hear it just kills me. I like gore and violence in my movies but treating a mint S&W that way is hard to take.

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Originally posted by Rawny:

It's "You gotta ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya? Punk?"

I paraphrased for the sake of brevity. Yeah...that's it...that's the ticket!

I can stop and watch ‘71’s original and ‘73’s “Magnum Force” just about anytime. The sequels beyond that certainly have their moments but I just don’t generally enjoy them as much.

When watching the original, check the scene near the beginning when Harry parks in front of a diner to grab his “usual” hot dog - you’ll get a glimpse of a theatre marquee advertising “Play Misty for Me,” another Eastwood vehicle popular at the time.

I just watched this again recently, I feel it holds up well.

Fun trivia: Andrew Robinson, the actor who played Scorpio, also played Garak on DS9. Garak was arguably the best character they came up with in all of Trek, in no small part to Robinson's acting.

Bank Robber" I got's to know!"

Callahan to Mayor: When a naked man is chasing a woman through a dark alley with a butcher knife and a hard on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross. The Mayor: I think he's got a point.

A movie loaded with quotable lines..


I can watch it over and over, great movie, and it's interesting that the problems in San Francisco then echo much of the problems that we discuss today, it was a time when Miranda, Escobedo has become something that law enforcement had to deal with,

The scene with Scorpio shot in the middle of the football field, an un mirandized criminal, who asked for an attorney and that he knows his rights being interrogated with physicality without a lawyer by Callahan.

The scene with the judge, explaining how without a warrant, the gun was inadmissible.

Playing criminal activity against laws protecting them off the emotion of people wanting Ann Mary Deacons rights upheld.

Excellent commentary on the state of criminals vs law enforcement that still plays today....

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The scene with Scorpio shot in the middle of the football field …

Nobody extracted a confession like Harry Callahan.



This scene would be pretty ordinary, but for the camera spiraling up and away in a "herky-jerky" fashion. Genius.

Love those movies. Watched Magnum Force a little while ago and I noticed for the first time how it seemed everyone was smoking.

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Originally posted by Nuclear:
Love those movies. Watched Magnum Force a little while ago and I noticed for the first time how it seemed everyone was smoking.

In those days, a lot of people did.

The Dirty Harry and Death Wish movies were created at a time when this country was going through very similar social upheavals that we're currently experiencing.
In college, I wrote a paper connecting the dots of how the feel good late-60's, starting from that solitary 5-month period in 1967 San Francisco, which inspired, motivated and attracted all manor of alternative social and anti-social persons, spawned its hangover called the 70's. Public figures, elected & civic officials had all drank the Kool-Aid of bucking the norms which resulted in racial and social upheaval resulting in San Francisco being the most violent urban area in the country during the decade of the 1970's. All manor of leftist-motivated terrorist groups and organized gangs sprang-up, kidnapping, bank robberies, assassinations, burglaries, extortion, serial murder and assaults, all ticked-up dramatically during this time; an under-current of anarchy existed depending on neighborhood.

Dirty Harry and Paul Kersey were the heroes that the people needed.

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Originally posted by Nuclear:
Love those movies. Watched Magnum Force a little while ago and I noticed for the first time how it seemed everyone was smoking.

Also, “Magnum Force” features assorted scenes of gum-chewing almost athletic in its intensity. The bad-guy driving the car at the first traffic stop to Harry himself - lots of it. Just makes me chuckle every screening.

The first three, made in the 70s, are classics.

Dirty Hary (1971)
Magnum Force (1973)
The Enforcer (1976)

The rest are junk (Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool).

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
The sequels are okay. I recommend watching those only for the education in movie and popular culture.

I consider Magnum Force to be almost the equal of Dirty Harry. Great script, and casting was excellent.

Harry's partner "Fatso" is John Mitchum...Robert Mitchum's brother...you can see him in Eldorado as a bartender with John Wayne, James Can and...

Bill

I always thought it so strange that Albert Popwell was in the first four movies. Mostly because even though it was a tiny part of the first movie, the scene was so memorable.

But then all the Eastwood (and to some extent Siegel) movies of the era had the same cast in damn near all of them.