Magnum Force (1973)
Revisiting Dirty Harry after being with eurocrime for the last many months was interesting in how they are similar and differ. Both American and Italian cinema went deep into gritty city crime environment in the 1970s, all in the context of contemporary political turmoil. All very violent, gritty and with a good deal of nihilism. The Italians were more political, often utilizing the genre to highlight political corruption, whereas at least here in Dirty Harry, there is still support for the authority of the state, but the criticism is aimed at modern rule of law, particularly the notion that things like the Miranda-rights now is better at protecting criminals than the police What makes Magnum Force interesting is how it reverses the main premise of the first film, or at least sets some limits. Harry Callahan may not have much sympathy for the criminals, and this film certainly doesn’t portray any of the criminal victims as sympathetic in any manner, but Harry acknowledges that you can’t just go around acting judge, jury and executioner single-handedly. The narrative is rather disjointed, as we basically just get a streak of killings with just enough context to sort of justify that these are not good people, though these rogue cops don’t seem to care that much about collateral damage when they mow down a pool party. Compared to the Italian films, this is much more straightforward, not experimenting much with score, cinematography or editing, but also much less messy. While the first Dirty Harry film is of course the most iconic of them, it is the rest of the series I want to revisit the most.
Rating: 3.5