Half a century ago, film critics were taken more seriously than they are today. Even the producers of popular and commercially successful films like Dirty Harry feared negative reviews. And the reviews for that film tended to be very negative, especially among critics infuriated by the protagonist’s disdainful attitude towards civil liberties. Some accused the film of promoting vigilante justice and fascism. This accusation was taken seriously enough that the main plot of its 1973 sequel, Magnum Force, directed by Ted Post, explicitly refuted it.
The film begins when a liberal court in San Francisco allows notorious mob-connected union leader Carmine Ricca (played by Richard Devon) to walk free despite accusations of murdering a rival and his family. He does not enjoy his freedom for long, as he is gunned down in his car together with his bodyguards. San Francisco police Inspector Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) is temporarily removed from the Homicide division but nevertheless takes an interest in the case, especially after other notorious gangsters and street criminals end their lives in similarly violent and spectacular fashion. Callahan concludes that the killer is a uniformed policeman who approaches his unsuspecting victims under the guise of a routine traffic stop. The most likely suspect is Eastwood’s old friend Charlie McCoy (played by Mitchel Ryan), a motorcycle policeman embittered by the way criminals get away with their crimes. However, when McCoy is killed while accidentally witnessing one of the assassinations, Callahan begins to suspect a group of young motorcycle policemen who excel at firearms skills. His boss, Lt. Neil Briggs (played by Hal Holbrook), is, however, sceptical of the idea of a vigilante death squad within police ranks.
The script by John Milius and Michael Cimino tries very hard to show that the character of Harry Callahan, despite his disdain for liberal ideas about civil rights and tendency to deal with criminals in a simple and violent manner, still operates within the framework of the law and that there are some lines he will not cross. The point is made when he is confronted by a small organisation which, in pursuit of vigilante justice, crosses those lines; they become not only judge, jury and executioner, but allow their disregard for the law to transform into a disregard for anything else, including the lives of innocent people and even fellow conspirators. When offered the opportunity to join the vigilantes, Callahan refuses and later very effectively explains his decision with the notion that certain limits must exist and that otherwise he would not be much different from the criminal monsters he fights. The authors of Magnum Force also took some effort to humanise Callahan and make him more “politically correct”. Accusations of racism are less convincing after this film, in which Callahan has a black partner (played by Felton Perry) and also starts a romantic relationship with an Asian woman (played by Adele Yoshioka).
A very good and thought-provoking script is accompanied by solid, although rather uninspired, direction from Ted Post. Eastwood again plays his role very well, and the rest of the cast is very good, especially Holbrook, whose character alternates between open hostility and grudging respect for Callahan. Although they appear relatively briefly in the film, some of the actors playing the death squad members – Robert Urich, Tim Matheson and David Soul – make a very good impression, and it is not surprising that they had successful careers afterwards. Lalo Schifrin returns as composer, but his score, although effective, is not as memorable and atmospheric as in Dirty Harry.
This film, on the other hand, looks a little bit overlong, and pace seems to be quite an issue, especially in the first part. Although the plot is relatively simple, the narration is almost episodic, depicting incidents that only later begin to have a connection with it, and some do not have a connection at all—mainly those depicting Callahan regularly dealing with criminals like passenger jet hijackers or liquor store robbers. Those scenes are directed competently and provide quality action, so the audience probably would not complain too much. Some scenes, on the other hand, venture into exploitation territory, especially the assassination scenes that feature gratuitous nudity. The same could be said of the scene in which a pimp (played by Albert Popwell) murders a prostitute (played by Margaret Avery) by making her drink a bottle of drain cleaner. The finale, during which Callahan has to fight death squad members on an abandoned aircraft carrier, is interesting, but it nevertheless lacks the emotional impact of the previous film. However, fans of Clint Eastwood and fans of old-fashioned action films would probably be thankful to the critics who made this very entertaining and thought-provoking film possible.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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