Max’s Drive-In Movie – Dirty Harry

Maxs Drive In Dirty HarryDrive your car up to my place and find your spot….and we won’t even check the trunks for free stowaways (which I was a lot). Sit back while we watch some movies. I will keep each of these as short as possible. 

CB sparked this idea…I wanted to review more movies and what better movies than 1960s – 1970s drive-in flicks? I love these movies because they are mostly gritty and realistic looking…you never know what you will see or hear. I will try not to give away the ending of these films because many might not have seen them.

The quotes from this movie alone could fill up a book. This movie and The French Connection helped start the antihero movies of the seventies. I like many Eastwood films especially the Trilogy made in the sixties. In this movie, Dirty Harry has a tough, no-nonsense approach to law enforcement. He is willing to bend or break the rules to get the job done, which often puts him at odds with his superiors and the legal system. His most famous line, “Do you feel lucky, punk?” has become iconic. 

The movie is based out of San Francisco and the characters are really tangible. You have the mayor and police chief fighting with Harry over regulations and Harry is single-minded going after the killer. The film was well-received by critics for the most part. It highlights both vigilante justice and the large bureaucracy that holds everything back. It gives you a view of both.  

Dirty Harry - Killer

As good as Eastwood is in this movie, it’s Andrew Robinson who really got my attention. Some bad guys are like cartoon caricatures but not this one. He played The Scorpio Killer in this movie. He based some of it off the real Zodiac Killer of the 60s and 70s. Robinson played that part so well that he was stereotyped after the movie’s release. When you saw him on the screen he personified a killer. This is not Jason or slasher films bad guys…this one hit home because he was so real. 

Director Don Siegel did a hell of a job directing this movie. “I enjoy the controversy because if you make a film that’s safe, you’re in trouble. I’m a liberal; I lean to the left. Clint is a conservative; he leans to the right. At no point in making the film did we ever talk politics. I don’t make political movies. I was telling the story of a hard‐nosed cop and a dangerous killer. What my liberal friends did not grasp was that the cop is just as evil, in his way, as the sniper.”

My favorite scene… Harry is eating a hotdog and notices a bank getting robbed. He takes action and single-handedly stops the robbers. He teases one robber that he shot. 

I’m lifting the short storyline out of IMDB

“Dirty Harry” follows San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan, a tough, rule-bending officer known for his unorthodox methods and willingness to confront criminals head-on. The film’s central antagonist is the Scorpio Killer, a sadistic serial murderer who taunts the police with cryptic messages and demands ransom money in exchange for stopping his killing spree.

Callahan’s pursuit of Scorpio takes him through the streets of San Francisco, leading to intense confrontations and moral dilemmas. As the body count rises, Callahan’s relentless quest for justice puts him at odds with his superiors, who are more concerned with following protocol than stopping the killer by any means necessary.

Favorite Quotes: 

  • The Mayor: Callahan… I don’t want any more trouble like you had last year in the Fillmore district. You understand? That’s my policy.
  • Harry Callahan: Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard – that’s my policy.
  • The Mayor: Intent? How’d you establish that?
  • Harry Callahan: 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.
  • Harry Callahan: Uh uh. I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

The success of Dirty Harry led to four sequels: “Magnum Force” (1973), “The Enforcer” (1976), “Sudden Impact” (1983), and “The Dead Pool” (1988).

Quentin Tarantino talks about Dirty Harry

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

44 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – Dirty Harry”

  3. going to drive-ins as a kid was fun. One that was near us (we lived near 2) in the early-’70s was the ‘Tepee’… the snack bar etc was inside a building shaped like a big tepee. I don’t imagine that would be resurrected even if they decided to try to take a chance on opening a new one

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    1. I loved it as well…although I went more on my sisters dates but I had fun. I’m going to feature the first movie I ever saw coming up on theater…it was NOT a family friendly movie.
      Oh I think drive ins would work today….we have one around an hour from us that we have went to….it has 4 different screens.

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      1. I know there has been a wee bit of a resurgence in popularity of them, no doubt mostly fueled by people like us who remember going as kids. I think the new ones you tune in to the audio somewhere on FM don’t you, rather than have those big metal speakers you hung over open windows?

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      2. Yes there is a clear radio channel and that disappointed me a bit…I wanted the big metal speakers for the full effect.
        We loved it…they even have where you can call for food and it’s delievered to your car.

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  7. The first Dirty Harry was by far the best of them. The crazed killer was the most convincing bad guy that ever graced the screen. So many great lines it’s difficult to quote them all. ” In all the confusion, I can’t remember if I fired five shots or six, so do you feel lucky, punk?” ” I gots to know?” Best scene ever.

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  8. Classics…all of them. Back in those days, I really loved Eastwood movies. They were major events. I would watch these when my parents didn’t know what I was watching. I loved his Every Which Way movies as well.

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    1. I’ve always liked Eastwood… I did like a lot of his later movies and also the early ones like the Trilogy…Good Bad The Ugly etc…
      Watching movies that the parents didn’t know…those are the best….mine was A Clockwork Orange.

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  9. Come on man. Now you’re talking. Is there a better bad guy, scum ball, dirt bag than Andy Robinson. Like Eli Wallach in Good Bad The Ugly. Andy brought out the best in Eastwood. Glad you gave him a nod. The flick is great, music, locations. I think I’ll go watch it again. I must be reaching some sort of Guinness world Record.

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    1. I watch it a lot and I did before I wrote this…but didn’t have to.
      Phil stated he might be the best villian ever in film…I might agree to that. He was 3 dimensional… real…tangible.
      I appreciate the idea CB…this is going to be a lot of fun.
      I watched a certain Gene Hackman cop movie the other night also….to get ready for this. Some great cop movies in the 1970s.

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      1. So many good “villains”. You gotta have them. Andy is one of the best. Always liked the soundtrack for this film. I think it was Lalo Schifrin if not mistaken. Not trying to be film guy but the music really grabbed me.
        Would it be Gene Playing Santa Claus? One of the best.

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      2. I know…there are some great ones. It was a good marriage of music to film….I need to check it out more though on it’s own.
        YES…that would be the one.

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  11. It’s an unsettling but exciting experience to watch for anyone. At the end of the day- hey, it’s a movie, enjoy the dark dystopian ride. It’s like Disneyland, just because you go on the Haunted Mansion doesn’t make the thrills real. It’s all entertainment tailored to the audience. Well tailored entertainment, which is why it succeeds.

    Drive-ins were great. In Oz when I was just a punk kid we had one literally over the road. Nowadays the name sounds so sweetly innocent. ‘The Mainline.’

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    1. This one really is exciting…I love the bad guy…well I like how he makes me hate him lol. He would play a great politician! That is my normal response to them.

      Yea looking back it does sound good! Ours was the Skyline Drive In. I had to look it up…I thought it was The Skyview….I found this though: No longer in operation. Opened Tuesday, April 18, 1950 at 6:30 with Zane Grey’s Red Canyon as the first show, starting at 7:00. Located at Dickerson Road and Maplewood Lane. Listed as Crescent July 1955 and July 1960. Listed as Martin July 1965 and on. Closed during the July 1984 to July 1986 time interval.

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      2. They are falling away if not gone. The Mainline just closed within the last year or two, they used it as a, well, we call them boot sales, you in the US might call them flea markets? All the cars gather on the site on a Saturday afternoon and then they sell everything from hidden treasures to absolute crap.

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      3. The one I went to closed a long time ago…we have one in a place called Watertown that we have gone to. It has 4 screens.
        Yes I love flea markets and some hold them in a Church parking lot…called Trunk Sales.
        You never know what you might find!

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      4. Sorry yours closed down. We used to have 2 in town. One closed years and years ago. But The Getty 4 Drive-In is still alive and well. 4 different screens showing 4 different movies, and instead of those speakers that rest on the car windows, you tune into the radio station of the screen you are watching. Works well. I haven’t gone in a long time but used to go quite a bit when kids were young or if I was on a date.

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      5. I want to go pretty soon…we do have one that is kinda close….around an hour or so away.
        Yes it has a clear FM channel as well.

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  14. I’ve met Andrew J. Robinson at a meet n greet in Bournemouth, he was talking about his career and signing copies of his new DS9 novel and I also got him to sign a photo as Garak while I was at it. He’s a great character actor and nice person. Also been to Clint Eastwood land, round Carmel, back in 1987, stunning scenery. I have friends who love Dirty Harry immensely, mum was a Clint fan too, but I was more into The Poseidon Adventure around that time… 🙂

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    1. That is so cool that you got to meet him. He was absolutely great in this movie and in others to….but it ended up hurting him in the long wrong for a long time.

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  15. I remember Dirty Harry well and QT is right, it was the first in the genre of movies where cops who took the job beyond into vigilantism. I’ve never liked Roger Ebert and his proposition that the film was fascist is just plain stupid. Fascism is a system of government and Harry was an individual driven by his need to remove monsters from hurting others, whatever it took. Two very different points of view imo. QT makes a good point about homicide detectives back in the day vs the whole homicide task forces they use to catch serial killers now. Good movie. Need to rewatch it and the rest in the series. I do remember that killer being sadistic and scary!

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    1. Yea the villian is a true twisted villian… Eastwood played a great anti-hero in this and the trilogy….the bureaucracy still goes on today.

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  16. ‘Row row row the boat, row the boat to shore. Merrily merrily…’ that’s the scene that always comes to my mind when I think of Dirty Harry. Apart from his ‘do you feel lucky’ speech, of course!

    I believe we’ve got nearly all of Clint Eastwood’s movies on DVD, and of course, this one is right there with them. It’s a great movie. I rewatch it every few years. You’re right about the bad guy in this – so very ordinary that he really has that chill-factor going for him. (I’m not surprised Tarantino’s a fan!)

    Drive-in movies were never a ‘thing’ in the UK in the days when I was a kid but there are some now, though I’ve never been to one (don’t think there are any near where I live). Knowing our weather, it’d probably pelt down with rain or get foggy while watching something!

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    1. Yea the fog would be a bummer!!! My sister would hide me in the trunk so she would not have to pay…my mom would send me on dates with her….but she was always a good sport about it anyway. She is 8 years older but we always got along.

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      1. Haha! I can imagine that.

        There’s the same age difference between me and my sister. Unlike you and your sister, I felt we were mostly worlds apart. We get along these days, though (well, after a fashion!)

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      2. I’m glad you two get along now! My sister and I didn’t have arguments until we got older….for a couple of years.

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