Caffeinated Clint
By Drew Turney
One of Hollywood’s icons and the James Cagney-tough guy updated for more liberal times. San Francisco cop Harry Callahan (Eastwood) has a reputation for getting the job done, by playing dirty if necessary (as we learn early on, watching him calmly eat his sandwich in the middle of a busy city intersection blowing away criminals in the middle of a heist).
The story deals with his obsessively tracking down the Scorpio killer, one of cinema’s most chilling psychos, and spawns a new American hero, the cop who takes the law into his own hands when bureaucracy gets in the way. A very cool experience for most age groups. Ironically, it wasn’t until much later in the series that the immortal ‘Go ahead, make my day’ was uttered.
There’s not much more to say about this that hasn’t already been said. Let’s just say, if you haven’t seen it – you need to.
DVD EXTRAS
An interesting commentary from Eastwood’s biographer, a newly (well, not that new, since the late Robert Urich is the narrator) recorded documentary celebrating the film’s 30th anniversary and featuring interviews with everyone from Eastwood to Andrew ‘Scorpio’ Robinson and, er, Arnold Schwarzenegger; a vintage featurette on the movie; another on the ‘Legacy’ of the series; a further 25-minutes worth of additional interviews with some of the principal players, and a doco on Eastwood.
