Dirty Harry Complete Special Edition Collection

Clint Eastwood returned to America after his Italian westerns and went from star to superstar in 1971 with his first outing as the borderline psychotic San Francisco detective, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan. With a crazed gunman (Robinson) terrorising the city, it’s up to the only marginally less mental Callahan to bring him in, through uncompromising methods not exactly endorsed by his superiors: “When an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard, that's my policy,” he tells the mayor. As a straight crime thriller, Dirty Harry still ranks as a classic, packed with iconic scenes and quotes, and delivering brisk, bloodlust-quenching action. But it’s taken to another level altogether by Eastwood’s charisma and flinty-eyed menace, although mention must also go to Robinson for his supremely creepy killer, Scorpio. Four sequels, though each of progressively lesser quality, offer outstanding, if somewhat dated, slam-bang entertainment. Released just two years later, Magnum Force sees Harry go after David Soul’s crooked cop while The Enforcer has him team up with Cagney and Lacey’s Tyne Daly to take on a terrorist organisation, with both these films - though high on brutal slayings - lacking a bad guy of the stature of Scorpio. The third sequel, Sudden Impact, introduced the phrase “Go ahead, make my day” into the cultural lexicon and is a solid entry, even if the action has become ever-more cartoonish by this stage. Harry’s final outing in The Dead Pool is by far the poorest, as he finds himself on a list of potential murder targets, but it’s not bad enough to detract from the series’ overall worth. Most satisfyingly, the six-disc boxset comes packed with documentaries on Eastwood’s career and the making of the movies, leaving you free to insert a weak “do you feel lucky?” gag right about here. [Paul Greenwood]