Magnum Force (1973)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The ending of the first Dirty Harry (an excellent film) saw Clint Eastwood's Inspector Harry Callahan kill the disgusting and too-evil-to-live Scorpio and in turn, throw his badge away, signifying that he will never come back to the San Francisco police force and go on killing bad guys as a vigilante. Surely this would mean that there won't be any sequels...right? Wrong. Harry is back on the force and continuing his police work despite disobeying the orders of his superiors in Magnum Force, directed by Ted Post (Hang 'Em High, also with Eastwood; Beneath the Planet of the Apes), and sees him (temporarily) re-assigned to Stakeout instead of Homicide. Here, he is investigating the murders of many of the city's most notorious criminals, including narcotics kingpins and pimps (one of whom murders a prostitute with drain cleaner in one of the film's more graphic scenes). During the film, he meets a group of young rookie cops, including a fresh-faced Tim Matheson (Eric Stratton from Animal House (1978)) who admire Harry very deeply (not in a sexual way, mind you). As the film presses on, Harry believes that they are the ones doing the killings, and he is forced to confront his own ideas about violating the rights of the criminals when they are taken to the extreme.What I want to get out of the way is that the major problem I have with this film is that no matter how many Dirty Harry sequels you make, I can't get over the fact that Harry threw away his badge at the end of the first film after killing Scorpio. Did he decide to come back after a short while? And shouldn't his superiors have been more critical of him for disobeying his orders (like firing him or prosecuting him)? Regardless, neither the Scorpio killing nor Harry throwing his badge away is mentioned in the whole film. Another issue is that during the film, Harry develops a casual romance with a young woman named Sunny, who seems to have the hots for him right away. It's cute, I will admit, but like with Harry's romance with Sam in The Dead Pool (1988), it's glossed over quickly.After the problems I highlighted, the rest is pretty damn great. The film keeps up the action and graphic violence of its predecessor, especially during two great scenes in a store robbery stakeout and a shootout with a gang of criminals at a food plant. The score by Lalo Schifrin is also catchy, with the opening theme being the standout. It's pure 70s style tunes. And even though Harry's relationship with Sunny is glossed over, the film also shows Harry's (not romantic) relationship with the wife of his friend, Charlie (Mitchell Ryan from High Plains Drifter and Lethal Weapon), who holds the safe beliefs as Harry, but is a bit more unhinged about the situation, best described when his wife mentioned an occasion when he played Russian Roulette with himself. The scenes between Harry and Charlie's wife feel appropriately calm and gives audiences a chance to see Harry as a human being more than his scenes with Sunny. Hal Holbrook makes a great turn as Lt. Briggs, and Eastwood himself makes Harry a tough, but understandable and human guy the second time around. It's also interesting to see Harry delve into more police work than he did in the first film, especially when he's using Ballistics to match up the bullets found at the murder scenes to the weapon used, and then the killers.Now I want to discuss the best thing about this film: the themes of taking vigilantism too far, and whether following the system is the right decision. The first film was about how maybe democracy needs to be put aside in order for the police to properly catch criminals, and that maybe the criminals are given too much leeway by the law. Part of the reason this film was created was to answer to the negative criticism towards the first film about Harry maybe being "fascist." However, it doesn't just feel like a simple throwaway piece that the film just inserts. It feels like the film really wants you to think about how it would be to live in a society with squads of killer cops and whether their current democratic system is really a good system to live under.Harry says at one point that he hates the system but will stick with it until something better comes along because he has no choice. We can all get the sense that there are quite a few people in real-life living in this country that hate the system as well, but unless they want to go something so extreme they'll get jailed or worse, they don't have a choice either. When it comes to vigilantism, the film looks at and then makes you think further about how far it could go before it goes too far. Harry discusses how it would be excessive to kill somebody because their dog takes a dump on their neighbor's lawn.Even that's not the worst of it; there's also the possibility of someone killing somebody simply because that person doesn't like the way the other looks at him. Even the killer cops fit so well into the message: more people today are nervous of cops because of police brutality; how safe would they feel if there was a whole squad of them just going out and shooting bad guys dead, point blank? In short, watch this sequel. Like the first film, it does its utmost to make you think about our legal system and whether criminals should be given much leeway by it. It's action-packed to the max and it is a solid sequel that can be a great companion piece to the original Dirty Harry. "It's all in a day's work for Inspector Harry Callahan."

This is a more than competent follow up to Dirty Harry, where a group of rookie cops are taking out gangsters, pimps and other low lives in San Francisco. However, when Dirty Harry refuses to join them, they turn on him, planting a bomb in his mailbox and killing his partner. Also it seems they have an intrinsic dislike of the permissive society and take out a group of people at a pool party and have an ally in Harry's boss, Lt Briggs, played by Hal Holbrook, who captures Harry at gunpoint when he finds out he's not supporting the young vigilantes. In Harry's eyes, for all the system is rotten, vigilante law is not the answer and he has to uphold the law, where you'd expect him to support the police death squad.Magnum Force is good in other respects, the brutal shooting of a gangster who is acquitted for murder by one of the renegade cops is unexpected, the chase scene at the end where Harry dispenses of the vigilante cops on a disused aircraft carrier( including karate chopping one of them to death) is first rate, and Harry also stops an aircraft hijack. As ever, Lalo Schifrin provides a first class soundtrack and look out for David Soul in his first starring role as one of the renegade cops.Again there are some memorable quotes, most notably one where Harry's Japanese American neighbour asks him what she has to do to get into bed with him, " just knock at the door", is his quick response in one of the quickest seductions ever. Also as the film ends and Harry's boss is blown up by a car bomb planted by Harry, he states, " man's gotta know his limitations". Overall 9/10 in what is an excellent sequel to Dirty Harry.

MAGNUM FORCE (1973) is a sequel that I just don't get! The original "Dirty Harry" is a masterpiece of cinema, a gritty, edgy, engrossing 2-character battle of wits and wills between the anti-heroic Inspector Harry Callahan and Scorpio, but also a memorable indictment of the legal system. This immediate sequel "Magnum Force" is the anti-Dirty Harry, having a softer, nicer, more tolerant Harry, again essayed by icon Clint Eastwood, who has mellowed out to the point of seeming like someone else. "Magnum Force" has an all too apparent TV movie vibe about it. Ironically, it has actors that would go onto star in popular TV series (Suzanne Somers "3s Company", Robert Urich "Vegas" and "Spenser for Hire", David Soul "Starsky and Hutch", and Tim Matheson, certainly nowhere near an A-lister, although he would eventually star in "Animal House"). Veteran Hal Holbrook is the only movie presence other than Eastwood. Felton Perry admirably plays Harry's new partner, but the casting felt gimmicky. Reni Santoni felt more organic as Harry's partner in the original. Here, it feels like the writers gave him a black partner just to continue the diversity. "Magnum Force" literally feels like a typical TV show/movie plot, about vigilante cops who kill ANYONE who breaks the law. The cinematography in this sequel lacks the atmosphere and punch of the original. The killing scenes seem juvenile and happen too abruptly. Scenes cut off too quickly. The idea of all these cops having the same vision and being of one mind stretches the imagination to the point of incredulity. Mitchell Ryan (as a disgruntled veteran cop) is the only actor who acquits himself well in this. The second sequel "The Enforcer" did a much better job relaying the message of corruption and ineptitude of the legal system and had a higher entertainment value than this one.

This is the first sequel to Dirty Harry, where Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) goes after vigilante cops, who are going above the law in gunning down some of the city's top criminals.As with Dirty Harry, the mystery begins immediately when an acquitted gangster is gunned down in broad daylight by a traffic cop, and then a trial of more incidents occur. In the middle of if all, there are these random crimes foiled by Callahan, which showcases his strength and witty attitude as he deals with those city's scumbags. This gives us a good mixture of suspense and action as the audience is kept engaged in following the main plot.The cinematography by Frank Stanley captures the tense atmosphere and bustling city life of San Francisco and the direction of Ted Post did a nice job directing, keeping the film interesting for the most part and leaving little room for boring fillers (however, I did wish there were a little more of the revenge and paycheck elements in the story). The acting was great, particularly that Clint Eastwood, who does his usual deadpan delivery whenever he can and his unorthodox ways of delivering justice and standing up to his superiors.This movie shows that despite how slow the justice system is, Callahan finds a way to deliver it swiftly while still upholding the law, and the good cop vs. renegade cop angles leaves us with a captivating entry in the Dirty Harry trilogy.Grade B