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Dirty Harry, a review by Jon

Dirty Harry
5 out of 5



A rooftop sniper (Andy Robinson) calling himself Scorpio has killed twice and holds the city ransom with the threat of killing again. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a tough, streetwise San Francisco cop whom they call Dirty Harry, will nail him one way or the other, no matter what the 'system' prescribes.

A new independent spirit had come into Hollywood in the 60s and in Peter Yate’s Bullitt (1968) starring ice-cool Steve McQueen, you could find a fascinating film built on the tradition of Hollywood thrillers yet mixed with a more European, introspective edge. Still, along with Frank Sinatra in the same years The Detective, little had really changed. Both could have been released in some form 20 years earlier.

Not so in Dirty Harry, one of the biggest milestones in modern action cinema. It seems to me a disillusioned, hurting America produces the best sort of films, or at least willing audiences. Consider the 1966 Miranda case was adding insult to the injury of Vietnam, while a true psychopath had held San Francisco in panic and you can see why Dirty Harry became such an enduring icon. He was exactly what the masses wanted. An angry lawman who just wouldn’t take any more shit and so he was the perfect fantasy figure to guard the country’s morals.

Directed by Don Siegel, it was essentially a Western, but audiences weren’t in the mood for period metaphors; they needed Harry Callaghan on their streets, right at that moment. As Hitchcock did with Vertigo and Yates with Bullitt, Siegel puts San Francisco front and centre. Almost as if Harry is an extension of the city itself (David Fincher’s Zodiac makes a nice reference to the films approach too). Clint Eastwood couldn’t have been any more perfect, considering his Dollars work. Although relatively early, this still endures as one of his best parts. He cuts an imposing figure, delivers classic hard witty dialogue with a trademark growl and a cold stare. It perhaps shows just how good an actor he is, because by all accounts, Clint Eastwood is a gentle, kind hearted man, bordering on shy.

Yet it is a truly violent film. Not so much in the gritty action, though it has its share of uncomfortable moments, but in character, mood and in the irony of making the viewer even more aggrieved as Scorpio gets what amounts to police protection due to crippling policies that defy common sense. Thanks, Miranda! Andy Robinson is terribly convincing as a baby-faced perverse villain with perverse habits (very Joker like) and the film isn’t interested in where he came from or why he does these awful things (he’s possibly just as angry and confused as everyone else). It’s a film about delivering cathartic retribution.

It’s very much a 70s film, with a jazz-y score, and a focus more on passive action and style in long wide shots, rather than a convoluted mystery to solve. Still, it is a strong story, with an intriguing undercurrent of sexual deviancy: very subtle, but consider how the scene when Harry is accused of voyeurism essentially makes voyeurs of the audience, or Scorpio paying for someone to beat him up. It’s another angle on the depraved society breeding violence that Harry will surely go some way to clean up.

There hadn’t been anything like Dirty Harry before and there possibly wouldn’t be again until First Blood (although even that can’t claim such wide appeal). Obviously it inspired the cliché of a maverick cop, delivering street-level punishment with a bullet and without a shred of paperwork; and it can probably be blamed in some part for the style revenge movies follow like Death Wish, which are abhorrent in how they project indignation onto the viewer. Dirty Harry was a film of its time and will always be relevant because of that. It, unlike all the pretenders since, had a reason to exist. Modern equivalents may claim some social relevance, but are generally just too noisy, because the first rule now is to entertain in set-piece led plots. Up until Dirty Harry, it wasn’t quite acceptable to say just how cool you found watching such violence. Now it’s a requirement.

(From Dirty Harry Marathon on February 8th, 2010)

Baazigar, a review by Tom

Title: Baazigar
Year: 1993
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Rating: FSK-16
Length: 180 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi: Dolby Digital 1
Subtitles: German

Stars:
Shah Rukh Khan
Kajol
Siddharth
Shilpa Shetty
Dalip Tahil
Johnny Lever

Plot:
Wealthy widower Madan Chopra has two young and marriageable aged daughters, Priya and Seema. Madan would like Priya to marry Vicky Malhotra, his business associate, to which she reluctantly agrees. Seema attends college and is seduced by Ajay Sharma and aspires to marry him secretly. But when they go to register the marriage Ajay mysteriously kills Seema by throwing her off a multi-storied building. A grief-stricken Priya is unable to forget this incident and what she does not know is that Vicky is not what he claims to be.

Awards:

Filmfare Awards	1994	Won	Best Actor Award	Shahrukh Khan
Filmfare Awards	1994	Won	Best Male Playback Award	Kumar Sanu
Filmfare Awards	1994	Nominated	Best Movie Award
Filmfare Awards	1994	Won	Best Music Director Award	Anu Malik
Filmfare Awards	1994	Nominated	Best Supporting Actress Award	Shilpa Shetty

Extras:
Bonus Trailers
Music Videos
Scene Access

This was the first big role of Shah Rukh Khan. And also the first of many movies for the screen couple Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan. This movie caused a controversy when it was first released: SRK's character unexpectantly and brutally kills one of the love interests.
Overall I enjoyed this movie even though it has weaknesses. I have a little hard time watching older Bollywood movies because the production quality is not that great. This movie is from 1993, which is one of the oldest Bollywood movies I have seen so far.
Only the last ten years or so the production quality got much better as international interest in Bollywood movies increased and also Hollywood movies had a bigger audience in India and therefore Bollywood movies have had real competition and were forced to improve.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on May 30th, 2010)

Tom's Random TV Episodes Reviews, a review by Tom

Psych
4.06 Bollywood Homicide
Writer: Steve Franks (Created By), Steve Franks (Writer), Anupam Nigam (Writer)
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Cast: James Roday (Shawn Spencer), Dulé Hill (Burton 'Gus' Guster), Timothy Omundson (Carlton Lassiter), Maggie Lawson (Juliet O'Hara), Kirsten Nelson (Karen Vick), Corbin Bernsen (Henry Spencer), Rachael Leigh Cook (Abigail Lytar), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Rajesh "Raj" Singh), Azita Ghanizada (Mina), Madhur Jaffrey (Dadi Singh), Lisa Ray (Sita), Liam James (Young Shawn), Jay Chandrasekhar (Jawarhalal "Jay" Singh), Sage Brocklebank (McNab), Bhavkhandan Singh Rakhra (Stagehand), Rosette Sharma (Raini), Hillary Jardine (Victoria), Beatrice Ilg (Gita)

I was looking forward to this one since I first saw the revised opening theme music in Bollywood style on Youtube. It made the impression to me that this episode is done with some affection to Bollywood. Also I thought it would take place on a Bollywood movie set (which would haven't been that far-fetched because Bollywood likes to go shoot abroad). But sadly, this all wasn't the case. They just called it "Bollywood Homicide" because Indians are involved. There was a Bollywood dance routine, but just a small rehearsal with some simple choreography. Not really worth of Bollywood. As was the music used (though you could faintly hear a song from Kabhi Khuchi Kabhie Gham in the background in one scene).
It would have been the perfect chance to invite some Bollywood actors (even if only from the B- or C-List), but instead we got some unknown American actors with Indian heritage. The only one known to me was Sendhil Ramamurthy from Heroes. But I never really liked him.
Also the mystery was nothing special. I knew from the first appearance of the perpetrator that she was the one.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random TV Episodes Reviews on January 31st, 2011)