Dirty Harry - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
I’m always amazed when classic, nay, ICONIC films like Dirty Harry only get one release on Blu-ray. Warner released the entire franchise back in 2008 in a special edition packaging, only to get repackaged half a dozen times throughout Blu-ray’s life span (including several massive Eastwood oriented collections) without ever getting modern TLC treatments in regards to new masters, new audio, and making things look better than the early days of the format war. Well, lucky for us, Warner is releasing a trio of classic Eastwood films on 4K, including the film that started the love affair we have with Harry Callahan to this day.

I don’t really have to introduce Dirty Harry to the vast majority of action film fans, as this is the equivalent of Star Wars for science fiction fans. We’ve repeated the line “You have to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky?” ever since we were children, and have idolized the tough guy motif that Eastwood embodied for most of his career. While many films in the 1970s were coming down off the heated political post-war climate that spawned hundreds of politically charged films, Dirty Harry kept things simple. There’s no major political statement. No attempt at making a deep film that was designed to make you think. Nor was it something that had a convoluted plot with a multi-dimensional villain. Nay, it was the stark opposite of that, featuring a tough-as-nails cop who’s sick and tired of watching criminals go free, and his foil in the form of an unnamed serial killer who just wants to kill for the fun of it.

The film starts with San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) foiling an armed robbery with his trusted 44 magnum revolver (the most powerful handgun in the world according to Harry), unbeknownst that a serial killer is loose. Said killer (played by Andrew Robinson, who will forever be Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to me) has executed one woman, and now has notified the Police Chief and the Mayor that he intends to continue murdering at will until he’s paid 100,000 dollars (which back in 1971 was enormous). Refusing to pay the killer, the Mayor ends up with another dead body, a kidnapped 14-year-old girl, and a doubled demand for $200,000 if his demands are unmet. The only thing is, Dirty Harry Callahan is on the scene, and he’s not about to let the killer get away with it. Even if it means breaking every rule in the book to get his man, dead, and not alive.

I can’t reiterate how much I love the very first Dirty Harry movie. Much like most longer running action franchises, the later sequels got bigger and bigger, with more action, more violence, and more Harry Callahan being a douche back. But the first film (the first two films, really) is much more intimate and raw. Harry Callahan is written to be hated if you have ever seen him in real life. But in the structure of this “almost” vigilante-style action film, Dirty Harry is that iconic hero for justice that everyone sees in superheroes like Batman, Superman, or any vigilante. He stands in the gap when the law fails the common man, doing the things that need to be done; breaking all of the rules that our legal system has to follow to get the bad guy who seems to slip through the cracks. Sure, we all know that in the real world we can’t get away with doing things like that to get someone, but on screen it’s a sense of pure justice-oriented catharsis. The same goes for the killer. There’s no overarching theme of what made him that. What thoughts he have behind that crazed look, or the tendency that modern films have of making him relatable to the viewer. He’s unnamed for a reason as well. The killer is a live-action representation of evil itself. We don’t have to like him, or know why he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s just a sick, evil man who is creating a wake of death behind him, and all the audience knows is that we want this dude taken care of.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Ohhhhh boy. Warner outdid themselves this time. Sourced from a newer 8K scan of the OCN, Dirty Harry comes into 2160p with a brilliantly filmic, yet incredibly clean look that is just sumptuous to behold. Grain is nice and intact (for the most part, I’m pretty sure there’s been some mild tweaking to it, just looking at the textures), and despite the obviously soft-looking background shots that were indicative of the time, it looks amazing.

Right off the bat, when the killer sets his sights on his swimming victim, you can see the obvious textural and color upgrades the 4K UHD disc provides. That green landscape around the pool just pops with color, while the fine details provided are top tier. The curves and lines on his 30-06 rifle stand out, including the ability to actually show a defined wood grain on the stock. Take note about halfway through the film as the camera pans down to the killer’s black leather shoes. I have NEVER seen them this clear and detailed before! The daytime shots show the best clarity all the way around, while the rest of the film tends to stay mired in soft, foggy, nighttime shots that aren’t nearly so clear. That being said, I want to state for the record that this was most likely an artifact of the time period (lots of dark alley shots, and day for night shots) or else intentionally done this way, being that every single version of Dirty Harry has those foggy/hazy looking shadow issues. The HDR application is very subtle, but it does bring out some of the more green, blue, and red highlights that the 1971 film employs. It’s not going to sparkle and seem like a modern-day film with HDR or Dolby Vision, but overall, this new transfer is so much better than the aging 2008 Blu-ray transfer that we’re not even talking apples to apples at this point.







Audio:

The audio mix for Dirty Harry has long since been a point of frustration for film purists over the years. The film had an original 2.0 audio mix from the theatrical experience, but back in the early DVD days, Warner Bros. crafted a new 5.1 mix for the film, which has been put on the Blu-ray and DVD for the last 2+ decades. Like many of these remastered mixes from that era, it was pretty decent, but definitely not accurate to the original mix. Effects were altered. Gunshots were added, and even surround effects were created for that version. The Blu-ray was remiss by having the 2.0 track deleted and only giving us the 5.1 mix, but the 4K UHD disc rectifies that issue.

The 2.0 original theatrical mix is preserved in lossless 2.0 DTS-HD MA, but they also included a brand new Dolby Atmos mix that is very obviously based upon the home video 5.1 remix. As such, fans of the film will be able to choose which one they prefer. I prefer the 2.0 mix from a purist standpoint, but part of me does appreciate the Atmos track as it's so well done from a technical standpoint. The mix is decidedly front-heavy, and Warner didn’t go all crazy trying to make a full-blown surround track out of the original source. The overheads are used very lightly (mostly with the helicopter and the score), and the surrounds are used judiciously. As such, it almost feels (sans new sound effects) like a more opened up version of the 2.0 mix in terms of vibe and feel. Sure, the updated effects from the 2+ decade old 5.1 track are still there, but it feels a little more natural with the object-based audio mix over the older 5.1 mix.







Extras:

• Audio Commentary - A legacy track featuring film critic Richard Schickel.
• NEW! Generations and Dirty Harry
• NEW! Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry
• American Masters Career Retrospective - Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
• Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malposo
• Clint Eastwood - A Cinematic Legacy: Fighting for Justice
• Interview Gallery
• Dirty Harry's Way
• Dirty Harry: The Original







54 years later, Dirty Harry is one of the most iconic 1970s action films of all time. Eastwood had already become a household name for his earlier westerns, but he became a literal film icon with his portrayal as the tough-as-nails cop who is sick and tired of injustice. To this day, pretty much everyone can utter the old “do you feel lucky?” line and know exactly where it came from, and to this day, I still get giddy watching the film by myself. This is probably one of the largest peaks of Eastwood’s long and storied career, and Warner Bros. made sure not to disappoint with this release. There are tons of extras, an amazing new audio and video remaster, with the case art being the only thing that sort of makes me go “meh” when looking at it. That being said, the one minor gripe here is something that is pretty rampant among ALL the studios, so I’m not calling out Warner on this specifically. That is the fact that we only get the first film in 4K UHD rather than at LEAST having individual releases for all 5 films. I’ve seen this happen with Die Hard, Alien, and the upcoming Lethal Weapon 4K release. We get the first film, and MAYBE we get the others later, or maybe we get a box set down the line, but right now, only one of the films gets a 4K release in the 5-film franchise. I must admit that this particular little quibble is nothing more than me kicking the dog and pouting that I can’t have my cake and eat it too, but still something that most fans of the franchise are going to notice. But at the same time, this release is so fantastic with all of the technical specs that I can’t be mad at them. This is 100% a buy it now release in my opinion.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino,
Directed by: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood
Written by: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, Dean Riesner
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (Original Audio), French, Spanish DD 2.0
Subtitles: French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Bros
Rated: R
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: April 29th, 2025

Thanks for the review. I have to revisit this one. I haven't seen it in ages!