Sunday 18 November 2012

Dirty Harry
(1971)

RATING:80%
FORMAT:DVD

Vigilante Violence

Despite rather odd and all-too-obvious plot-holes, this is a thoughtful and entertaining movie about the citizen’s obligations to the state and the state’s responsibility to the citizen. This relationship is viewed here as having broken down such that a homicidal maniac is allowed to roam the streets killing as he pleases because he is being afforded due legal process despite the fact that he has obvious felonious intent.

The film leaves the viewer to decide the proper balance between the rights of the perpetrator and the rights of the accused and, in so doing, steals its ending from High Noon as Clint EASTWOOD shows the physical presence that made him a star. Rough justice is still justice despite the legal profession’s insistence that the police focus on obeying the law more than in apprehending offenders. Fortunately, few criminals are as cunning and as psychopathic as Scorpio here, but the point is well made.

Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 15:33
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)