Dirty Harry (1971)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

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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.

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