Dirty Harry
July 2008 Reviewed by: Doug Schneider Format: Blu-ray	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Clint Eastwood is Harry Callahan, a tough San Francisco cop who plays by his own set of rules -- the main rule being to shoot first and ask questions later. Eastwood has starred in plenty of films, but this is one of his most famous roles. He plays Callahan as a quiet, no-nonsense guy who likes to mutter clever quips, a number of which are among the most famous movie quotes of all time. For example, in an early scene he has a gun pointed at a bank-robber’s head. The robber is thinking about reaching for his own gun as he tries to remember if Harry took five shots or six, hoping the gun’s chamber might be empty. Harry goes on a short monologue, which ends with "You’ve got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?" Harry’s the kind of bad cop we like.

But so much has already been written about this film that anything more is simply treading well-worn turf. What’s most relevant now is how well this over-25-year-old thriller has been transferred to today’s top video medium, Blu-ray Disc, and if it’s worth the format’s still-too-steep asking price.

The image and sound have been remastered and, for the most part, both are very good, given the age of the source material and recording limitations at the time. The picture is bright and punchy, with rich, saturated colors. I was particularly taken with the striking blues in the swimming-pool scene that’s right at the beginning. Also, the many night scenes have just the right amount of brightness and contrast to make out what’s going on. No details get lost. But as good as the image looks, the film is over 25 years old and small marks show up onscreen occasionally. Also, in some scenes the image is shaky, likely due to technical limitations with the way the film was shot. High-res video played through a topflight modern system tends to show you everything -- the good, bad, and ugly. All in all, Dirty Harry on Blu-ray looks like scrubbed-cleaned ‘70s material.

The sound is exceptionally clear and detailed with surprisingly good use of sound effects. But distortion creeps in from time to time, especially during the raucous action scenes, and the voices sound a bit tinny. However, I don’t fault the Blu-ray medium or the transfer that was done. Instead, I suspect that this is exactly how the sound was recorded at the time and we’re just hearing what’s really there, not unlike the flaws in the video.

The extras are plentiful and interesting. There are a number of short features of various vintages about the film and Eastwood. Of these, my favorite is The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry, which is one of the newest ones and features numerous modern-day filmmakers and actors espousing how Eastwood and Dirty Harry have influenced their work. There are also ten interviews, one with Clint Eastwood and another with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who talks about how Eastwood was one his inspirations when he came to America. Finally, there are trailers for all five Dirty Harry films: Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool.

But there’s no film commentary by Eastwood himself; instead, it’s done by Richard Schickel, a documentary filmmaker who is also credited as being Eastwood’s biographer. His commentary is good, but I’d much rather have heard it straight from Eastwood’s mouth. Also, all the features are in standard definition, which is tough to go back to (even upsampled to 1080p) when you've gotten used to true 1080p material.

In case you wonder just how broad Dirty Harry’s appeal is, check out the long list of languages that there are subtitle options for: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish. If you’re English-speaking and wondering how "...this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off..." translates worldwide, this Blu-ray release can reveal that.

All in all, this well-presented Dirty Harry Blu-ray release has enough going for it to make it worth the asking price.

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