I watch it at least once a month.
Posted on 05/02/2026 2:29:10 PM PDT by Twotone
Dirty Harry was released near the end of 1971 and became an immediate hit, and just as immediately began a feud between its star, Clint Eastwood, and Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics in America. In her review, published in the New Yorker on January 15, 1972, and titled "Dirty Harry: Saint Cop", Kael called the film "a kind of hardhat The Fountainhead" and "an almost perfect piece of propaganda for para-legal police power."
"When you're making a picture with Clint Eastwood, you naturally want things to be simple, and the basic contest between good and evil is as simple as you can get. It makes this genre piece more archetypal than most movies, more primitive and dreamlike; fascist medievalism has a fairy-tale appeal," Kael wrote, adding near the end of her review that "Dirty Harry is obviously just a genre movie, but this action genre has always had a fascist potential, and it has finally surfaced."
Invoking fascism not once but twice, Kael set the tone for the most vociferous criticism Eastwood would face for much of his career, and fired the first shots in a simmering vendetta between the actor and the writer that would inspire Eastwood to make a Kael-like critic the victim of the killer seventeen years later, in his final Dirty Harry sequel, The Dead Pool. "Please," San Francisco film critic Molly Fisher (played by Ronnie Claire Edwards) begs the killer, "I have a heart condition."
"A critic with a heart," he replies. "That's a laugh."
The film opens with what Kael called a "rather strange" choice – slow pans down the names of San Francisco Police Department officers killed in the line of duty on a memorial in the lobby of the city's Hall of Justice.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Kael, you have to know your limitations.
The “feud” was inconsequential at best. The early Karen was at least 30 steps below Clint Eastwood on the scale of influence. The movie made millions and “make my day” became an institution of its own. Some self important movie critic would have made a few thousand dollars by complaining. The difference between a man and a woman is illustrated in stark relief here. PS I have never heard of this woman but I have watched the movie several times.
“How did Nixon win? I don’t know anyone who voted for him.” - Pauline Kael.
Another writing class by Steyn. By far one of the best columnists over the past free decades.
Reviewing “2001: A Space Odyssey”, she called Stanley Kubrick an amateur.
I knew I had heard that name from somewhere before.
This article is on Steyn Online, but it’s written by Rick McGinnis, not Mark Steyn.
The Dirty Harry and Death Wish franchises did well at the box office because Americans were sick and tired of rising street crime in the 70’s.
I watch it at least once a month.
I fact, it's my memory that he included at least one poke at liberal women in every subsequent movie: Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
That was in 2
Make my day was in 3 or 4
Make my day was in 3 or 4
Correct. In Enforcer he was brutal to the system.
Love it.
An east coast liberal does not like Clint Eastwood?
Not shocked or giving a shiite.
How many money-making movies did Pauline Kael write, or direct, or produce?
Oh, but she was an “influential” movie critic. One of the most influential, in fact, ha ha.
“I gots to know”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.