SIT DOWN!
Posted on 06/07/2008 12:08:55 AM PDT by L.A.Justice
(Cut)
Eastwood, who turned 78 on Saturday, has become an American filmmaker of the highest order -- he first rode to fame as a rangy, amoral redux of John Wayne but, somehow, came back from the desert as a latter-day John Ford. With that career trajectory, it wouldn't be surprising if Eastwood turned his back on Callahan, whose darkly whispered one-liners (". . . You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" "Go ahead, make my day") were long ago drained of any real danger by stand-up comics, politicians and bumper stickers. It's easy to imagine Eastwood the auteur treating the character like a bad 1970s fashion choice.
Instead, Eastwood is reconnecting with the surly old gun nut. Warner Home Video on Tuesday will release a lavish new boxed set of all five "Dirty Harry" movies (the $75 DVD set includes 1973's "Magnum Force," 1976's "The Enforcer," 1983's "Sudden Impact" and 1988's "The Dead Pool") that comes with a faux police badge tucked inside an eel-skin pouch. There's also a letter to fans penned by Eastwood, who has been busy lately putting finishing touches on his latest directorial project, “Changeling,” and presenting it at the Cannes Film Festival (it hits U.S. theaters in November).
Sitting in the screening room at Warners, Eastwood explained that the role of Callahan was "a real turning point" for him -- and American popular culture. There's also a sentimental aura around the first film: It was directed by the late Don Siegel, Eastwood's mentor and friend, and brought the actor back to his hometown of San Francisco. He also knows that, for good or bad, in the minds of movie fans he will forever carry Callahan's .44 Magnum.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "What's your name, dude?"
Marty McFly: "Uh, Mar- Eastwood. Clint Eastwood."
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "What kind of stupid name is that?"
---
Saloon Old Timer: "You better face up to it, son, 'cause if you don't go out there..."
Marty McFly: "What?"
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "Five..."
Marty McFly: "What if I don't go out there?"
Eyepatch: "You're a coward!"
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "Six..."
Toothless: "And you'll be branded a coward for the rest of your days!"
Saloon Old Timer: "Everybody everywhere will say, 'Clint Eastwood is the biggest yellow-belly in the west.'"
--and--
Marshall Strickland: [pointing rifle at Buford] "All right now, break it up. What's all this about? You causin' trouble here, Tannen?"
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "No trouble, Marshall. Just a little personal matter between me and Eastwood! This don't concern the law."
Marshall Strickland: "Tonight, everything concerns the law. Now break it up. Any brawlin', it's 15 days in the county jail. All right, folks, c'mon, this is a party. Come on, let's have some fun!"
(ZZ Top, in period duds, spin a guitar, banjo and drum once before commencing the hoedown)
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "Let's finish it, right now!" Gang Member #1: "Uh, not now, Buford. Uh, Marshal's got our guns."
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "Like I said, we'll finish this tomorrow."
Gang Member #2: "Tomorrow, we're robbing the Pine City Stage."
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "What about Monday? Are we doing anything Monday?"
Gang Member #1: "Uh, no, Monday'd be fine. You can kill him on Monday."
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "I'll be back this way on Monday! We'll settle this then... right there... out in the street... in front of the Palace Saloon!"
Marty McFly: "Yeah, right. When? High noon?"
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: "Noon? I do my killin' before breakfast! Seven o'clock!"
Marty McFly: "Eight o'clock. I do my killing after breakfast!"
SIT DOWN!
MAGNUM FORCE: Callahan makes a memorable comment after Hal Holbrook’s car blows up.
“A man’s just got to know his limitations.”
John Vernon was with Clint in “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” my absolute favorite Clint movie.
Right after that line there is this:
“Killin’s a helluva thing, kid. You take away all that a man has, and all that he’s ever gonna have.”
LOL. Drebin and Callahan would have made an interesting team.
After reading about Eastwood, I always felt he was more at home playing a piano in a jazz club than he was standing in front of a camera.
Eastwood lucked into playing in the Spaghetti movies just like he lucked into playing for his friend Don Seigel.
Jessica Walters was so over-the-top as a crazed stalker of Eastwood’s character (radio jock Dave Garver), it was easy to believe that was her natural persona. “
It was a great movie, but I think it branded Walters for the rest of her life.
The panel jumps all over him.
Finally he gets a chance to ask a police question (Sorry, IMBD down now so I can't get it exact):
"Suppose councilwoman Jones propositions me that for $50 she will put on a show with a pony. What laws would she be breaking . . . other than cruelty to animals?"
Funny one, thanks.
Of course, the campiest thing in that movie was the rather Gay police death squad led by Hutch. They looked like they were going to, uh, rumble with the gang from "Scorpio Rising."
IIRC, the hood was played by Joe Spaniel (Joe Spano), who was the sensitive male in Hill Street Blues.
Josey Wales: “The one on the far left,he had crazy eyes.” ......... also, “Buzzards gotta eat too,same as worms.” ........ and, “How’s it work on stains?”
I'd have to disagree. Eastwood was extremely popular with millions of Americans who knew him from his Rowdy Yates days on "Rawhide". That's why Sergio Leone hired him for his westerns. From there it was an easy jump to Hollywood. I don't think he lucked into anything.
After considering Henry Fonda, director Sergio Leone offered the role of the Man With No Name to James Coburn, who proved too expensive. Charles Bronson then turned it down after describing it as the “worst script I have ever seen”. Third choice Richard Harrison also declined the role but pointed Leone in the direction of “Rawhide” (1959). Leone then offered the part to “Rawhide” star Eric Fleming, who turned it down but suggested his co-star Clint Eastwood for the part. The rest, as they say, is history.
Did you read the list of stars who turned down the role of “Dirty Harry”?
Although Harry was supposed to use a Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 Mag, the actual gun used was the Model 57 in .41 Magnum
From the Article:
Andy Robinson, who played the Scorpio killer in “Dirty Harry,” said the movie cut through because of its grim hero and bundled appeal. “It was police thriller, a cowboy western and a horror film, it was all of them yoked together,” Robinson said. “And because of the times it was released in, it became the film that people argued about. Is it fascist? Is it ripe with irony? After that movie I was turned away at auditions for quite a while. A lot of people in Hollywood were angry.”
Although Pauline Kael of the New Yorker praised the film’s styling as “trim, brutal and exciting,” she also called it “a remarkably single-minded attack on liberal values, with each prejudicial detail in place — a kind of hard-hat ‘The Fountainhead.’ “ Critic Roger Ebert wrote, “The movie’s moral position is fascist. No doubt about it.”
Liberals were so upset they even blackballed the ACTOR who appeared in it, even though he was a relatively struggling unknown!
So America LOVED Dirty Harry and the liberal elites thought it was obviously a “fascist” movie and a “single minded attack on liberal values”, what values? allowing murderers to roam the street with impunity??
Correction. The rumor of a .41 magnum is false. The people at Smith and Wesson plus an interview with John Milius stated the Model 29 really was used in the movie.
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