Dirty Harry (character)

Inspector Harry Callahan
Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry
First appearance	Dirty Harry
Last appearance	The Dead Pool
Created by	Harry Julian Fink R.M. Fink
Portrayed by	Clint Eastwood (All movies)
In-universe information
Alias	Larry Dickman
Nickname	Dirty Harry, Cold-Bold Callahan
Gender	Male
Title	Inspector
Occupation	Police officer
Spouse	Mrs. Callahan (deceased)

Harold Francis "Dirty Harry" Callahan is a fictional San Francisco Police Department inspector in the films Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). Clint Eastwood plays Callahan in all five films.

From his debut in Dirty Harry, Callahan became the template for a new kind of movie cop: someone who does not hesitate to cross professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of his own vision of justice, especially when the law is poorly served by an inept bureaucracy. The "Dirty Harry" archetype does not shy away from killing, either; all of the Dirty Harry films feature Callahan killing criminals. He justifies such conduct by saying that it "gets results" in cutting down crime. This rationale rarely impresses his superiors, who have threatened Callahan with suspension and firing many times.

Weapons

Callahan's signature weapon is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, which he uses in all of the films. The gun's prominence in the films instantly popularized it. The character states the use of a "Light Special", .44 Special loads, that he loads himself because it gives him "better accuracy and control in a gun this size". He also states that it's like using Wadcutters in a .357 Magnum. He loses hold of it three times during the course of the series; first in Magnum Force, second in Sudden Impact, then in The Dead Pool. Additionally, in Sudden Impact, Callahan used a .44 Automag. Contrary to popular belief, it was not an AMT firearm, but an original AMP Auto Mag built specifically for that film.

In Dirty Harry, he used a Winchester Model 70 bolt action rifle in .458 Winchester Magnum for the night gunfight with the Scorpio Killer and used a switchblade during his second encounter with Scorpio. Harry also uses a Colt Python revolver to obtain ballistics evidence in Magnum Force. Other weapons Callahan uses initially in the final climax of other films include a bomb, an M72 LAW rocket launcher and a harpoon. In one film, Harry's partner Frank DiGiorgio, refers to Harry's gun as a "pocket-cannon".

Character

In Dirty Harry, Callahan explains the origins of his nickname: he gets stuck with "every dirty job that comes along." Callahan has little use for many of the official rules of police conduct, dismissing them as "red tape" and loathes the court system that lets the criminals get away with their crimes. For Callahan, everything is black and white: there are good guys and there are bad guys, and the bad guys must be punished. This creates a conflict between Callahan and the court systems, which frequently causes a vicious cycle: he catches bad guys, the courts release them because he did not comply with procedure, forcing him to catch them again.

Callahan adheres absolutely to his own code of ethics. He is completely incorruptible, is devoted to protecting and avenging the victims of violent crime and when pursuing criminals, tries to minimize the danger for innocent bystanders as much as possible. Even so, his fight against criminals—including fellow cops, such as the self-appointed death squad in Magnum Force—is ferocious and merciless and he shows no hesitation or remorse at killing them. He is routinely depicted in virtually all of the films as being a superb marksman and formidable hand-to-hand combatant.

Personal life

The movies reveal little about Callahan's personal background. In the first film, Callahan tells his partner's wife that his wife was killed by a drunk driver. She appears in Magnum Force in an old photograph which Harry turns around. The doctor tending to him after the first film's bank robbery intimates that "us Potrero Hill boys gotta stick together." The first film's novelization explains that Callahan grew up in this neighborhood and describes a hostile relationship between the police and the residents. Callahan recalls once throwing a brick at a cop, who picked it up and threw it back at him. The following sequels maintain that Harry lives within the city limits in a small studio apartment, near Chinatown or Nob Hill. In Magnum Force Harry's friend Charlie McCoy says "We should have done our 20 in the Marines", indicating that they served together in the armed forces. In The Dead Pool, a coffee mug on Harry's desk at the police station bears the United States Marine Corps seal.

Cultural recognition

Callahan is considered a film icon, so much so that his nickname, "Dirty Harry," has entered the lexicon as slang for ruthless police officers. Harry Callahan was voted number 23 by Empire Magazine on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. He was also named one of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture by Entertainment Weekly. He was also ranked 42nd by Premiere magazine on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. The character also received recognition from the American Film Institute.

Harry Callahan was voted the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. On AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, two of Dirty Harry's famous lines ranked 6^th and 51^st, respectively.

Go ahead, make my day

I know what you're thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' But to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?

Partners

• Tom Fanducci
• Fred Dietrich
• Frank DiGiorgio (Dirty Harry and The Enforcer)
• Chico Gonzalez (Dirty Harry)
• Earlington "Early" Smith (Magnum Force)
• Kate Moore (The Enforcer)
• Horace King (Sudden Impact)
• Al Quan (The Dead Pool)

In the first and last films, Dirty Harry and The Dead Pool, Callahan states that almost all of his partners either end up dead or in the hospital. This is in fact true, as Al Quan and Chico Gonzalez are the only of Harry's partners to end up in the hospital while everyone else is killed. Fred Dietrich is also as mentioned as being in the hospital with a bullet wound. DiGiorgio is the only one of Harry's partners to not have been killed as a direct nor indirect result of his partnership.

Dietrich and Fanducci are the only of Harry's partners never to appear on screen other than just be mentioned by him in the first film, and by partner Kate Moore in The Enforcer.

Additional notes

• Callahan's SFPD badge number as briefly seen near the end of the first film is 2211 while his callsign is "Inspector 71".
• In a December 2006 interview Clint Eastwood describes Callahan as living a "retired" life, and often jokes that if he were to reprise the character, Dirty Harry would be flyfishing with the .44 Magnum by now. On Late Show with David Letterman, he also joked that his character would have to chase the crooks with a walker.
• In Magnum Force, Harry's last name Callahan is misspelled as "Calahan" in the end credits.
• In all five films combined, Harry has killed 43 criminals total.
• Eastwood good-naturedly reprises Harry's "do you feel lucky" line in a 2007 television ad promoting tourism in San Francisco, as he is seen golfing and suggests visiting tourists should feel lucky by challenging the city's golf courses.
• In Phillip Rock's novelization to Dirty Harry, Harry's middle name is Francis. It is also mentioned that Harry once had a detective partner nicknamed "Lucky Sam" Fleming.
• According to the documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, the alias 'Larry Dickman' came from Clint Eastwood's friendship with Don Rickles since they appeared together in Kelly's Heroes. Eastwood says "He used to always say in his act, he'd say, "What do I look like, Larry Dickman from Des Moines?" or something like that. And I always thought, 'Larry Dickman', I said, 'that's a Hell of a name', and I've registered in hundreds of hotels across the country as "Larry Dickman" ever since then."

Influences

• Easily the most famous parody of "Dirty Harry" Callahan is Alan Spencer's cult TV series "Sledge Hammer!" where the character is exaggerated into a gun-worshipping buffoon. Nevertheless, as cited in a New York Times review, "Sledge Hammer!" was respectful and even "affectionate" towards the target of its satire. Indeed some of the early episodes have either a subtle nod to the Dirty Harry Series (such as John Vernon reprising his role as the Mayor of San Francisco), to full remakes (The episode "Magnum Farce" not only parodies Magnum Force by name but also in the plot). Spencer is an avowed Clint Eastwood fan. It's been indicated that Eastwood himself enjoyed "Sledge Hammer!" and cast the actor who played the title role, David Rasche, as a Senator in his acclaimed directorial effort "Flags of Our Fathers".
• The entire "most powerful handgun in the world" speech is parodied in Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, when Captain Samuel Vimes threatens a rioting mob with a swamp dragon. In addition, the motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is dog Latin for "Make my day, punk." In The Art of Discworld, Pratchett notes that Paul Kidby draws Vimes to resemble Clint Eastwood.
• TV series Hunter presents the main Character Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer), a Cop from Los Angeles whose inspiration is "Dirty Harry".
• Callahan is acknowledged by comics writer John Wagner as the inspiration for the character of Judge Dredd.
• Kim Newman's novels set in the Warhammer role-playing universe feature a former Altdorf watchman named "Filthy" Harald Kleindeinst, who was fired for killing the "wrong" man (a murderer who was also a nobleman) and whose trademark weapon is a "Magnin" throwing knife.
• The lecture Callahan received from the mayor about a questionable shooting incident in the first film is spoofed in The Naked Gun.

See also

• Dirty Harry (film series)
• Dirty Harry (NES Game)
• David Toschi (Former SFPD Homicide inspector known for the Zodiac Killer case)