harry callahan was the iconic character featured in movies such as the enforcer sudden impact and the dead pool.
harry callahan was the iconic character featured in movies such as the enforcer sudden impact and the dead pool.
which iconic character is featured in movies such as the enforcer sudden impact and the dead pool?
harry callahan
while his partners and many other officers respect and admire callahan, others see him as unfit to serve on the police force. he often clashes with superiors who dislike his methods, and judges and prosecutors are wary of handling his cases because of frequent violations of the fourth amendment and other irregularities. a police commissioner admits that callahan's "unconventional methods ... get results", but adds that his successes are "more costly to the city and this department in terms of publicity and physical destruction than most other men's failures". (the publicity makes him well known; in "sudden impact", the police chief of another city calls him "the famous harry callahan", and by "the dead pool" he is so well known that the department wants to transfer him to public relations, even while he destroys three police cars in one month and causes a tv station to sue the department.) callahan is often reprimanded, suspended, and demoted to minor departments. at the start of "magnum force" lt. briggs transfers him to stakeout. in "the enforcer" captain mckay assigns him to personnel. in "sudden impact" he is threatened with a transfer to traffic and being fired, in "the enforcer" he begins a 180-day suspension imposed by mckay, and in "the dead pool" he is only allowed to stay off desk duty with a new partner. according to film critic roger ebert, "it would take an hour in each of these movies to explain why he's not in jail".
dirty harry (character)
the films reveal little about callahan's personal background. in the first film, callahan tells chico gonzalez'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 police officer, who picked it up and threw it back. the following sequels show that harry lives within the city limits in a small studio apartment on jackson street in the nob hill area, so unfamiliar with his neighbors that they refer to him only as "the cop who lives upstairs". in "magnum force" harry's friend charlie mccoy says "we should have done our 20 in the marines", indicating that they served (or could/should have 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 and in "the enforcer" it is clear he has already been checked out on the laws rocket, a usmc weapon. his hobbies appear to consist of target shooting and playing pool (which we see him doing in "the enforcer"). he appears to subsist on a diet of only hot dogs, hamburgers and strong black coffee which he takes without sugar and is so unchanging that he simply orders 'the usual' from the staff of his regular eateries (in "the dead pool" he samples his girlfriend's unknown dessert but doesn't have one himself). he drinks beer, and on one occasion apple juice, and both runs and weightlifts in the gym. in "sudden impact" he acquires a pet bulldog called 'meathead' but there is no sign of him in "the dead pool".
dirty harry (character)