Dirty Harry Dirty Harry Dirty Harry is a 1971 American action crime thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the "Dirty Harry" series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. The film drew upon the actual case of the Zodiac Killer as the Callahan character seeks out a similar vicious psychopath. "Dirty Harry" was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a whole genre of police films. It was followed by four sequels: "Magnum Force" in 1973, "The Enforcer" in 1976, "Sudden
Clint Eastwood in the 1970s praised his performance as Dirty Harry, describing him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character", the film was widely criticized because of Eastwood's portrayal of the ruthless cop. Feminists in particular were outraged by the film, and at the 1971 Oscar telecast, protested outside holding up banners which read messages such as "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig". Many critics expressed concern with what they saw as bigotry, with "Newsweek" describing the film as "a right-wing fantasy", "Variety" as "a specious, phony glorification of the police and police brutality with a