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 crime. Filming for Dirty Harry began in April 1971 and involved some risky stunts, with much footage shot at night and filming the city of San Francisco aerially which the film series is renowned for. Dirty Harry is arguably Eastwood's most memorable character and the lines that Callahan utters when addressing a wounded bank robber are often cited amongst the most memorable in cinematic history (see box). The film has been cited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day. Eastwood's tough, no-nonsense portrayal of Dirty Harry touched a cultural nerve with many who were fed