Dirty Harry (character) Dirty Harry (character) Inspector Harold Francis Callahan, also known as Dirty Harry, is a fictional character in the "Dirty Harry" film series, which consists of "Dirty Harry" (1971), "Magnum Force" (1973), "The Enforcer" (1976), "Sudden Impact" (1983) and "The Dead Pool" (1988). Callahan is portrayed by Clint Eastwood in each film. From his debut, Callahan became the template for a new kind of movie cop: an antihero 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. Callahan is often considered
Clint Eastwood in the 1970s presented with a script called "Moving Target" which had potential but needed a major rewrite. In the end it was decided to make a third "Dirty Harry" film. The script, devised by Stirling Silliphant had Harry up against a San Francisco Bay area Symbionese Liberation Army type group, which in real life had terrorized the area in 1974 with ruthless kidnappings and violence, and the film would end in a shoot out at the gang's hideout on Alcatraz island. Eastwood met Silliphant in a restaurant in Tiburon and instantly took a liking to the script, particularly the shoot out and