Dirty Harry novels of the four first "Dirty Harry" films as tie-ins. Author and screenwriter Phillip Rock wrote the novelization of "Dirty Harry" in 1971, based on an early draft of the script. Mel Valley wrote the sequel, "Magnum Force", in 1973. Wesley Morgan novelized "The Enforcer" in 1976. The "Sudden Impact" novelization was written by Joseph Stinson, one of the screenwriters. Stinson, who had rewritten the originally independent script as a "Dirty Harry" vehicle for Eastwood, adapted the novel in 1983. Following "The Enforcer", Eastwood announced that he would not make any further "Dirty Harry" films (he eventually returned to the role
Dirty Harry Eastwood do what he does, and he does it so well." Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out four, calling it "very effective at the level of a thriller" but denouncing its moral position as "fascist." Gene Siskel gave the film a full four out of four stars and praised it as "one of the great police thrillers of motion picture history," though he too thought that the film's message was "dangerous." Roger Greenspun of "The New York Times" wrote that "what makes 'Dirty Harry' worth watching no matter how dumb the story, is Siegel's superb sense