The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry

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Clint Eastwood and his signature .44 Magnum stand ready to enforce before San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on this poster for James Fargo's The Enforcer

 

A group of revolutionary maniacs rage and rob a mass of explosive weapon in San Francisco, while uncompromising hood-hunter detective Harry Callahan is popular and then unpopular with the city's populist mayor.

 

The ideological fronts are clearly drawn (as usual) here in the third film in the Dirty Harry franchise, which is less original than the two preceding chapters. Clint Eastwood (Rawhide (1959-65)) is still awfully enjoyable as the titular enforcer Callahan, and here he gets Tyne Daly (Christy (1994-95)) as his new partner. The plot - although fairly ludicrous, - does entail enough corny fun and action to entertain fans of Eastwood and Dirty Harry fairly well. But don't expect The Enforcer to invent or add anything really new to the police action genre.

The Enforcer is written by Stirling Silliphant (Over the Top (1987)) and Dean Riesner (Charley Varrick (1973)), based on a script by Gail Morgan Hickman (The Equalizer (1989), TV-series) and S.W. Schurr, and directed by debuting James Fargo (Forced Vengeance (1982)), who was previously a second unit director.

Related posts:

James Fargo: Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business!

The Dirty Harry franchise: The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life

Listen to Jerry Fielding's score from the movie here

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 46.2 mil. $ (North America only)

= Some uncertainty - but at least a big hit and probably a huge hit

[The Enforcer was released 22 December (North America) and runs 96 minutes. The first script was by San Francisco area film students Hickman and Schurr, who got it to Eastwood through his Carmel restaurant The Hog's Breath Inn. Eastwood intended to direct the film himself but was too busy after taking over directing on his western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and instead promoted his assistant director Fargo. Shooting took place in California, mostly in San Francisco in and around June 1976. The film became the 9th highest-grossing film in North America of 1976 and the highest-grossing Dirty Harry picture until the next one in 1983. The Enforcer was intended to be the last in a Dirty Harry trilogy, but audience demand - and Eastwood's willingness to perform in exchange for funding for his more personal projects, - brought Eastwood's Dirty Harry back for two more films; Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Fargo followed the film up with Caravans (1978), and Eastwood returned in The Gauntlet (1977). The Enforcer is fresh at 79 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Enforcer?