The Enforcer (1976)

 

The character of Dirty Harry became a staple in police films thanks to Clint Eastwood's performance, but not every film is truly worth a watch. I fear to say this is one of the lesser interesting ones, mainly due to very poor villains this time around (heck, they don't even get that much screentime, let alone any motivation) and some rampant sexism that feels out of place, even for a film of the 70s. 

Yeah, I get that Harry Callahan is a gruff macho but hot dang, his initial treatment of a female police officer feels so out of place and brutal, it doesn't even make her death and his subsequent sorrow believable. 

Ah well. 

As is usual with these films, San Francisco is portrayed as a truly wretched hive of scum and villainy and the only way to stop them is by putting bullet holes in the perpetrators, preferably with a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun ever created. They might even ask themselves if they feel lucky. Harry is still the police officer that gets the most villains, but he also is at constant odds with the chief of police, because he is - naturally - a maverick, a rogue and a scoundrel who likes to do things his own way, which doesn't often coincide with the rulebook. 

Yes, every cliché ever, but in fairness: this franchise pretty much made the mould for such stories and characters.

Now there's a group (?) of sorts of disgruntled Vietnam veterans (but this isn't clear and is only hinted at near the end) and they have stolen explosives and threaten to blow up several sites in the city. Harry needs to find them quick and because of a new program for equality, he is paired with an inexperienced but well-meaning female detective. 

Thanks goodness she is played by Tyne Daly, who would later have her fame thanks to another police series: 'Cagney & Lacey'. This is one of her early roles and she does feel a bit green, but she also is an  actress who manages to hold her own against Eastwood, even given the piss poor material she was given to work with. In essence, she's a bumbling newbie and her arch is getting shot during the finale. 

Great, you have one potentially cool female character and you kill her off. Nice work, movie.

Everything else is business as usual: Harry gets suspended, goes out on his own, roughs up some thugs and eventually finds the perps and takes them out with extreme prejudice, this time on Alcatraz Island. 

You know, this could have been more fun if the bad guys had something of a personality, but they feel like an afterthought. The stakes are fairly low and there is little to no tension and even the sidecharacters get lost on the wayside. So this is only for the diehard fans and even they might find this one a little on the light side.