Dirty Harry box set will make any fan's day
The Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition: San Francisco cop Harry Callahan exploded like a bullet from his .44 Magnum when he first appeared on movie screens in 1971's "Dirty Harry." American audiences, weary of the growing violence at home and abroad at the time, loved watching this anti-hero dispense justice while raising a figurative middle finger to incompetent superiors, bureaucrats, even the law. Dirty Harry, brought to life by Clint Eastwood, appeared in four more films and set the template for the vigilante action heroes that were so popular during the Reagan years.
Warner Bros. has remastered all five Dirty Harry films and collected them in a beautiful seven-disc box set loaded with bonus materials and extra goodies. Do the movies hold up after all this time? Let's take a look.
"Dirty Harry": Harry's first film is a gritty classic. Directed by genre master Don Siegel, the film remains as tough and entertaining as the day it was released. Harry is called upon to take down a serial killer who calls himself Scorpio. The movie is packed with dialogue and scenes that have become legendary, including Harry's "Do you feel lucky?" speech. It also benefits from a chilling performance by Andy Robinson as the psychotic villain. The movie gets a two-disc treatment in this set, with a commentary by critic and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel and a slew of featurettes about the film's impact.
"Magnum Force": This 1973 sequel pits Harry against a crew of renegade cops who have banded together as a vigilante death squad. It's not as good as "Dirty Harry," but it's a solid cop flick with a nice supporting performance from Hal Holbrook. The DVD includes a commentary from writer John Milius.
"The Enforcer": The series starts to tread water with this 1976 installment in which Harry battles a group of leftist terrorists and deals with his first female partner, played by Tyne Daly. The DVD includes a commentary by director James Fargo.
"Sudden Impact": Eastwood directs this fourth chapter, which came out in 1983 and is easily the darkest Dirty Harry flick. A woman and her sister are raped by a gang of vicious thugs; 10 years later, the woman tries to get revenge by killing each of the assailants. Harry investigates the murders and becomes entangled in the woman's personal life. "Sudden Impact" has some great moments, including Harry's famous "Make my day" line, but it doesn't quite hold together. Schickel provides another commentary.
"The Dead Pool": This 1988 installment borders on parody, but it's fun to watch. It includes a commentary with the producer and cinematographer.
In addition to all the movies, this box set comes with a feature-length documentary on Eastwood, a hardcover book, a replica Dirty Harry wallet, movie poster reproductions and more. It's a fantastic set that should make Dirty Harry fans feel very lucky, indeed. (Warner Bros, $74.92)
"4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days:" Here is an unflinching, heartbreaking, brilliantly directed drama that will stay with you for days. Winner of the grand prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival, the film tells the story of Otilia, a college student in the Communist-ruled Romania of the late 1980s, who helps her friend Gabita get an illegal abortion. To do so, the women must enter the shadowy world of the Romanian black market, a journey that often resembles a descent into hell. Director Cristian Mungiu strips all music and camera tricks from this narrative, giving it a raw, documentary-like realism. The two lead actresses, Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu, deliver courageous, stunning performances without a shred of ego or vanity. Seek this film out. It tells a bleak story, but it will leave you marveling at the power of good moviemaking. The DVD comes with a trailer and an interview with the director. (NR; Genius Products, $24.95)
"The Other Boleyn Girl:" Oh, the things my history teachers left out! Sixteenth-century England is exposed as a time of intrigue, infidelity and incest in "The Other Boleyn Girl," a flawed but entertaining soap opera/drama about the Boleyn sisters, Anne and Mary, who took turns sleeping with King Henry VIII and paid dearly for it.
Natalie Portman plays Anne Boleyn, the more sophisticated and ambitious of the two. Word gets out that King Henry, upset with his wife's failure to provide him a male heir, seeks a mistress. Anne's scheming father and uncle, both of them drunk with dreams of power and privilege, decide that Anne is the perfect candidate and they arrange a meeting. But Anne embarrasses the king during a hunting expedition and his eye turns to her younger sister, Mary, played by Scarlett Johansson. Just like that, the two sisters become rivals for the king's affection and the throne that sits next to him.
"The Other Boleyn Girl," based on the best-seller by Philippa Gregory, suffers from a meandering pace and a surprisingly lifeless performance by Eric Bana as the king. But Portman saves the show with her scorching performance as Anne Boleyn - a fiercely driven, sometimes coldhearted woman who will stop at virtually nothing to get what she wants. The DVD includes deleted scenes and a featurette about English court life in the 16th century. (PG-13; Sony, $28.96)