Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan pursues a conspiracy of vigilante cops, who are not above going beyond the law to kill San Francisco's undesirables.Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan pursues a conspiracy of vigilante cops, who are not above going beyond the law to kill San Francisco's undesirables.Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan pursues a conspiracy of vigilante cops, who are not above going beyond the law to kill San Francisco's undesirables.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe plot of this movie was inspired by the death squads of Brazil that were in the news at the time. John Milius pitched Clint Eastwood a scenario of Harry Callahan similarly encountering a corrupt police force of vigilantes assassinating those they could not convict. Eastwood liked the idea, particularly since he wanted to address the controversy caused by the original movie, Dirty Harry. Some viewers and critics believed that it supposedly endorsed fascism and vigilantism. Eastwood wanted to make it clear that Harry was not a vigilante.
- GoofsDuring the "try knocking on the door" dialogue, a trolley can be seen passing by on the street outside. One of the trolley patrons waves directly at the camera, obviously aware that a film was being shot.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Harry Callahan: A man's GOT to know his limitations.
- Crazy creditsThe credits are played over a hand (presumably Harry's) holding a 44 Magnum against a red background. As such, this is the only Dirty Harry movie in which the opening credits are not played over San Francisco scenery.
- Alternate versionsHarry Callahan's character name becomes Harry ''Callaghan'' in the Italian version and titles because the local distributor thought it sounded better.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Green Fog (2017)
Featured review
Great Action and Of Course, The Great Eastwood
Magnum Force (1973)
*** (out of 4)
'Dirty' Harry Calahan (Clint Eastwood) has been taken off street duty by Lt. Briggs (Hal Holbrook) but he gets back into action when various scumbags throughout the city are executed. Pimps, gangsters and various other criminals are being killed off and Briggs believes it's other criminals doing the crimes but Harry believes it's someone inside the police force.
MAGNUM FORCE was the second film in the ever popular series and while it's no where near as great as DIRTY HARRY, it still manages to be highly entertaining thanks in large part to lead actor Eastwood who was clearly born to play this role. As with the first film, this one here asks a lot of political questions as well as some moral ones. After all, the people being murdered here aren't innocent people or good citizens. Instead they are low life criminals and them being picked off, as it is put in the film, is saving the tax payers a lot of money. This vigilante aspect comes a year before DEATH WISH but it's interesting to compare the two films and their thoughts on the subject.
With that said, MAGNUM FORCE is pure 70's action and there's no question that it's incredibly entertaining. I will say the one flaw is its running time, which is just a tad bit too long and especially once the plot is revealed. A few of the scenes towards the end probably could have been edited down some but even with this flaws the film is still a great entertainment. The biggest key is certainly Eastwood who was simply born to play this role and when you think about it it's nearly impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Even though several other actors were offered the part, film history is blessed that Eastwood got it.
He certainly has that dry humor that fits this character so perfectly and there's certainly no questions that he can handle the action scenes with ease. The supporting cast is also very good with Holbrook doing nice work as the stuck up Lt. and there's also Robert Urich, Kip Niven, Tim Matheson, David Soul and Mitchell Ryan doing nice work. On a technical level the film is also very good with some strong cinematography, fine editing and of course the music score fits the decade and subject perfectly.
MAGNUM FORCE offers up a pretty good storyline and there's no question that its political nature mixes well with who Dirty Harry is. The film also manages to have some terrific one-liners for Eastwood to say and there's no doubt that the action scenes are quite intense and fun.
*** (out of 4)
'Dirty' Harry Calahan (Clint Eastwood) has been taken off street duty by Lt. Briggs (Hal Holbrook) but he gets back into action when various scumbags throughout the city are executed. Pimps, gangsters and various other criminals are being killed off and Briggs believes it's other criminals doing the crimes but Harry believes it's someone inside the police force.
MAGNUM FORCE was the second film in the ever popular series and while it's no where near as great as DIRTY HARRY, it still manages to be highly entertaining thanks in large part to lead actor Eastwood who was clearly born to play this role. As with the first film, this one here asks a lot of political questions as well as some moral ones. After all, the people being murdered here aren't innocent people or good citizens. Instead they are low life criminals and them being picked off, as it is put in the film, is saving the tax payers a lot of money. This vigilante aspect comes a year before DEATH WISH but it's interesting to compare the two films and their thoughts on the subject.
With that said, MAGNUM FORCE is pure 70's action and there's no question that it's incredibly entertaining. I will say the one flaw is its running time, which is just a tad bit too long and especially once the plot is revealed. A few of the scenes towards the end probably could have been edited down some but even with this flaws the film is still a great entertainment. The biggest key is certainly Eastwood who was simply born to play this role and when you think about it it's nearly impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Even though several other actors were offered the part, film history is blessed that Eastwood got it.
He certainly has that dry humor that fits this character so perfectly and there's certainly no questions that he can handle the action scenes with ease. The supporting cast is also very good with Holbrook doing nice work as the stuck up Lt. and there's also Robert Urich, Kip Niven, Tim Matheson, David Soul and Mitchell Ryan doing nice work. On a technical level the film is also very good with some strong cinematography, fine editing and of course the music score fits the decade and subject perfectly.
MAGNUM FORCE offers up a pretty good storyline and there's no question that its political nature mixes well with who Dirty Harry is. The film also manages to have some terrific one-liners for Eastwood to say and there's no doubt that the action scenes are quite intense and fun.
Helpful•00
- Michael_Elliott
- Jun 6, 2015
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Vigilance
- Filming locations
- 800 block, Vermont Street, San Francisco, California, USA(Harry's skillfull driving down the crookedest street in San Francisco.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $39,768,000
- Gross worldwide
- $39,768,000
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