DIRTY HARRY closes out the 2011 Bryant Park Summer Film Festival on August 22
DIRTY HARRY (Don Siegel, 1971)
Bryant Park Summer Film Festival
41st St. at Sixth Ave.
Monday, August 22, free, dusk
212-512-5700
www.bryantpark.org
“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” Clint Eastwood created a cinematic legend, cool, calm Bay Area cop Harry Callahan, in Don Siegel’s genre redefining 1971 thriller, Dirty Harry. Callahan, confidence radiating out of every pore, has a penchant for getting himself into trouble, leaving mayhem and chaos behind him as he polices the mean streets of San Francisco. The first film of the series is by far the best of the bunch, as Harry is on the hunt for a crazed serial killer who goes by the name Scorpio (Andy Robinson). The underappreciated Harry Guardino is Callahan’s boss, Al Bressler, Reni Santoni plays Callahan’s rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez, and John “Dean Wormer” Vernon is the mayor who does not approve of Callahan’s rather violent tendencies. But the real star of the film might just be Harry’s .44 Magnum, “the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off.” Dirty Harry led to the sequels Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988), each one essentially at least one major step down in quality. We know what you’re thinking: In all this excitement, did he fire six shots, or only five? You can find out Monday night as Dirty Harry closes out the 2011 Bryant Park Summer Film Festival.