Dirty Harry 1971

Roger Greenspun, New York Times: What makes Dirty Harry worth watching no matter how dumb the story, is Siegel's superb sense of the city, not as a place of moods but as a theater for action. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: A crisp, beautifully paced film, full of Siegel's wonderful coups of cutting and framing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news. Read more

Time Out: Seminal law-and-order cinema. Read more

Variety: Clint Eastwood, in the title role, is a superhero whose antics become almost satire. Strip away the philosophical garbage and all that's left is a well-made but shallow running-and-jumping meller. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: No less than Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it offers a fabulous, multifarious political metaphor. (And, as with Body Snatchers, Siegel's own liberal interpretation was trumped by a more forceful hard-right reading. Read more