Its star’s growling charisma demands to be enjoyed.

Siegel shouldn't have had to shout so much to make himself heard, nor should Eastwood, otherwise excellent, be quite so determined to maintain a star's steely dignity. But a lot still manages to get through about violence and the loner's path.

Dirty Harry is a film meant to wring the already well wrung and mangled conscience of the liberal. Which it succeeds in doing with engrossing efficiency.

…Dirty Harry was, and still is a powerful movie as a one-off…amidst the 70’s lens flare and urban machine-gun action, Harry is doing his best in a world gone mad, and that’s a tune that almost anyone can whistle, regardless of their politics...