Magnum Force (1973) - film review

Shortly after being acquitted of a murder charge, the high-profile gangster Carmine Ricca is shot dead by a man dressed as a motorcycle traffic cop.  This is the first in a series of brutal killings in which the victims are all hoodlums who have so far escaped justice.  Still in disgrace for his handling of the Scorpio case, Harry Callahan is brought in to investigate but immediately gets on the wrong side of his superior, Lieutenant Briggs.  Callahan resents being ordered by Briggs to stake out a known gangster, because he is convinced that the killer is not an outlaw but a member of the police force.  A likely suspect is Callahan’s old friend Charlie McCoy, a disillusioned cop whose hobbies include playing Russian roulette and sounding off against the failings of the judicial system.  When McCoy is murdered, Callahan realises that the threat is far greater than he had dared to imagine.  He finds he has to risk his own neck to defend a system that he has grown to despise.  The question he has got to ask himself is: does he feel lucky...?

After the phenomenal success of Dirty Harry, there just had to be a sequel.  And of course there was, with Clint Eastwood returning as the coolest, most cynical cop ever to put on a holster, eager to inflict his notion of morality on a world whose moral compass has gone well and truly A.W.O.L.  This time round, Harry is more Shirty than Dirty, willing to pick a fight with anything that can hold a gun or a conversation, treating his play-by-the-book superiors with the contempt they deserve (particularly as the book in question appears to have been penned by Heinrich Himmler).  The critics may have been less than enthusiastic but audiences were enthralled by this labyrinthine action-packed thriller sequel, which is every bit as gritty, exciting and controversial as the first film. 

At first sight, Magnum Force appears to be a limp apology for Dirty Harry, a film which was vociferously attacked in some quarters for its seemingly unequivocal support for vigilantism.  Once again, Harry Callahan is the outsider, but the outsider to a system that is apparently even more willing to act as judge, jury and executioner than he is.  When he discovers there is a faction within the police department that has gone horribly bad, it is up to Harry to champion a judicial system which, although imperfect, is the best we have.  In an astonishing volte-face, bad boy Callahan is now trying to persuade us that vigilantism is not the answer.

Yet, just like the unfathomable Harry, there is much more to this film than meets the eye.  Far from being a lame attempt to appease its liberal-minded detractors, Magnum Force is a sobering reflection on contemporary society.  In an increasingly violent world, the public expect more from the police and the judicial system, and when crooks and hoodlums are seen to get away with murder it is understandable that the clamour for instant retribution grows louder and louder.  But there is a price to be paid if we grant more powers to the police and allow the judicial process to be short-circuited.  What Magnum Force shows us is a horrifying glimpse of the future we may be sleepwalking towards – one in which the guardians of the law routinely dispatch criminals so that we may sleep soundly in our beds – until the same angels of death come knocking on our doors...  

With Don Siegel unavailable or unwilling to direct the sequel to his groundbreaking Dirty Harry, the role of director fell to Ted Post, who had previously directed Clint Eastwood in the popular television series Rawhide.  Whilst he may lack Siegel’s flair for innovation, Post does a respectable job, particularly in the execution of the tense action sequences.  Backed up by a well-honed screenplay (from future directing talents John Milius and Michael Cimino) and some solid performances (including one from David Soul, soon to be immortalised as Detective Ken Hutchinson in Starsky and Hutch), Post delivers a sequel that is very nearly as slick and compelling as the original. 

As in the first Dirty Harry film, it is Eastwood’s laconic, inscrutable portrayal of the morally ambiguous cop that makes it such a fascinating film, well above the standard of the run-of-the-mill police procedural thriller.  Magnum Force deals provocatively yet intelligently with complex themes and has acquired an even greater significance in our troubled post-9/11 world. The urgent moral dilemma that visibly torments Eastwood’s character in this film is one that society still has to come to grips with: just how far should the police go to ensure that justice is seen to be done?  Indeed, what is justice - sanction or retribution?

© Chris Alderton 2010

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