The Enforcer (1976) - film review

Inspector Callahan’s sledgehammer methods of dealing with hoodlums again lands him in trouble with his superiors.  No one thanks him for rescuing a pair of hostages from some gun-toting thugs.  Instead, he finds himself in admin Hell, interviewing candidates in the personnel department.   It isn’t long before he is back in business, however, tracking down a gang calling themselves the People's Revolutionary Strike Force.  The latter have raided a warehouse containing the latest in military hardware and threaten to blow big holes in San Francisco unless the authorities pay their ransom demand.  Callahan is just the man for the job, but he is far from pleased when he learns that his new partner is a woman...  Marvellous.

The third of the Dirty Harry films is generally considered the weakest, mainly on account of a plot that is too silly to be taken seriously and James Fargo’s less than inspired direction.  This didn’t prevent the film from being a huge box office hit.  It out-grossed the previous two films in the series and is still hugely popular, probably because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  In fact, at times, you could easily mistake this for a pretty shrewd send-up of the mid-seventies police procedural thriller.

As ever, Clint Eastwood is superlative as the maverick cop who gives maverick cops a seriously bad name.  Harry is dirtier than ever, rude to his superiors, contemptuous of self-serving career-types and sporting a not very cuddly misogynistic streak.  At first, the idea of pairing Harry up with a woman seems like a masterstroke.  Unfortunately, the screenwriters botched things by having Harry’s female sidekick portrayed as an inept rookie, comedy fodder for Harry’s withering sarcasm.  If only we had had Filthy Freda instead of the wet-behind-the-ears Miss Moore this could have been something truly remarkable.

Although The Enforcer rarely rises much above average at any point, it is surprisingly entertaining, much less violent than the previous Dirty Harry films, and more character-led.  The film may not have made the best of the Callahan-Moore relationship, but Clint Eastwood and Tyne Daly both turn in respectable performances, with more than a whiff of sexual tension.   The action sequences are predictable but effectively realised, although anyone looking for a tense, hard-edged thriller should look elsewhere.  The feminists will love this one - well, feminists with a long fuse and a highly developed sense of irony...

© Chris Alderton 2010

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