365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 84 - Sudden Impact

I watched the 4th Dirty Harry Film, Sudden Impact, released in 1983, seven years after the last film. The film is the only Dirty Harry film to be directed by Eastwood and stars is partner at the time, Sandra Locke.

This film followed the formula of the second film, with Harry investigating a series of murders, where he is personally acquainted with the murderer. The majority of the movie does not take place in San Francisco, instead it is in a fictional coastal town called Santa Paulo.

In a series of scenes, a trial where the defendant goes free because of lack of evidence, a robbery at a restaurant where harry utters the famous line "Go ahead, make my day!" and at a visit to a mobster's daughters wedding the film quickly establishes the character of Dirty harry for any audience members who have not seen the earlier films.

We also see Sandra Locke as a murderer commit her first crime. later through stylish flash-backs we learn the reason she is tracking down certain individuals and killing them. When the first body is discovered in San Francisco, Harry is sent to Santa Paulo to learn what he can about the victim. When more bodies turn up in Santa Paulo, Harry is on the case and butting heads with the local police chief. He also meets and dates a local artist who the audience knows is the killer he is looking for.

The film once again deals with the themes of justice and victims rights. But the well written screenplay makes the topics flow naturally through the dialogue. The film has a sense of style that the other films didn't and that might be because of Eastwood's directing. The film also has a new updated score by Lalo Schiffrin that is all synthesizer and percussion and very 80's. Uniquely this is the only Dirty harry film where harry allows the suspect to go free.

At the Movie House rating ***1/2

note - I probably will not view the fifth and final film in the series. i saw it once and it is very substandard fair.