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DIRTY HARRY: Story 9: Politics

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Matt:
Film critic Pauline Kael wrote for her review of Dirty Harry in The New Yorker:
--- Quote ---Dirty Harry is obviously just a genre movie, but this action genre has always had fascist potential, and it has finally surfaced . . . since crime is caused by deprivation, misery, psychopathology and social injustice, Dirty Harry is a deeply immoral movie.
--- End quote ---

After this review, Kael's "fascist" remark became a common outcry from other critics in their Dirty Harry reviews. In his book, Siegel wrote:


--- Quote ---If I do a film about a murderer, it doesn't mean I condone murder. If I do a film about a hard nosed cop, of course it doesn't mean I condone all his actions. I find it very difficult to explain my reasons for making a film like Dirty Harry, other than that I'm a firm believer in entertainment, hoping that every picture I make will be a commercial success. Not once throughout Dirty Harry did Clint and I have a political discussion. We were only interested in making the film a successful one, both as entertainment and at the box office. I can't understand why, when a film is made purely for entertainment, it should be criticized on a political basis. The response from my many friends--members of the "Siegel cult", some of them left wing or Communists, others conservative Republicans or Fascists--has not surprised me.
--- End quote ---
(A Siegel Film, by Don Siegel, p. 373)

Eastwood discussed this topic on many occasions, saying in an interview with Patrick McGilligan:


--- Quote ---A lot has been written about it, pro and con. There are people who line themselves up with the political overtones of the film. But there are none really. Those people are crazy... The people who call it a fascist film don't know what they're talking about. They're just mouthing off... there's nothing like that in there. The guy was just a man who fought bureaucracy and a certain established kind of thing. Just because he did things a little unorthodox--that's the only way he knew how to handle it. He had so many hours to solve the case and as far as he was concerned, he was more interested in the victim than the law.... We, as Americans, went to Nuremberg and convicted people who committed certain crimes because they didn't adhere to a higher morality; we convicted them on that basis--that they shouldn't have listened to the law of the land or their leaders at that time. They should have listened to the true morality. We sent them to jail on that basis. This is how it is with this man. Somebody told him this is the way it is, too bad, and he said, "Well, that's wrong. I can't adhere to that." That isn't fascist, that's the opposite of fascism.
--- End quote ---
(Focus on Film, no. 25 (Summer-Fall 1976) p. 12-20, reprinted in Clint Eastwood: Interviews, p. 32)

Can you see any validity to Pauline Kael's assertion that Dirty Harry is a fascist film? Do you feel that Dirty Harry leans more in one political direction than the other? Why or why not? Or do you feel it's not a political film at all?

Christopher:
From what it sounds, Kael used the word "Fascist" without giving any details as to why it's fascist. In Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows, I've always found the clip of Kael talking about Eastwood very interesting. She compares Eastwood to John Wayne and basically says that since Wayne plays more moral characters, he's better. That's always struck me as being very unprofessional for a film critic - to compare two actors who never worked together, then to decide one is better because of the type of characters they've chosen. To me, it takes all validity from Kael's statements to begin with.

Ultimately, you can see a political message in the movie if you want to. But I don't see how a movie about a "hard-nosed cop" is political. I honestly don't believe Siegel and Eastwood looked at this film project as a statement of what it should be like in modern America; that police officers should just blow away the bad guys. I think you've got to be nuts to look at it in that way!

Harry is interested in victim's rights. There's something you could take from the movie as far a "message" is concerned. While it is important that the accused have rights, but at what point should their rights overlook the victim's rights?

bcm:
I've looked up Mussolini's definition of fascism (he oughta know ;)). Here's the synthesis, as good as I understand it. Fascism is a political movement, opposite to communism. Communism stands for the right of the working class (Proletarier, Arbeiterklasse) fascism tries to protect the rights of the industrials (Kleinbürger). Emplyoees vs employers, left vs right. To protect these rights, violence is used and glorified. So is masculinity. It's a very hierarchical political system (Duce, Führer). And it wants to expand. But it is NOT nationalism. It's the Nationalsozialismus that is anti-semitic and racist.
   Dirty Harry clearly is masculin  ;), he uses violence, and he might be more on the right than on the left side, but that's about it in my opinion. Maybe Kael meant to say Machismo, when she said fascism ;D. And I think Eastwood is right when he states that:
--- Quote ---That isn't fascist, that's the opposite of fascism
--- End quote ---
Because Dirty Harry does NOT glorify his bosses. He acts according to his own beliefs, clearly non-fascist ;).
  Now, is there a political message in the movie? I do think so. The movie says: don't forget the rights of the victims, don't overprotect the criminals. Most movies have a message, and some have a political one. True crime also is a political movie, if you look at it this way, because it asks the viewer to reconsider death penalty. But that doesn't make either movie a bad movie. You can take the message or leave it, it's just one possible way to tell a story.

Matt:
 Thanks, everyone! This thread is now locked.  Please post any additional thoughts you have on this topic in the Dirty Harry forum.

D'Ambrosia:
This topic has been temporarily unlocked.  Feel free to post any additional thoughts or discussion here.   

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