MAGNUM FORCE: The Story 7: Themes

[KC]

According to Ira Konigsberg's The Complete Film Dictionary, a theme is "a general subject, topic, message, concept, social attitude, or mood that runs throughout a work of art."

What are the important themes in Magnum Force? Discuss how any one is expressed and developed in the movie.

[Brendan]

Vigilanteism. Those cops were taking the law into their own hands and not worrying about the consequences. Yes, Harry almost does the same, but like he said, "Until someone comes up with a better idea, I'll stick to the system." (Something along those lines).

These guys just went around and cold bloodingly murdered these people. Yes, those people did need to be served justice, but that kind of justice? Like that? No.

And these guys doing it that way, doesn't help the relations between the public and the police force. There's already people out there who don't trust or like cops, and then this scandle comes along, what would the public think?

Everytime they get pulled over they're going to get blown away.

[Christopher]

In going along with Brendan's post, I've heard that some people thought Magnum Force was trying to change (or soften the image of) the Harry character in some way, by him standing up for "the system" (I guess from the outcry that the original recieved about this subject). I don't agree with that. I can see a difference in the two situations from the original movie to this one. Harry doesn't go out and just shoot people. As he says in the movie, he doesn't shoot at anyone who doesn't shoot at him first.

[grandpa_chum]

I also disagree that magnum force was made to "soften up" the character of harry... I believe the most important concept of this movie was to show how harry wasn't just a vigilante cop.  This movie showed the struggle between the normal system... where criminals were set free on technicalities and the cops and lawmen worked with the criminals "rights" in mind... and the vigilante cop's system(which harry was not a part of)... where a group of cops unlawfully executed criminals and planned to move onto non-criminals who deserved, in one way or another to die...  Right in the middle of this is Dirty Harry... who i believe is the best mix of both worlds, and i believe thats what this movie was trying to suggest... that harry isn't the bad guy and the normal lawmen the good guys, but that harry has it right while both extremes (lawful cops and unlawful cops) are the ones doing it all wrong.

[Bronco_Billy]

Duty , honour , integrity. The cops creed .

Harry had the right balance of these qualities.

The cops lost the balance they got mixed up into beleiving one was greater than another . Their actions became a power trip for them and their uniforms became a disguise.

[Matt]

Thanks to everyone for participating in this discussion. This topic is now closed, please post any additional thoughts in the Dirty Harry forum.

[The Schofield Kid]

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