Sudden Impact 30th anniversary "Go ahead, make my day!"

[The Man With No Aim]

Recently viewed this film for the first time. Not even trailers or one-minute flashes before now.

To slightly paraphrase Bob Dylon when he was speaking of a woman he looked upon and found fair.....There aint nothin about this movie I dont like.

[Jed Cooper]

Sudden Impact was the first time I payed attention to Dirty Harry. Before that I had never seen a Dirty Harry all the way through. I was really too young to appreciate them anyway. I felt Harry was at his best in this installment. Certain things look campy in retrospect but sequels are like that. Tone always tends to be less serious as sequels progress.

Best line: Well, this is the .44 Magnum Auto-Mag and it hold a 300-grain cartridge. And, if properly used, it can remove the fingerprints. 

I like the look on Horace's face when Callahan speaks this line.  It's fitting that the actor that heard the "Do you feel lucky?" speech was here again for this one as well.

[Jed Cooper]

I was 13 y/o when I saw Sudden Impact at the cinema and clearly too young for it or at least some of the content of the film.The film was in Finland forbidden under 18 y/o for a good reason,I think.( I believe it`s forbidden under16 or 15 nowdays.Today`s kids are more tougher I guess  )
Anyways I did get in and was blown away by it.I had seen some gritty films already as an avid film fan but I remember Sudden Impact being something else at that time.I Felt that films`s tone was much darker than in those other Dirty Harry-films.
I loved the court,coffeehouse and the wedding scenes.Those were very Dirty Harry-esque but I thought this was as much if not more so Sondra Locke`s/her character`s film.Dirty Harry being sort of a support character.I do think that this film is the best performance from Locke that I´ve seen.Liked her in The Gauntlet and in the Outlaw Josey Wales but this is best from her for me.
The ending was pure Dirty Harry,simple solution maybe but it worked for me...and still does.
So I´d say that this is the third best Dirty Harry-film after the original and Magnum Force.

I like how they show Mick standing by the merry-go-round unicorn briefly, the viewer not knowing that's where he ends up at the end of the film.

[Jed Cooper]

Recently viewed this film for the first time. Not even trailers or one-minute flashes before now.

To slightly paraphrase Bob Dylon when he was speaking of a woman he looked upon and found fair.....There aint nothin about this movie I dont like.

Wow, that's exactly how I felt about this film when I first saw it.

[Jed Cooper]

Here is a very rare German door panel poster.

               

[The Man With No Aim]

I like the look on Horace's face when Callahan speaks this line.  It's fitting that the actor that heard the "Do you feel lucky?" speech was here again for this one as well.

Yes, that was great. The Horace actor really is a plus in all his DH appearances.

[The Man With No Aim]

I have a question about this movie.

When Horace shows up at DH's room in a celebratory mood holding a bottle of wine.....I could not figure out what the reason was for him to be there. He said that "The trouble is over, we can relax now!" (or something like that)

But I dont remember any kind of breaking news that would have led him to that conclusion. Could anybody clue me in?

[Jed Cooper]

Yes, that was great. The Horace actor really is a plus in all his DH appearances.

I was hoping to see him in The Dead Pool but was sadly disappointed.

[Jed Cooper]

I have a question about this movie.

When Horace shows up at DH's room in a celebratory mood holding a bottle of wine.....I could not figure out what the reason was for him to be there. He said that "The trouble is over, we can relax now!" (or something like that)

But I dont remember any kind of breaking news that would have led him to that conclusion. Could anybody clue me in?

I can only guess, but here it goes:  I'm thinking another scene was filmed, perhaps, to support this scene but was ultimately deleted.  Either that or it was just a reason thrown in to get Callahan riled up.  I'm sure there are other members and/or moderators who know for sure and I'm curious to know as well.   

[The Man With No Aim]

I can only guess, but here it goes:  I'm thinking another scene was filmed, perhaps, to support this scene but was ultimately deleted.  Either that or it was just a reason thrown in to get Callahan riled up.  I'm sure there are other members and/or moderators who know for sure and I'm curious to know as well.   

I reckon you are probably right, that other supporting scenes were planned, or filmed, but then for whatever reason the supporting scenes were cut.

This is not actually a blooper or gaffe, since there are possible logical explanations. The film, over all, is so good that this is just a quirk, not a spoiler. 

But, man, I gots to know!!

[Jed Cooper]

But, man, I gots to know!!

 

[Perry]

Never liked Sudden Impact, but interesting thing about Paul Drake who played Mick is today a Master instructor of martial arts form of Tai Chi Chuan at Mountain River Academy of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.....

[The Man With No Aim]

Always greatly liked Sudden Impact, and interesting thing about Harry's partner Horace....While doing some gun research yesterday (or was it the day before, in all the excitement I lost count myself) I stumbled across something interesting about Smith and Wesson. The Smith and Wesson.

Guess what Smith's name was? No, no, not the Smith part.....Smith's name was HORACE Smith!!

I know!  What a coincidence! 

[KC]

^ Hmm, and Wesson's full name was Daniel Baird Wesson. Can't recall that Clint ever had a partner with one of those monikers ...

(Nice observation, MWNA!)

[Richard Earl]

I can usually remember when and where I was the first time that I have seen an Eastwood movie. I cannot remember when or where I was when I saw Sudden Impact. I have seen it many times though. It is my 4th favorite of the Dirty Harry films and yes it seems more like a Sondra film then a Dirty Harry film to me as well. Nonetheless it still has many great Callahan one liners and  Clint rocks as Dirty Harry once again.

[The Man With No Aim]

^ Hmm, and Wesson's full name was Daniel Baird Wesson. Can't recall that Clint ever had a partner with one of those monikers ...

(Nice observation, MWNA!)

(Nice observation, KC!)

Well urrrr uhhhh hmmmm.    OK, but....in A Perfect World, in his incarnation as Red Garnett, remember how Clint found, stole, cooked, and ate the Governor's Tater Tots? Hmmmm? The cooking oil implicated in the Tater Tot escapade could have been, and because of its great popularity in that historical time period era mileu , probably was ......You guessed it!!........ WESSON oil. 

[Jed Cooper]

Never liked Sudden Impact, but interesting thing about Paul Drake who played Mick is today a Master instructor of martial arts form of Tai Chi Chuan at Mountain River Academy of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.....

Wow, very interesting.  Thanks for sharing that tidbit.

[The Man With No Aim]

A bothersome thing keeps on popping into my head about this film.

 Early in it we see a stalker packing a shotgun creeping up on Harry as he is preparing to shoot his Automag at a target. We see Harry pick up the world's even more powerfullest handgun out of its presentation case and prep it. 

Much later in the film we see Harry dig out a presentation case and pick up the Automag 'cause he aims to stalk some Bad Guys and he has misplaced his 44 Magnum revolver.

Bothersome Thing......The presentation case according to my worn out old man memory is a DIFFERENT case. In my old worn out memory it has two (2) clip holes in one scene and then three (3) clip holes in the other scene!

I will have to spool up my dvd and check this out soon.

I know, its a rotten job having to watch one of the best Eastwood movies AGAIN, but, somebody has to do it, right?

I just hope that I see that it is my memory gone haywire and unreliable instead of an Eastwood film having a gaffe in it. 

[The Man With No Aim]

Well, I made my day by digging up my Sudden Impact disk and investigating the AutoMag  case question.

Early in the film, when Harry is trying out his AutoMag pistol, we can plainly see that the case has two clip holes under the gun hole. And, noteworthy, in that scene, scene 13 on my disk, the case contains the gun and two clips. When Harry picks up the gun, he also picks up a clip and inserts it. Then he fires 6 shots at a hapless target. BTW (short for By The Way, so that an impatient typer will not have to take all the time to type out By The Way) the AutoMag had a 7 cartridge clip. So he has one cartridge autoloaded in the chamber when he returns to the case and picks up the second clip and inserts it . Then Harry mows down a total of 8 target victims which adds up, one in the chamber and 7 in the new clip. So, even if you or me lost count in all the excitement, it is allright, the number of bullets shot equals the number of bullets available.

Toward the very end of the film, Harry is pissed at the Bad Guys and opens the AutoMag case and preps the gun. At that time, we see that IT IS THE SAME CASE. My earlier alarm was a figment of poor perception. BUT, in addition to the two clips in their regular holes, there is a third clip setting above the gun,loose,  not enjoying the comfort of a dedicated hole in the case architecture.

In Magnum Force, we learned from Briggs that Harry always carries 3 clips. 

Researching this faux-anomaly teased me because I cheated, not watching  the film through but skipping around. It reminded me of what a really good film this is. Sometime, hopefully soon, who really knows exactly when, I'm sure gonna watch the whole thing again.       

[Jed Cooper]

Japenese poster