‘Dirty Harry’ evaluation.

Dirty Harry – opening sequence analysis by Samuel Rollason.

Genre is introduced to the audience with the use of a close up of a police badge. The police badge suggests the genre will be involving crime, and the style of the badge suggests that the film will be a modern take on the American west genre, that was slowly but surely fading at this time. The re-introduction of the genre creates new areas of exploration for the film makers. For example the characters, being modernized could now be more relative to the target audience. Also the name ‘Dirty Harry’ is a slightly sinister nickname that creates ties with the western genre; as such nicknames are common to the villainous characters e.g. ‘Billy the kid.’

The characters from Dirty harry are presented in completely different ways with different shot angles and music in the background. This subsequently creates the protagonist and antagonist ambience about them. Firstly, the killer is shrouded, with the use of mise en scene, by the barrel of a gun seen through a low angle shot (which is establishing authority). The music changes dramatically into a distorted sound, which is suggestive to the audience of the killer’s state of mind. Also, the camera shot is edited to place the audience in the killer’s eyes down the scope. The fact that the killer views his target for a while, not only creates suspense, but also suggests he takes pleasure in his acts – adding to the audience’s ‘dislike’ of the character.  With the use of a medium close up Dirty Harry is portrayed as a cool, no nonsense cop and the audience instinctively gathers this information by what he is wearing. His smart/ casual dress tells the audience he is a high ranking officer and the fact he surveys the surroundings with a slightly angry look on his face emphasizes his experience as an officer. Also the name of the character ‘Dirty Harry’ hints that Harry has similar characteristics to the villains like ‘Billy the kid’ in the Western genre. His expression shows an urge to finish the job quickly, as is demonstrated with the multiple shots of Harry walking with speed through the building the killer was on. The audience by this, places a certain amount of trust in Harry much like in the horror genre, with the more experienced character acting as a safety net, the audience expects nothing to go wrong whilst this character is around. Although the music is not distorted like with the killer, the drumming is constantly changing beat, which could convey Harry’s thoughts on the crime as he formulates different ideas and dismisses them.  The hair style of each character, when presented in their medium close ups, also portray more of their personal traits and habits to the audience. Harry’s hair is swept back cool and tidy, whereas the killer’s is knotted, curly, long and unkempt.

The Narrative throughout conforms the audience to believing the killer to be completely evil with no (as of yet) suggestion that he had childhood issues etcetera which is an idea modern film makers use to make the audience sympathize with the antagonist. The narrative also suggests that Dirty Harry will prevail as the killer makes amateur mistakes such as leaving a bullet behind for Harry to pick up. This is probably to reflect the views of the film makers to the audience, as the mistakes make the killer seem foolish.

The setting is immediately put forward on the star badge which contains the writing ‘San Francisco Police Department.’ Also when Harry is walking along the scene of the crime, important land marks are shown to the audience. I think this is to show that nowhere is crime free.