Clint Eastwood’s Midas touch turned ‘Dirty Harry’ into a timeless classic, but not without a showdown over how the lawman should break the law.
Clint Eastwood is one of those people who can turn anything into gold by simply being a part of it. One could say that the director/actor is gifted the Midas Touch. While it is difficult to pick just one favorite amongst his many works, Dirty Harry by Don Siegel seems like a good place to start. Having received unending praise from both critics and fans, the cop thriller was preserved by the Library of Congress in the U.S. National Film Registry. It’s that good.
While Clint Eastwood’s creative ideas always seem to work in his films’ favor, he was a little off about how things should end for his character in Dirty Harry. Luckily, director Don Siegel was there to guide him in the right direction and he actually ended up loving the ending he was once so against.
Clint Eastwood Had a Different Idea for Dirty Harry’s Ending
Inspired by the real-life Zodiac Killer, Dirty Harry featured a psychopath killer who went by the name Scorpio. He somehow managed to remain an arm’s length away from Clint Eastwood’s Inspector Harry Callahan. Bound by the rules and regulations of the law, Harry was forced to do things the system’s way, which didn’t work out in accordance with his liking.
Thus, an angered Harry decided to take care of Scorpio, behind the scene. He finally catches up to the ruthless killer, shooting him dead after delivering his iconic “Do I feel lucky?’ dialogue. As Scorpio’s dead body floats in the pond, Harry stands over him and eventually throws his police badge in the water before walking away.
While filming, this ending didn’t seem right to Eastwood who believed that Harry was a man of the law. However, Don Siegel had a different vision for the character, the one that made it to the film.
Talking to Rue Morgue, Scorpio actor Andy Robinson recalled a fight between Eastwood and Siegel over the ending.
There was a big fight between Don and Clint about what to do about the badge at the very end of the film. Scorpio is dead and floating in the pond. There was a question about, does Harry take his badge? Does he throw it away? And Don and I felt that he had to throw it away, because he’s an outlier, he’s a vigilante. He’s a guy who’s from another code of justice and honor. He’s stepped outside the law. Don prevailed. I was so happy about that.
When asked if Eastwood wanted to put the badge back into his pocket, Robinson stated,
Yeah, he pushed back, he said, ‘Why am I throwing this away? I’m a law-and-order guy.’
After Harry figures out that the law is not capable enough of handling a brutal killer like Scorpio, he makes it his mission to deliver justice on his own terms. If he had put his badge back in his pocket and went forward with his life as a “law-and-order guy,” things wouldn’t really have made sense.
Dirty Harry Isn’t Made for the Modern World
Eastwood’s classics might not hold well if they were made today. He thinks so himself. In particular, he talked about Dirty Harry at the Cannes Film Festival, saying that people thought it was politically incorrect. The filmmaker believes that due to people’s obsession with being politically correct all the time, everyone is losing their sense of humor.
He stated, (via The Sun),
A lot of people thought it was politically incorrect. That was at the beginning of the era that we’re in now, where everybody thinks everyone’s politically correct. We’re killing ourselves by doing that. We’ve lost our sense of humour.
He also talked about his film on redemption, Gran Torino, he recalled how his partner told him how politically incorrect the script was.
Eastwood took the script back home to read and came in the next day, even more eager to start filming. He stated, (via Marca),
When I made] Gran Torino, even my partner said, ‘This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Let me read it tonight.’ The next morning, I walked in, threw it on his desk, and said, ‘We’re going to start this right away.’
Eastwood’s got a point, though. Films like Dirty Harry, Gran Torino, and Unforgiven might not work in today’s time because society isn’t what it used to be back then. Things have changed and whether they have changed for better or worse, depends on your personal opinions.