Dirty Harry Blu-ray

Dirty Harry

 (1971)

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller



Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a tough, streetwise San Francisco police detective well known for his vicious take-no-prisoners attitude toward criminals. With the city of San Francisco being terrorized by the psychotic killer known only as Scorpio (Andrew Robinson), Harry is assigned by the mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) to try to stop him, pairing him with reluctantly accepted new partner Chico (Reni Santoni). Scorpio kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and buries her alive, demanding a $200,000 ransom for her return. Harry is to bring him the money—alone. What follows is one of the most exciting ransom deliveries in film history.

For more details about Dirty Harry on Blu-ray, see the Dirty Harry Blu-ray Review

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andrew Robinson
Director: Don Siegel

Dirty Harry Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


I have to admit I braced myself for the worst when I slid Dirty Harry into my Blu-ray player. But, to my relief, Warner's restoration and subsequent 1080p/VC-1 transfer exceeded my expectations. It has its share of problems, sure -- the studio's at-times dire dose of edge enhancement is a distraction, minor color bleeding and macroblocking haunt a shadowy club sequence, faint source noise occasionally interferes with the integrity of the image, and dust, grime, and scratches still pop up here and there -- but the good far outweighs the bad. Colors are bold and vibrant, contrast is warm and healthy, and black levels are fairly well-resolved (in all but a few rare instances). Detail is impressive as well, offering more refined textures and cleaner object definition than I thought I'd encounter. More importantly, the picture doesn't suffer from any significant artifacting, color banding, persistent crush, or pesky noise reduction. Grain-haters will shake their heads and scoff at its every filmic frame, but I found the overall presentation to be both attractive and proficient. Will the transfer make casual viewers swoon? Hardly. Videophiles cheer? Not quite. Even so, Dirty Harry fans will be pleased with Warner's efforts, and find their high definition dollar has been well spent.

Dirty Harry Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Remixing a dated audio source is always a tricky proposition -- particularly when the source in question is a worn and weathered thirty-seven-year old mono track -- but Warner has managed to breathe a decent breath of life into Dirty Harry's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. Dialogue is warm and centered (albeit quite pinched at times), and Eastwood's throaty growl sounds as menacing as it should. Effects don't fare nearly as well (gunshots are hollow, punches are too pulpy, and car crashes are decidedly rooted in the '70s), but considering the age of William Randall's sound design and the one-channel nature of the film's original presentation, it would be silly to expect much more. Likewise, while the rear speakers are used sparingly and LFE output is shrill and tame by today's standards, the track's ambient properties and overall dynamics are above average for a decades-old catalog title.

My apologies if it seems like I'm shrugging off every criticism with an apathetic aside, but a film like Dirty Harry will never offer the sonic prowess of a twenty-first century production. Even if the studio went back to the drawing board, scrapped the original sound design, and created an entirely new and more immersive soundscape, the resulting track would sound ridiculous once the actors' dialogue was reinserted into the mix. I'm afraid disgruntled newcomers will just have to learn to appreciate faithful efforts like this one and invest their ire elsewhere.

Dirty Harry Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Next Warner Blu-ray Coffee Book: Natural Born Killers? - April 7, 2008


• Dirty Harry Full Specs for Blu-ray Box - March 11, 2008

Dirty Harry Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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