Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) [Blu-ray] Reviews

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1. C. S. Junker "soul_survivor"

   April 10, 2011 at 5:20 am

   43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Fires on all thrusters, June 14, 2008

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   C. S. Junker “soul_survivor” (Burien, WA USA) –

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   This review is from: Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

   If you’re a fan of the Dirty Harry films, and you have a Blu-Ray player, this is a no-brainer. A lot of Blu-Ray transfers are disappointing, particularly in older films. However, Warner has pulled out all the stops, and every one of these films, even the oldest, looks and sounds utterly spectacular.

   The original DIRTY HARRY features a lot of aerial photography of San Francisco, as some of the earlier action takes place on rooftops. The detail in these distance shots is staggeringly clear. The colors are rich, vivid, and bold, and the remixed soundtrack is shatteringly good for a film of this vintage.

   The four sequels look equally good (the fifth, THE DEAD POOL, suffers only because it was not shot in true widescreen ) and all films are supplemented with a wide selection of new extras. The box even includes a personal message from Clint Eastwood, encouraging you to sample the new bonus features.

   I watched all five films in less than a week and I’m ready to watch them all again. It’s about time older films started receiving this kind of treatment in High-Def; hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come for classics films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Go ahead, make your day and buy this box.

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2. Sanpete

   April 10, 2011 at 4:53 am

   87 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Details for the new Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition due out on June 3rd, 2008, March 18, 2008

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   Sanpete (in Utah) –

   This review is from: Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) (DVD)

   Warner Home Video has announced the details of new releases of all five Dirty Harry movies with new special features. They’ll all be in their original widescreen formats only.

   They will be available on standard DVD in this 7-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition, or separately in Special or Deluxe editions. (“Special” is better than “deluxe” here–only Dirty Harry gets a 2-disc Special Edition, the others will all be on single discs, but all will have new special features.) Links for the separate DVDs are below.

   They’ll also be on Blu-ray in a 5-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition. Only the Dirty Harry Special Edition will be available separately on Blu-ray. The other four movies will only be available on Blu-ray as part of the complete set. (They won’t be available in HD, which Warner officially discontinues at the end of May.)

   Assuming the transfers are good (update: everyone says the transfers are good, better than the old ones), this looks like an excellent set. Whether those with older DVD releases will want to upgrade will be a matter of personal preference, but I personally find the new commentaries and features very attractive.

   Here’s a bit about each film and the special features, contained in both the separate releases and the sets. The Ultimate Editions will also include some additional features, listed further below.

   Dirty Harry Special Edition

   Dirty Harry is generally regarded as a classic, the beginning of a second larger-than-life persona for Clint Eastwood (after The Man with No Name). It’s the source of the famous “Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” (The actual quote is “… you’ve got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” but the original doesn’t quote as well out of context.)

   Tough cop “Dirty” Harry Callahan has his own simple, commonsense rules for dealing with crime, based on a strong sense of right and wrong and an impatience with needless details and constraints. The latter gets him into continual trouble with the system which, as portrayed in the movie, is more about politics and bureaucracy than doing what needs to be done. This reflected well the frustrations and fears of Americans in the ’70s that criminals were taking over the streets and that the law was powerless to stop them because the “criminal-coddling” courts were holding them back. I personally value the Fourth Amendment and other such niceties and shiver to think of some of the political and moral ramifications of this movie (some of which are still very much with us), but whatever one’s politics, Dirty Harry is very effective as a police-action thriller, largely because of Eastwood’s unique persona. It’s hard not to admire and root for him even if you think he’s not always right. There are also the standard gunfights and car chases, and high suspense, all well done.

   In the films that followed in the series, Harry became a somewhat more balanced, complex or confusing character, depending on your point of view, coming down clearly on the side of the law against rogue vigilante cops, for example, and learning to appreciate a female cop as a partner, but the basic idea of Harry standing strong despite the corrupt, wimpy system remained.

   I’m pleased to see that some of the new special features in the set deal with the “issues” raised by the Dirty Harry films. I look forward to seeing what others make of them.

   The special features:

   — new commentary by filmmaker and Eastwood associate/biographer Richard Schickel
   — new featurette “The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry,” on the influence and legacy of Dirty Harry
   — “Dirty Harry: The Original,” with Clint Eastwood and the film’s creators looking back at the creation of the Dirty Harry character
   — “Dirty Harry’s Way,” a promotional short focusing on the toughness of the movie’s main character
   — interview gallery, with Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Urich
   — “Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso,” a 1993 TV program on his life and career, including scenes from his work and interviews with friends, fellow actors and crew members
   — trailer gallery: Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool…

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