Magnum Force (1973)

Clint's Back!...Errrr....Dirty Harry's back I mean. Two years after the successful DIRTY HARRY comes its first sequel. Here, someone is out there killing all the city's dirtiest criminals. Soon enough Inspector Harry Callahan is on the case with his new partner Early Smith (Felton Perry).

Really gets a strong 7 out of 10 from me and has some great memorable scenes like the original, but it does bring some problems. Like the film does seem to go on for a little long after the biggest surprise is revealed. So the film may work better as a deeper look into Harry Callahan and his further thoughts on justice or injustice than it being looked at as a mystery which it pushes itself as. For there are way too few possible suspects especially when you watch the killer and his face.

Like the original a spectacular score from Lalo Shifrin and really some pretty good actors in supporting roles such as Hal Halbrook as Harry' boss Lt. Briggs and four new cops to the force in David Soul as Davis, Tim Matheson as Sweet, Kip Niven as Astrachan and the late Robert Urich as Grimes. Written by Michael Cimino and John Milius (who did uncredited work on the screenplay from DIRTY HARRY). In the end though, if you enjoyed the first one you will likely enjoy this one too. Followed by THE ENFORCER.

Fmovies: This was a difficult movie to rate. First off, it's probably one of the best sequels I have ever seen. It's hard to follow 'Dirty Harry' (1971), and it would have been easy to screw this up by changing cities too soon, or making Harry a 'nice guy'. Although Harry is noticeably less racist, he isn't a nice guy. I can justify the lack of blatant racism in the sequel based on the character being in trouble at work all the time, and probably trying to tone it down since his demotion/transfer. The reality is, the movie was a hit, and they didn't want to promote a racist-murderer-vigilate-cop. The location shooting was great, for the second time, and they killed people in entertaining ways all over San Fransisco. I could have given points for Clint Eastwood's performance, but he played the same character that was already a hit, and he played it the same way. Instead, I awarded points for believability and consistency - it was more believable than the first film, yet very consistent to the character. All in all, a great film featuring an iconic character.

RealReview Posting Scoring Criteria: Acting - 1/1 Casting - 1/1 Directing - 1/1 Story - 1/1 Writing/Screenplay - 1/1

Total Base Score = 5

Modifiers (+ or -): Authentic Location Shooting: 1 Believability/Consistency: 1

Total RealReview Rating: 7

I saw "Magnum Force" on television decades ago. Imagine my surprise when I watched it again tonight and there were a bunch of stuff that was NOT in the version I saw! Mostly, the gratuitous nudity was cut out of the movie. Now I am not one of these folks who is always against nudity in films...sometimes it has a place. But in this film, it all seems very gratuitous...and one of the MANY folks slaughtered in the pool scene (the topless lady) was a young Suzanne Somers before she became famous.

In this story, someone, or some GROUP of folks, is taking out bad folks all around the San Francisco area. Some of the murdered scum- bags are folks that avoided prosecution, some are just dirt-bags who 'need' killing. Inspector Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is the guy determined to solve this case...and his boss, the Lieutenant (Hal Holbrook) seems to want to coddle criminals and stand in Callahan's way. Who the killer(s) are...well, that you'll have to see when you see the film.

This movie is pretty much what you expect from a Dirty Harry film...lots of shooting*, mayhem, action and sex. The film certainly earns its R rating and is exciting. I still think the original film is much better but it's a worthy follow-up.

*The IMDb trivia says "This is the only film in the "Dirty Harry" series in which Harry doesn't kill any of the villains by shooting them, except the grocery store holdup men.". This is NOT the case, as Harry also shoots a guy in the skyjacking sequence...and he appears quite dead!

Magnum Force fmovies. Sometimes you just want to spend your evening hanging out with someone cool. So maybe you hang out with the Fonz in 'Happy Days', or just crank some Tom Petty - or perhaps like me tonight, you opt for Clint Eastwood as 'Dirty Harry' Callahan.

I actually enjoyed 'Magnum Force' more than the original 'Dirty Harry'. With this the longest of all the Dirty Harry films, it truly has a bit of everything.

Classic instantly-quotable bad-ass one-liners? Check.

Attractive 1970s women and romance? Check.

Plane hijacking? Check.

Bombs and explosions? Check.

Lots of shooting? Check.

Controversial murder scenes? Check.

Crazy car and motorcycle chases? Check.

Stunning San Fransisco scenery? Check.

Corrupt cops? Check.

Plot twists? Check.

This film felt right at home in 2019, despite being made all the way back in 1973. Definitely ahead of its time. You can't help but smile when Clint Eastwood delivers killer lines throughout this film. It seems rare to encounter films so satisfying as this nowadays.

"Nothing wrong with shooting as long as the right people get shot! "

I won't be pulling over for any shady-looking motorcycle cops anytime soon.

Magnum Force turns up the heat a little more than Dirty Harry. There is a little more gunplay and more of the sizzling 70's soundtrack that helped Dirty Harry be so groovy. Clint returns of course as Dirty Harry Callahan, this time after a small group of rogue cops. All the Dirty Harry movies are great and this is the 2nd best in the series, after Dirty Harry. The streets of San Francisco provides a beautiful backdrop, and Hal Halbrook does a great job of playing the continually annoyed chief. Bottom Line: Magnum Force meets the bar set by Dirty Harry and does a fabulous job of continuing the series.

Ted Post directed and John Milius and Michael Cimino wrote this first sequel to Don Siegel's classic gritty police drama, Dirty Harry (1971). Magnum Force (1973) is not as near as effective or powerful as the first and original film, but this sequel is watchable and has its merits, too. Harry is now investigating strange killings of criminals, pimps, dirty politicians and others, so the killer is killing "bad guys" this time. Harry starts to investigate the cases, and he has his doubts about all this. Then the truth is revealed and also, unfortunately, spoilt in most of the reviews and comments I've read.

Harry has again his usual opponents, mostly his colleagues and superiors who don't accept his tough style. Harry wants to do justice, but by using his own ways and moral. If talking doesn't help, then the magnum .44 will. I don't think this or the first film are fascist, but realistic and honest, and extremely bleak depictions of world and society which is more or less collapsing because of its inhabitants. This film manages still to tell something about that, but the next sequel, The Enforcer, is pretty lame in comparison.

Magnum Force has pretty fat plot and many different characters and sub plots, without being too confusing. Towards the end, the film becomes perhaps too predictable and unbelievable, and I think the ending should have needed little tightening. Now it is little unnecessary shoot outs and nothing else. The film runs two hours, which is the longest running time in the "series", but still this manages to interest and even surprise, but if they had finished the film some 20 minutest earlier, this would be even more noteworthy film. Now it has nothing too important to offer during its finale, and so the finale becomes little unnecessary, in my opinion.

As an action film, this is pretty exciting and shot with talent. The action scenes are often fast and full of gunpowder and fire, so director Post can surely direct with skill. The film is pretty brutal and violent at times, and this again shows the fact that films this gritty and violent are not made in Hollywood nowadays, at least not too often. Magnum Force is much more easier and "positive" film than its predecessor, and that's why it hasn't got so many things to offer and give. This is pure action film where the first film was also many other things, too, like social commentary and talking about things many would not want to talk about. Magnum Force gets 7/10, but fortunately still has its positive things and even little bit of the power that made Dirty Harry so immortal.