Dirty Harry Collection (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) [Blu-ray]

This review is for the Dirty Harry Boxed Set.This is a 5 star collection. There is absolutely no way I can give it less than 5 stars even with flaws. When you factor in that you get 5!!! 'Dirty Harry' movies for the price of one at the time of this review ($23.00 on Amazon) and then factor in all the extra's, it's impossible not to give it 5 stars.I'm not going to review the specific movies themselves one by one, instead I'm going to concentrate on the picture and the extra's along with some personal comments.By the way, if anybody out there is reading this, I know I sound overly critical in my comments but in reality I'm just pointing out the flaws to be honest with myself and others out there. It doesn't mean I didn't like the movie(s). My rating will tell you I liked them it should be purchased by someone on the fence.DIRTY HARRY: BLU-RAY: I was not impressed with the picture. I had difficulty seeing at night. I'm not a photography guy but I think the brightness was too low or the contrast was too high. I had difficulty seeing any kind of detail during the evening scenes. The picture would also get grainy, sometimes exceptionally so. EXTRA'S: There were quite a few on this disc.- Dirty Harry: The Original - This featurette is hosted by Robert Urich. It looks to have been made around 20 years ago. It includes interviews with a lot of the actors including Eastwood. It focuses on the times and the character of Dirty Harry and the characters views at the time. This is between 25 and 30 minutes long.- Dirty Harry's Way - about 7 minutes long, this is a low quality preview of the movie. It shows a bunch of key scenes in the movie. It's here for historical reasons only. There isn't much reason to watch it other than possibly for film school.The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry - This featurette looks to be more recent to some of the others as Eastwood is clearly in his later years. This featurette is about 25 minutes in length. It's a lot more of the same stuff you see in a lot of the other extra's you see in this set. It focuses on the character and in the second half it focuses on how Harry's character influenced the characters in future cop movies along with other vigilante type of characters.Clint Eastwood : The Man from Malposo - Malpaso is a river that runs near Eastwood's home in California.He named his production company after it. This feature is about an hour long and it is another biography on Eastwood. What makes this one a bit different is that it focuses on the movies that he made with his Malpaso production company. Eastwood details each movie he made up until 'Unforgiven'. There are interviews with various actors and other personnel.-Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows - This is a biography that is around and hour and a half long. This was made years ago, I'm not sure when but It seems to be around the year 2000. It's a little over an hour and a half and seems like it was meant for 2 hours in length on commercial television. It's a good biography and covers Eastwood's entire career up till the point it was made. There are many interviews and film clips from just about every television show and movie Eastwood has ever done including his bit parts at Universal.-Interviews - There are a bunch of interviews with various Hollywood celebrities that are a few minutes long. Most of these interviews can be seen in the other extra's.-Trailer Gallery COMMENTS:-When I watched this movie at the time of this review, I was shocked to realize that I had never actually seen 'Dirty Harry' before. This came as a pleasant surprise as I was getting to see it for the first time. I thought that I had seen it because I've seen the "Do you feel lucky..." scene so many times in my life. Before I bought this collection, the only movie in this collection that I was certain I had not seen was the final one, 'The Drowning Pool'. I saw 'The Enforcer' in the theater when it came out. It was probably the first 'R' rated movie I had ever seen. This was my introduction to 'Dirty Harry'. I have seen this movie multiple times since then. I also saw 'Sudden Impact' in the theater while in college. Upon viewing 'Magnum Force', I realized I had never seen that one either.MAGNUM FORCE: BLU-RAY: My observations are pretty much the same as with 'Dirty Harry'. I had difficulty seeing the sequences that took place either at night or in dark areas such as the aircraft carrier. Again I couldn't see much detail in the dark areas and some spots were grainy. EXTRA'S:-There is a commentary track by John Milius-A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry - This featurette is around 25 minutes and discusses the political nature of Dirty Harry as a right wing conservative. It goes into detail about how the movies changed the villains in the first 4 movies by alternating between right wing and left wing criminals.-The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today - This is a short documentary of about 8 minutes made at the time that Magnum Force was being made. More specifically it covers a couple of scenes such as the store robbery and the finale. COMMENTS:-I prefer this movie to 'Dirty Harry'. For whatever reason I just liked it better. It's only in the final sequences that the movie loses something. Though, I do believe that 'Dirty Harry' has a much better ending. Up until the part where Harry gets on the old aircraft carrier, I enjoyed this movie more. I felt like it had better flow and more interesting sequences. I thought that some of the chases in 'Dirty Harry' went on a bit too long.-I thought the climax of the scene with David Soul was just ridiculous. They should have done better. First off, the bike going flying into the water while Harry was down was a bit too campy. Then, to see him actually die was even dumber. It didn't look like the drop was so far that it would have killed him.-It is now well known that this movie was an answer to the criticism that 'Dirty Harry' was a fascist and a vigilante. This movie was meant to tone down the vigilante aspect of the Dirty Harry character. In this movie he becomes the person who hunts down vigilante's. He makes the point that he is 'misunderstood'.-The pool shooting scene has become well known due to the fact that a then unknown Suzanne Sommers is splashing around topless in the pool.THE ENFORCER: BLU-RAY: I thought the picture looked a bit better than the previous two movies. The picture seems crisper, the way a Blu-ray picture should be. But again, there were plenty of scenes where the picture looked 'grainy'. There aren't really any night sequences so the movie doesn't share the problem of the previous two movies of being too dark in the night scenes or dark area's. EXTRA'S:-Audio Commentary with James Gargo-The Business End: Violence in Cinema - This featurette discusses if violence in movies causes people to become violent in real life. Pretty much all of the people interviewed disagree with the notion that violence in movies leads to violence in real life. This runs about 30 minutes.-Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films - Contemporary documentary made at the timeof 'The Enforcer'. It's only 6 minutes long and it shows the making of a few scenes from movie.-Trailer Gallery COMMENTS:- I thought this movie was pretty good. I've seen this one more than any of the others.- I didn't like the chase sequence after the bomb went off. I thought it went way too long. Even though they threw a bit of humor in it, I thought it went on way too long.- Ultimately, this is my favorite of the 'Dirty Harry' movies.- This movie switches back to left wing criminals after having right wing criminals in 'Magnum Force'.SUDDEN IMPACT: BLU-RAY: By this point I've come to the conclusion that the quality of all of the prints is roughly the same. The only real difference is if there is more night scenes. I don't really like the night scenesin any of the movies as they appear too dark. It's always possible that the movie(s) were filmed that way but after watching all of them and having the same issues I'd have to say the fault lies with the transfer. EXTRA'S:-Audio Commentary by Richard Schickel-The Evolution of Clint Eastwood - Featurette - This featurette focuses on Clint Eastwood's directing career. This is a newer documentary and it seems to be made at the same time as many of the other extra's in this set. This is around 25 minutes. COMMENTS:-This is my least favorite of the 'Dirty Harry' movies but it does have my favorite quote "Go ahead... Make my day"! They should have done a better job with it the second time he uses the line. He was too far away from the killer and he says the line too softly.-I think by the fourth movie, Harry had long ago blown away too many people and would have lost his badge ages ago but I'll suspend disbelief since the movies are fun.-Unfortunately, each of the Dirty Harry movies gets a bit more campier than the previous one. This isn't to say that the movies themselves should be considered campy, it's more like they are serious movies with some campy scenes.-Once again, the antagonist is switched to a person with right wing views continuing the pattern of alternating in each movie. The difference obviously is this time the killer gets away with their crimes.THE DEAD POOL: BLU-RAY: My comments are the same for this section as in 'Sudden Impact'. EXTRA'S:-Audio Commentary by David Valdes and Jack N.Green-The Craft of Dirty Harry - A feature that acknowledges all the people that help make movies. It's about 22 minutes long. This is another documentary that appears to be made at the same time as many of the others in this set. It shows each person's job in making the movie, cinematographer, editor, etc.-Trailer Gallery COMMENTS:-As critical as I am of the campiness, this movie is pretty entertaining. I'd put this one in the middle as far as favorites go.-I thought the idea for the 'Dead Pool' was interesting and different but once you think about it, it's pretty dumb.-Easily the campiest of the 'Dirty Harry' movies. Examples: -The remote control car was a doozy. -The mafia hitmen were way too incompetent for this to be realistic. Like I said... campy. -Harry's partner whipping out the kung-fu. -Too much humor in the scene with the guy lighting himself on fire. -The Dead Pool itself is a pretty campy idea, completely unbelievable even if it was an interesting idea.-The remote control car scene was just ridiculous. I listened to the commentary and the director thought that people might think the remote control's car speed wasn't realistic but they didn't receive any complaints! Really!?! That scene was bad on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. Even the editing was dreadfully poor. Just look at the final moments when the car explodes. The toy car is under the vehicle in the dead center. Harry sends the car forward and then it explodes but instead of blowing up the rear or the trunk it blows up the front of the car. This is just lazy editing or poor planning.-In the director's commentary, they said they were hoping to do a car chase scene as good as 'Bullitt'. Honestly, I don't think that's much of an accomplishment. 'Bullit' might have been groundbreaking but it certainly isn't the best car chase scene ever filmed. I don't mean to belittle the 'Bullit' car chase scene but Hollywood has outdone that scene a hundred times over. Even by the time this movie was made it had been surpassed plenty of times.RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: You can't go wrong with this set. The value is tremendous at $23.00 from Amazon when I purchased this in October, 2018. You can't give it anything less than 5 stars at that price. 5 movies along with an abundance of extra's make this a great value.As far as my favorites go, there aren't any that are far and away better or worse than any of the others. I don't like Sudden Impact very much. To me that movie is a step down from the other four but the top 4 are all pretty close. I didn't think any of the top 4 were significantly better or worse than the others. I wouldn't have an argument with anybody who put them in any different order.Personal order of favorites from best to worst is:1)The Enforcer2)Magnum Force3)The Dead Pool4)Dirty Harry5)Sudden ImpactHighly Recommended for pretty much everybody (except kids of course). If you watched the extra's, even very liberal people say they liked Dirty Harry despite his ultra conservative outlook in an ultra liberal city.

My third copy. Great action adventure.

It's nice to have all the Dirty Harry films in one blu-ray collection

The movies looked great but must have been an international type release to limited markets lol. All movie titles are on the outer ring if you look at the picture above the title "The Enforcer" is bottom left in the white area on the disc.

I had previously written that it was an awful deal as Amazon had the price at $60+, this seems to have been addressed.I will not speak about the movies as they are all excellent to an Fan and the quality is "Bluray" standard, and get progressively better on each disc.I wish to add that even though theDirty Harry Ultimate Collectors's editionHas loads of extras including wallet ID etc, please do not think THIS box set is just movies...On the Dirty Harry disc there are loads of extras including a series of retrospectives* The long shadow of Dirty Harry* Clint Eastwood out of the Shadows* Profile Clint Eastwood- Man from MalpasoInterviews, (including interviews with Shane Black-writer of Lethal Weapon, David Ayer- writer of Training Day) Featurettes "Dirty Harry's Way and Dirty Harry.Each disc has a commentary by Richard Schickel- critic or by writers, the extras are also not restricted to the Dirty harry disc.Magnum Force- A moral right?-The politics of Dirty Harry and the Hero CopThe Enforcer- The business end: Violence in Cinema+ Clint Eastwood something special in filmsSudden Impact- The Evolution of Clint EastwoodThe Dead Pool- The craft of Dirty HarryLastly- There are several interviews by actors on working with Clint Eastwood in the films which I found very interesting:e.g Hal Holbrook who played SFPD Homicide Lt. Neil Briggs (Magnum Force) Jessica Walter who played Evelyn Draper (Play Misty for me) Andy Robinson who played Charles "Scorpio" Davis (Dirty Harry) A great box set...go ahead make your day!

Since the plot of these five movies has been discussed over and over again by other reviewers, I thought it best to comment on the transfers of this Blu-Ray collection.Let me start off by stating that these classic movies have never looked better. Each movie after Dirty Harry just keeps getting better and better in terms of sharpness, contrast, and color. Dirty Harry showed the most grain out of the five movies but it was minimal and only in certain scenes. Also, it's to be expected considering its age. It isn't until you watch Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool where the 1080P resolution really starts to show its magic.Anyway, if you're Dirty Harry fan, go out and buy this set. And when you do sit down to watch these classic detective movies, watch them all during a rainy weekend. Bad weather really brings out the grittiness that is Harry Calahan.By the way, the only reason I didn't give this amazing collection five stars is because of the way the discs were packaged. They are staggered in a way that makes it a bit difficult to remove, but not impossible. I may be picky here so you'll have to judge the packaging on your own.

Great addition to the media collection

What can I say about Dirty Harry its a Great 70s movie.

Great collection of Dirty Harry films on multiple blu-ray discs. Extensive special feature collection included.

Again with the ....I bought ti for my hubby .....he loves anything Clint Eastwood has made or stared in. ,

Made my day.