Dirty Harry (character)

Harry Callahan
Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry.
First appearance	Dirty Harry
Last appearance	The Dead Pool
Created by	Harry Julian Fink R. M. Fink
Portrayed by	Clint Eastwood
Information
Nickname(s)	Dirty Harry
Aliases	Larry Dickman
Gender	Male
Occupation	Police officer
Title	Inspector
Spouse(s)	Unnamed woman (deceased)

Inspector Harold Francis "Dirty Harry" Callahan is a fictional character in the Dirty Harry film series, encompassing Dirty Harry (1971) Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Callahan is portrayed by Clint Eastwood in each film.

From his debut, Callahan became the template for a new kind of movie cop: an antihero who does not hesitate to cross professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of his own vision of justice, especially when the law is poorly served by an inept bureaucracy.

Callahan is often considered a film icon, so much so that his nickname, "Dirty Harry", has entered the lexicon as slang for ruthless police officers. All of the Dirty Harry films feature Callahan killing criminals, mostly in gunfights. Phrases he utters in armed stand-offs,"Go ahead, make my day" and "[...] you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" have become iconic. As the 1971 film was criticized for carrying fascist, or at least authoritarian, undertones, the sequels attempted to be more balanced by pitting Harry against villains from a broader ideological spectrum; notably in 1973's Magnum Force, in which Harry is shown fighting vigilantism.

Callahan is an Inspector with the San Francisco Police Department, usually with the Homicide department, although for disciplinary or political reasons he is occasionally transferred to other less prominent units, such as Personnel (in The Enforcer) or Stakeout (in Magnum Force) or just sent out of town on mundane research assignments (in Sudden Impact). Callahan's primary concern is protecting and avenging the victims of violent crime. Though proficient at apprehending criminals, his methods are often unconventional; while some claim that he is prepared to ignore the law and professional and ethical boundaries, regarding them as needless red tape hampering justice, his methods are usually within the law – he takes advantage of situations that justify his use of deadly force, sometimes almost creating those situations. When a group of men holding hostages in a liquor store in The Enforcer demand a getaway car, Callahan delivers one by driving the car through the store's plate glass window and then shooting the robbers. Rather than following the rules of the police department, Callahan inserts himself into the scene of the event at a time when the imminent use of deadly force by the criminals justifies his use of deadly force against the criminals. Conversely, in Sudden Impact when he finds out that Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke), the person responsible for a series of murders in San Francisco and San Paulo, was a rape victim killing her unpunished rapists, he lets her go free, indicating that he feels her retribution was justified. In The Dead Pool Callahan shoots a fleeing and unarmed Mafia assassin in the back and kills the villain in the end with a harpoon knowing that the man's pistol is out of ammunition.