I watched Dirty Harry and The Enforcer (Dirty Harry 2) over the weekend. I like them more today than I did back in the 80s, which is when I saw them both in the form of rented VHS cassettes. Back in the day, I was pretty much only interested in the big tag lines. "Go ahead, make my day", etc. But now I see that these movies were probably the start of the most common cop movie tropes. Examples: "you know how much you cost this city!?", "this is your new partner, Harry, and she's a woman!", etc.
But the best thing is seeing American life in the 70s. Movies like The Way Way Back, Everybody Wants Some and Wonder Woman use the 80s as a gimmick, but the movies that were actually from that era have the gimmick baked in without it being a gimmick. You could almost redo Dirty Harry scene for scene, and it would seem like a parody, because is is so extremely 70s. Back then these movies were a little boring to me, because they were just normal and of their time. Now they're like 70s documentaries with a cop story to make them interesting.
Strangely, The Enforcer addressed that people were tired of the way cops treat minorities, and management was working to get more women on the force. Crazy foreshadowing.
I realize I used 70s and 80s interchangeably, but you get the point. 40, 50 years... close enough.
I've never seen a Steve McQueen movie. It may be time.
But the best thing is seeing American life in the 70s. Movies like The Way Way Back, Everybody Wants Some and Wonder Woman use the 80s as a gimmick, but the movies that were actually from that era have the gimmick baked in without it being a gimmick. You could almost redo Dirty Harry scene for scene, and it would seem like a parody, because is is so extremely 70s. Back then these movies were a little boring to me, because they were just normal and of their time. Now they're like 70s documentaries with a cop story to make them interesting.
Strangely, The Enforcer addressed that people were tired of the way cops treat minorities, and management was working to get more women on the force. Crazy foreshadowing.
I realize I used 70s and 80s interchangeably, but you get the point. 40, 50 years... close enough.
I've never seen a Steve McQueen movie. It may be time.
