Sudden Impact
1983
Director: Clint
Eastwood
Starring: Clint
Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Albert Popwell, and everyone’s second favorite
Commissioner Gordon – Pat Hingle (editor's note: you mean third favorite, one shant forget Bob Hastings!)
Rated R
Go ahead, make my day
~Harry
Callahan
That quote is what most people even know about at all about
the Dirty Harry series. Eastwood returns
and takes on the director’s chair (as well as 60% of the film’s profits) for
the biggest, most successful film in the Dirty Harry franchise. While not close to being the best of the
series, its nowhere near as boring and dull as the previous entry. Its almost a completely mindless, satisfying
watch akin to that of Rocky IV. In order to get some reliable bread winners into the
theaters in the early 80's, Warner Bros coaxed the magnum back into Eastwood’s
hand to continue the series. Reportedly
he got the lay of the land at Warner with guaranteed future projects to direct and
points on box office totals. And with
that, Dirty Harry returned.
Harry racks up another corpsed partner in this one. The partner is quite notable. Horace is played by Albert Popwell,
graduating from his steady increase in screen time per film. In the original, he was the bank robbing thug
who received the famous “Do you feel lucky?” speech. He played the pimp in Magnum Force, and the leader of the Black Panther-like group in The Enforcer. Of note, Popwell died in both even numbered
films. Popwell was to appear in the next
film, The Dead Pool, but had to back
out due to some scheduling conflicts. The film’s famous line “Go ahead, make my day” was made even
more prolific when Ronald Reagan used it in a speech in 1985. Eastwood himself also used it in politics
when running for mayor in Carmel, CA (“Go Ahead – Make Me Mayor”). AFI also posted the line as the sixth most
famous film line of all time.
Sudden Impact isn’t incredibly dumb, its just kind of very
basic, but popping. Eastwood prevents it
from ever being boring by forcing action sequence at every sign of a possible lag
in the film. Some are over the top, some
are silly, some work really well. Its
never dull. The character of Harry
Callahan is also pretty much played as a characature of what he truly was in
the first three films. That said, its
actually a fun watch. Most of the
supporting cast is colorful enough (Audrie Neenan is so good, you’ll want to
smack her yourself), even if Sondra Locke can’t quite pull her scenes in the
film. If you've seen films like Rocky IV, and you enjoy it for what it
is, you’ll have no trouble taking a liking to Sudden Impact.
Next Up: THE DEAD POOL
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