its been a while since i had seen dirty harry, at least four years. in those four years david fincher's masterful "zodiac" (2007) has been and gone, and one of my big worries that came with that films success was that i may not be able to take don seagal's unofficial take on san fransisco's zodiac killing's seriously under this new light. im pleased to report that that wasnt the case, and that i can extend my disbelief far enough to forgive any of the films shortcomings, at least when it comes to the very hollywood take on what was a pretty distressing period in san francisco' recent history.
san fransisco is the unbilled co-star in the first dirty harry film. in fact it was through this viewer's research of the city of san fransisco that he found out about the film, from an academic point of view at least. a few years back i was looking at sitting my masters degree at the san fransisco academy of art, when, through the program for the university, in a section on notable films shot in the city that i first delved into this, the first in eastwood's flagship franchise (alongside such other films as hitchcock's "vertigo" (1958) and orson welles' often overlooked "the lady from shanghai" (1947); incidently, soon to be remade, in name at least, by wong kar-wai)
the character of 'scorpio', billed simply as "the killer" in the credits of the film, is based loosely on that of the zodiac killer. i say loosely because very little was known about the zodiac killer, as anyone who's seen fincher film will attest to. the style of the character is drawn from that of the zodiac, the way the character manipulated and used the media to accomplish his task is exagerated in "dirty harry" (see the use of the media during the killers scene in the hospital, post staged-beating) from that of the real case, and while little focus is made of the print industry's involvement, mention is made.
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