Sudden Impact on DVD (1983)

You couldn't make it up...

whilly from London , 28/02/2005

If a tabloid columnist made a film it would be like this. It would be equally full of grotesquely evil rapists and killers. Officaldom, the men in suits, would be too paralysed by procedure and red tape to respond to the tide of evil about to overwhelm society. The only course of action would be righteous and violent vengeance by Dirty Harry.

The film is a document of its time. The narrative of social decay is taken as read. We are to understand from the first frame that our hero has had enough, that society is ‘heading to hell in a handcart’ – as our tabloid columnist might well say. Whatever he does, whatever excesses he, or any other righteous character commits, are justified because they have had enough.

This film is a real reminder of how Eastwood has changed. He is famous now more for his meditative later work, or his inscrutable early Westerns than for his Dirty Harry films. This film does not question Dirty Harry’s methods or motivations at all – that reflectiveness has dropped out of the series by this point. Indeed, as the iconography hammers home, he is at his most saintly when most violent. In short the film feels like it was directed by Dirty Harry as well as being about him.

So what happened? Did Eastwood just do it for the money? Has his world view really altered and deepened since?

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loz#6 from BRISTOL , 17/03/2004

After The Enforcer the Dirty Harry series appeared to have run out of steam. The opening half-hour of Sudden Impact do little to inspire confidence, as all the familiar cliches are wheeled out yet again - Harry having a case thrown out because of inadmissable evidence, Harry dispensing his own brand of vigilante justice ( complete with new tag line "Make my day - punk!"), Harry getting busted by his superiors. Eastwood himself taking over the direction duties make things look a bit more polished, but it's still predictable stuff. Luckily when the main storyline finally kicks in things become a bit more interesting, as - in a throwback to Magnum Force - Harry finds himself havng to question his own morality when he finds out the murderer he's chasing is a revenge seeking vigilante. Its no classic, but Sudden Impact has enough moments of interest to be watchable for Dirty Harry fans.

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Dirty Harry is at it again.

Manthing from London, England , 26/07/2004

A rape victim is exacting revenge on her agressors in a small town outside San Francisco.

Not as flashy as the original but good nonetheless. A little bit darker in tone and a bit bit greyer between what's right and wrong.

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Clint Eastwood need I say more

James Biddulph from Carlisle , 04/10/2004

'go on punk make my day'

Eastwood at his best this must be the best of the dirty harry movie series, the action as well as the storyline is brilliant. A real must see

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loz#6 from BRISTOL , 17/03/2004

After The Enforcer the Dirty Harry series appeared to have run out of steam. The opening half-hour of Sudden Impact do little to inspire confidence, as all the familiar cliches are wheeled out yet again - Harry having a case thrown out because of inadmissable evidence, Harry dispensing his own brand of vigilante justice ( complete with new tag line "Make my day - punk!"), Harry getting busted by his superiors. Eastwood himself taking over the direction duties make things look a bit more polished, but it's still predictable stuff. Luckily when the main storyline finally kicks in things become a bit more interesting, as - in a throwback to Magnum Force - Harry finds himself havng to question his own morality when he finds out the murderer he's chasing is a revenge seeking vigilante. Its no classic, but Sudden Impact has enough moments of interest to be watchable for Dirty Harry fans.

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Not so sudden, not so impact

Jeff Standen from Boston, Lincolnshire , 25/02/2007

I guess by this time the series was tired. OK to watch, but nothing great.

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