Clint Eastwood’s sequel predated Michael Bay’s best movie by 20 years

Clint Eastwood The Enforcer Beat Michael Bay to his best movie by 20 years. Despite being a star for decades, there are surprisingly few Clint Eastwood movie franchises. Clint always preferred to tackle new characters and stories, so out of these Dollars Trilogy or his Every way… Duology, he largely avoided repeating the same part. The key exception is the Rude Harry Movies, where Eastwood played San Francisco detective “Dirty” Harry Callahan a grand total of five times.

The original 1971 thriller was both very successful And Controversial, with its story of a cop who takes the law into his own hands to stop a vicious serial killer. The first sequel, magnum force, Dealing with the vigilante theme of Harry facing off against a squad of murderous cops, the series became a staple for Clint in the 1970s and 1980s. After the final entry, a rumoured Dirty Harry 6 It didn’t happen despite the audience’s interest in one final ride. even so, Dirty Harry is still the character that Clint is most closely associated with.

Dirty Harry sequel The Enforcer predicted Michael Bay’s cancer

The Enforcer took Harry to Alcatraz years before Michael Bay’s best movie

The third Rude Harry Misadventure The Enforcer saw the detective and his new partner Kate Moore (Tane Daly) chasing down a militant group called the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force. Much of the sequel is spent with Harry learning to work alongside a female partner, with all the requisite shootouts and foot chases around iconic San Francisco landmarks. The Enforcer Finale takes Harry and Moore to Alcatraz prison to take down the PRSF, who have besieged the island And they are holding the mayor hostage.

The Alcatraz Siege is the standout setpiece of the film, and The Enforcer Plays like a prototype version of Michael Bay The stone. Michael Bay’s 1996 epic saw a team of rogue Marines take over Alcatraz with nerve gas rockets, and it was up to Sean Connery’s former inmate and Nic Cage’s dorky chemical weapons specialist to save the day. Needless to say, The stone Features more explosions, gunfights and slo-mo shots than all Rude Harry Movies combined. Even so, the basic skeleton of the Bay film is still present The Enforcer.

The Stone does a much better job with the Alcatraz Siege premise

Michael Bay’s second movie takes the concept of the enforcer to the (super) max

The Enforcer The final setpiece is the highlight, and features one of the saga’s trademark downbeat endings.; The mayor could be saved, but it was a high price that was small for Harry’s faith in the system. Action movies were very different in the 1970s, so the finale is more grounded and lacks the bombast that Bay would bring to the idea. The Alcatraz sequence has Harry and Kate running around different parts of the prison occasionally shooting members of the PRSF before Callahan blasts their leader with a rocket launcher.

The stone is essential Die hard On AlcatrazAnd Bay’s second feature milks the premise for all it can. It might be the best Michael Bay movie, with the film boasting great performances (with a special shout out to Ed Harris’ complex villain), action set-ups and dialogue. The story also allows Connery’s Mason and Cage’s Goodspeed to explore the prison in full, moving from the cell blocks to the sewers and they even get to go on a mine cart ride.

The Enforcer Use of the famous prison made for an atmospheric (and symbolic) place for the ending to take place, but it is ultimately a backdrop. The stone Makes Alcatraz itself a character, and a location that both helps and hinders its heroes. Clint was obviously taken with the island and its story, because three years later he starred in the star Escape from AlcatrazA thriller based on a real-life 1962 escape attempt.

The Enforcer also predicted a groundbreaking Cop show

Would Cagney and Lacey exist without the enforcer Kate Moore?

The idea of ​​pairing Harry with a female partner was a big part of the hook The EnforcerAlthough co-star Tyne Daly passed on the role several times. Dolly didn’t like how thick her character Moore was written, but Eastwood convinced her to take the role by giving her creative input. Tyne Daly’s Moore is the best part of The EnforcerWho is a complete rookie but after an intensely frosty season, Moore and Callahan come to respect each other.

Even critics who don’t like it The Enforcer – of which there were many – had to admit Dolly’s performance was a real highlight. It was also a rare example of a movie with a strong female detective character during this era, and Tyne Daly’s role in The Enforcer No doubt influenced her casting in Cagney & Lacey A few years later. The groundbreaking series was originally pitched as a buddy movie with two female leads but was later reworked into a CBS series.

Cagney & Lacey Was in danger of cancellation several times during its early seasons, but there was no other series like it on air at the time. It helped that Dolly shared great chemistry with co-star Sharon Gless, with the show now considered a TV classic. It is easy to trace Dolly’s evolution from The Enforcer Kate to his main role Cagney & LaceyWith both involving female detectives who do their jobs while having to push past the conscious or unconscious chauvinism of the men with them.

The Enforcer was supposed to end the Dirty Harry franchise

Dirty Harry’s return made Clint Eastwood’s day

The Enforcer was intended to cap off the Rude Harry Franchise as a trilogy of films. During this era in Hollywood, franchises were still relatively rare, although they were cropping up with increasing frequency. The likes of the Planet of the Apes Or Airport Series proved there was money to be made in follow-ups, but Eastwood seemed satisfied The Enforcer would be Harry’s last time with a .44 Magnum on screen.

His return for 1983s Sudden impact was reportedly the result of Warner Bros. polling audiences about characters they wanted to see back on the big screen. It was an overwhelming call for Eastwood to make another dirty harry So the star soon made a deal to star in and direct Sudden impact. The fourth Rude Harry is most famous for his iconic catchphrase, in which Eastwood’s detective points his magnum at a thief and says “Go ahead, make my day.”

Sudden impact became the highest grosser of the entire seriesDespite arguably being the most uncomfortable. Clint returned one last time five years later for The Dead Poolwhich proved to be the lowest grave. Warners wisely never decided to reboot the property (although Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was rumored for a remake in the early 2000s), as it would be nearly impossible to replace Clint. Unlike The Enforcer Or most of the others Rude Harry Movies, at least The Dead Pool Is enough to let his last partner survive.

Source: Box Office Mojo