Albert Popwell, Clint Eastwood, David Soul

This first sequel to Dirty Harry was written by a couple of strong voices, writer-directors Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and John Milius (Farewell to the King). But that doesn...( read more  read more... )'t mean the film is particularly good. After Don Siegel's ferociously dark style in the first movie, Ted Post's blocky, television-ish direction in Magnum Force is a huge letdown. The story doesn't win any prizes, either. Eastwood's San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (apparently having retrieved his badge after throwing it away at the end of Dirty Harry) takes on a vigilante squad within the city's police force. David Soul is pretty convincing as the major spokesman for these right-wing avengers. Eastwood, on the other hand, had already turned Callahan from fascinating outsider in Siegel's film to purveyor of tough-guy shtick in this one. --Tom Keogh

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72% liked it

23,289 ratings

R, 124 min.

Directed by: Ted Post

Release Date: December 28, 1973

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DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (800)


  • November 8, 2009
    as good as the first one if not better. this time callahan has to deal with a police death squad rather than a serial killing sniper. dirty harry is a great character and here clint eastwood brings him to life again! under-rated! some of the action is very tense indeed, more so i...( read more)n parts than in "dirty harry"
  • September 30, 2009
    Obviously not as good as Dirty Harry but still a very good follow up with a great story. An inspiration for Maniac Cop? I did feel that Dirty Harry himself was a lot more toned down which was a shame but still, a great 70's cop film!
  • June 9, 2008
    The first sequel in the Dirty Harry franchise is packed with a tone of young talent. David Soul, Robert Urich, and Tim Matheson appear in very early roles, but it doesn't stop there. The writers on this piece are John Milius (who did writing for both Jaws and Apocalypse Now) and ...( read more)the infamous Michael Cimino (before he won the Oscar for The Deer Hunter and killed a studio with Heaven's Gate).
    Major crime lords are being murdered in San Francisco and Dirty Harry is back on the case to end the reign of gangland terror. But it turns out to be more than that- the killers are actually cops.
    Magnum Force is a blatant reply to the outcry that surrounded the original Dirty Harry film. Harry was blasted as a right wing avenger that lived according his own law. Magnum Force shows that Harry could have stepped beyond that line and that what he does, though unorthodox, gets the job done within the bounds of the system. Magnum Force is more of a rebuttal than a sequel.
    Eastwood returns in the role that made him uber-famous with gusto and even though the film isn't as gritty as the original (hell, this one is almost polished) it still gets the point across that police work isn't the glamour job that everyone thinks it is.
  • September 9, 2007
    One of the best Dirty Harry films as he goes up against a corrupt group of police officers intent on dishing out their own type of law.
  • August 5, 2007
    I have just watched this movie and i love it. I must admit though i enjoyed this film far more than Dirty Harry because i like the story of Magnum Force where the traffic cops are doing all the killings of all the drugs bosses and the low life racketeers 10 out of 10 for this movie.
  • November 17, 2009
    The first sequel in the Dirty Harry series has Clint up against mysterious vigilante cops. There's great action and one liners throughout the movie, and the cool 70's vibe you get is an added attraction.
  • November 14, 2009
    This was good but Dirty Harry prefered better. It just got slow getting to the point of catching the virgilante cops instead fillers as Harry knocks down other suspects. Eastwood lines are a classic in this also action sequences and stuns were good effert.
  • October 26, 2009
    Thought it was just as good as Dirty Harry maybe even better defanatly would have been if it had a really great ending like the first. Like how the story seemed alot like the first movie to begin with but kind of flipped it around as the movie went on. I starting to see that Clin...( read more)t Eastwood has never been in a bad movie.
  • September 11, 2009
    Clint Eastwood reprises his role as Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco Police Department in HANG?EM UP director Ted Post's DIRTY HARRY sequel "Magnum Force." The sturdy cast including Hal Holbrook, David Soul, Robert Ulrich, Tim Matheson, and Mitchell Ryan co-star with...( read more) the lanky Eastwood and his Model 29 Smith & Wesson revolver. The vigorous John Milius & Michael Cimino screenplay serves to clarify our hero's law & order stance that he took so much flak for in DIRTY HARRY. Indeed, MAGNUM FORCE whitewashes Eastwood's saintly but insubordinate cop. Remember, in DIRTY HARRY, our hero ignored the law when he tried to save the life of a kidnapped girl. The violation of the villain's Miranda rights by Harry, however, allowed the fiend to go free despite overwhelming evidence that he was the murderer. In MAGNUM FORCE we find Harry back on the job. The filmmakers never explain what occurred in the interim, but it really doesn't matter. Harry is back and that is all that counts. Harry encounters a quartet of gung-ho young Turk motorcycle traffic cops who are crack shots with their .357 magnum service revolvers.

    MAGNUM FORCE opens with an angry mob of citizens protesting the release of a mobster Ricca (career character actor villain Richard Devon) and his associates, who want out of court, climb into their automobile and tool off to freedom despite the crowd. They don't get very far before a uniformed traffic cop in black leather with a cream white helmet pulls them over for crossing the double lines on the freeway. When the thug driver gives the cop some lip, the cop?who we cannot see because he is virtually anonymous in his regalia?whips out of his service revolver and punches holes in all four of them, leaving them sprawled dead in the car. Harry investigates and his new superior, Lieutenant Neil Briggs (Hal Holbrook of THE GREAT WHITE HOPE) chews him out for not being on the stake-out to which he has been assigned. By this time, Harry has acquired a new partner, an African-American (Felton Perry of the original WALKING TALL) to show that he isn't a bigot. Harry takes Smith out to airport to grab a hamburger and stumbles onto a hijacking plot. Harry masquerades as an airline pilot to get aboard the jetliner and thwarts the swarthy looking hijackers with a few shots. When Harry gets back to the stake-out at a super market, he nails a couple of gun-toting bandits. Later, a pimp (Albert Popwell who played the bank robber in DIRTY HARRY that was on the receiving end of Callahan's speech) corners one of his girls at night and takes a stash of cash that she has been hording. He repays her greedy by pouring drain cleaner down her throat. The next time that we see the pimp he is being pulled over by another traffic cop. He offers the cop a bribe and the cop blows him away. prefer to take the law into their own hands and execute crooks that rely on the loopholes in justice to get out of being prosecuted from their crimes.

    Ted Post isn't half of the helmer that Don Siegel was, but MAGNUM FORCE pales by comparison with its predecessor. First, despite the presence of some strong villains, the bad guys are rather straightforward types. Nobody is as psychotic as Scorpio (Andrew Robinson) was in DIRTY HARRY. The antagonists here are well-heeled gangsters with armies of gunmen or slickly dressed motorcycle cops with impenetrable sunglasses that make them look intimidating. All in all, MAGNUM FORCE is rather conventional. Dirty Harry fans would have to wait for SUDDEN IMPACT before the character had another memorable speech. The closest that Milius & Cimino come to a signature line is Harry's comment: "A man has got to know his limitations." Otherwise, the dialogue is as disposable as the spent shells that Harry empties from his revolver. The shoot-outs are staged with some competence, and the Frank Stanley camera-work is far about average. There is a major shoot-out between a mob and Harry. Eventually, Harry winds up on the hood of the car being driven by a hood that conveniently loses control of the vehicle and impales himself on a crane. Early in the storyline, Harry stumbles across a career cop and an old friend, Officer Charlie McCoy (Mitchell Ryan of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER) who hates the system almost as much as Harry does and makes no pretense about it. Milius and Cimino use McCoy as the red herring. He appears to be the unhinged cop who has been killing thugs, that is, until he gets killed himself.

    A little more than half-way through the action, the badguys identify themselves to Harry and ask him to join them. Surprisingly, for them, Harry refuses to and it's only a matter of time before he has to confront them. As it turns out, the worst suspicions that Harry has have come true. Vigilante cops within the SFPD are knocking off suspected criminals with extreme prejudice. Eventually, Harry has to tangle with them aboard a mothballed aircraft carrier after a brisk but uneventful car chase. The motorcycle stunts come off looking tame.

    The biggest difference in MAGNUM FORCE from DIRTY HARRY is the relationships that Harry has with women. He had no woman in DIRTY HARRY, but here we see him date an Asian-American as well as Charlie's ex-wife. Harry never gets them between the sheets because he has to respond to some criminal emergency that cannot wait for him. Interestingly, according to scenarist John Milius?in an above-average but less than satisfactorily complete commentary?revealed that Eastwood had received mail from women requesting that he work women into the movies, but that the women come onto Harry instead of vice-versa. MAGNUM FORCE packs a lot of heat, but it cannot compare with the Don Siegel original. Hal Holbrook makes an okay villain.
  • September 1, 2009
    fantastic it made my day

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  • mp9955
    April 27, 2009
    o pelicula grozava a acesui aproape octogenar,care a creat continuu,si un nr. important de roluri fara cusur,un personaj din viata noastra care nea mai alinat cu filmele sale la vreme de rasrtiste pt.noi.

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Magnum Force Trivia


  • What was the name of the first 'Dirty Harry' sequel?  Answer »
  • What character said, " A man's got to know his limitations?"  Answer »
  • "A man's got to know his limitations." Is a quote from which film?   Answer »
  • the name of the sequel of clint eastwood's dirty harry  Answer »

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