Dirty Harry Collection [DVD] [2009]

When I was young I was not allowed to see Dirty Harry movies. First, they are violent, have nudity, and an irreverent disrespect for the law, or at least that was what the mood was like in the 1970s and 1980s when these were being made. But the iconic nature of these films should not be dismissed. The contentious relationship between a rules-averse cop and his irate, red-faced Lieutenant has been parodied and copied in countless films, including "So I Married An Axe Murderer" where Anthony LaPaglia is the cop who WANTS his Lieutenant to be brutal and mean, but Alan Arkin as the Lieutenant, a natural sweetheart, tries to accommodate LaPaglia, but fails - he's just not mean-natured. The wonderful Police Squad TV series parodied these films too, most notably in scenes where Frank Drebin crashes his car into trash barrels every time he pulls up to a curb. But this just speaks to how ingrained in our culture these films have become. They are excellent films in their own right, and show off San Francisco beautifully with panoramic shots of the city which actually are integral to the storytelling.The films are beautifully scored by Lalo Schifrin, (who also wrote the original theme to Mission: Impossible), with period music that fit the era, but never enters into the cheesy, even retrospectively. Beautiful.The stories are hard, and while they may seem cliche now, they were not then. They only appear to be cliche now because these films were so eagerly and frequently copied.Look for brief but notable cameos by Rob Reiner and Suzanne Summers, and also get a kick out of the fact that Albert Popwell plays different roles in 4 of the 5 films, and when he's encountered in the second film, Harry asks him "Where do I know you from?"I can't say enough about these films.

Quality discs in a convenient collection for binge watching.

It makes my day to have Dirty Harry in Blue Ray.

Great coll of movies

This is the quintessential set to own. The color and sound are pristene (I have surround sound) And as you already know these films are never boring,becuase the the Clint Eastwood effect never fails to thrill the viwer! Highly recommended.

-the first disk was something between CD and DVD quality, surround sound is very low quality-second disk is DVD quality, surround sound was very low quality-the last 3 disks, quality is DVD, surround sound is good.this means: buy DVD quality its cheaper for you. and you will get the same thing.and if you buy these, you have to label them yourself.the movies are great, it is just they sell them on a low quality format.

The best

It would have gotten five stars because all of the Dirty Harry movies are classics, but because the discs were labeled in a language I can't read I hope I never get the discs mixed up because I don't know what titles they are. These were obviously not printed in the U. S. I guess when they say Import you risk getting either a bootleg or something in another language. At least the audio is in English.If they are sold in the U. S. they should be printed in English. I wish I had known this prior to ordering otherwise I would have gotten a set with English labels. This may be going back.

Back in the late 70s when VHS first came out movies were released without certification. That is to say they were released as seen at the cinema with the cinema rating on the box. Once certain films had been labelled 'video nasties' due to graphic violence the BBFC was created to re-certify films. One of the first movies released on the market was Dirty Harry and I was lucky enough to be invited to a friends house to watch it. I was an instant Eastwood fan. As a kid we weren't allowed to stay up late to watch his movies so this was a big opportunity. Later releases on dvd were heavily edited and don't even talk about the butchered versions shown on TV. Releases on Blu Ray have been slightly extended which led me to believe that the desire to cut the violence may have come from the top and maybe from Eastwood himself. If so then that's a shame. It's a powerful film and in this post 9/11 world should be shown in its entirety uncut. If you're reading this Mr Eastwood please let the uncut version be released. It deserves it.

I was a bit disappointed by this box set. I thought each movie is in a separate dvd case but it turns out that there'sonly three cases. Two movies per case. Except for the original Dirty Harry movie. That one gets a separate case.Robocop Trilogy "box" set turned out to be just one blue-ray case so this one is a proper box set and it's definitely a lot bigger than the Lethal Weapon one.It looks cool and fits perfectly into any movie collection. Definitely worth the full price.I'm "reviewing" and uploading pictures of every single box set I've purchased so other people don't have to get disappointed or wonder how each set looks like.

Clearly the original film is the best, Magnum Force and The Enforcer are worthy sequels. Once we get to the 80s it starts to go down hill. Sudden Impact is rather sleazy and seen by some, but not all, as a sex exploitation film. It also seems to play to prejudices against minorities. The last film in the franchise is rather unworthy, with the Dead Pool gimmick not working as a suitable substitute for a credible plot.The relative merits of the films in the franchise are not really the point here, this HD Bluray version has crystal clear picture quality and show each film off to best effect. The last time I watched the original film was on a rather grainy, home taped, VHS on a tape that had seem better days, some years ago. I also have much better sound on my television so Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack sounds brilliant!Go on, make your day and get this rather good Bluray version.

5 classic, no-nonsense cop/action movies in one box for a ridiculously cheap price? Sold. I miss Mr. Eastwood's completely un-PC way of going about things as Dirty Harry so it's great to re-live these excellent films in an age where we're swamped by exactly the sort of people and systems that tried to hold back Harry Callahan from just getting the job done. I'd honestly rather buy this collection than the latest Blu Ray of whatever Hollywood is churning out today.The one downside is that only the first movie has a double-disc edition BUT every film is remastered so it's probably the best you'll get on DVD. The price at the time of my purchase was £9.99 and I was certainly feeling lucky when the set landed on my doormat. Not sure I'd class myself as a punk though...

I can without doubt say that Dirty Harry is one of my top 10 films of all time. I have a thing for films made in the 70's when filmmaking was at its greatest (in my opinion).The film spawned 4 sequels over the years that seemed to slowly decline as each one spawned. However the thing that held them together was the fact that our anti hero Harry was in each and every one of them and we kept coming back to see the great man in action. Harry Callaghan was a character that could carry a film by itself (Like Charles Bronson in Death Wish, we just like seeing him shoot lowlifes don't we? and the actual film takes second stage to the character).In this package you receive all five films with a few extras on each film. I am only interested in the extras on Dirty Harry itself and they are pretty good,The film quality is pretty good but at times some grain is visible.Overall if you like Dirty Harry and don't have the Blu Ray get this fantastic box set of all 5 films.