The shootouts, chases and explosions in this, the third "Dirty Harry film", are enough to satisfy any action movie fan but what makes "The Enforcer" different to its predecessors is its humour. A number of sharp one-liners and the outrageous methods employed by Detective Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) provide a lot of laughs but additionally, his interactions with his new female partner and his incompetent superiors create a whole series of other situations which are also great fun to watch.
Harry, of course, is a walking anachronism and a male chauvinist and these qualities often get him into trouble. He does, however, have a recognised talent for dealing with some very challenging cases in a particularly forceful way and it's this ability that frequently enables him to extricate himself from the difficulties that his behaviour leads him into.
When Callahan and his partner Detective Inspector Frank DiGiorgio (John Mitchum) arrive at a liquor store robbery where the gunmen have taken hostages and demanded a car, Callahan simply gets into his police vehicle and drives it at great speed through the store-front windows before shooting and killing all the robbers. His quick, simple and effective way of dealing with this dangerous situation isn't appreciated by his superiors who promptly transfer him from the homicide division to the personnel department.
In his new role, Callahan takes part in a series of interviews with candidates who are being considered for promotion to inspector and openly shows his disgust at the imposition of quotas to ensure that a requisite number of women are appointed to these posts. In one interview with a candidate called Kate Moore (Tyne Daly), his questions reveal that she's spent all her career doing office work and has no experience in the field and has never even made an arrest. Callahan's scepticism about promoting people with no proof of their competence in the field leads to him being branded a Neanderthal and his concern about their safety on the streets is also summarily dismissed.
After DiGiorgio is killed attempting to arrest a group of terrorists who are in the process of stealing rocket launchers, explosives and a variety of other weapons from a munitions warehouse, Callahan is reassigned to homicide with a new partner, Detective Inspector Kate Moore. The way in which this unlikely partnership tracks down the terrorists who try to hold the city of San Francisco to ransom, surprisingly leads to them becoming friends before their mission reaches its action-packed climax at Alcatraz Island.
It's interesting that in "Magnum Force" Callahan's attitude to vigilantism changed because of what happened in that story and similarly, in "The Enforcer", his experience of working with a woman who showed her competence and bravery, leads to a certain softening of his attitude to the idea of women working in the homicide division. With his eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched, Clint Eastwood again does a good job of showing Callahan's disdain for various types of people but it's in his scenes with Tyne Daly that he shows greater subtlety as Callahan's new partner gradually starts to win his respect and friendship.
Harry, of course, is a walking anachronism and a male chauvinist and these qualities often get him into trouble. He does, however, have a recognised talent for dealing with some very challenging cases in a particularly forceful way and it's this ability that frequently enables him to extricate himself from the difficulties that his behaviour leads him into.
When Callahan and his partner Detective Inspector Frank DiGiorgio (John Mitchum) arrive at a liquor store robbery where the gunmen have taken hostages and demanded a car, Callahan simply gets into his police vehicle and drives it at great speed through the store-front windows before shooting and killing all the robbers. His quick, simple and effective way of dealing with this dangerous situation isn't appreciated by his superiors who promptly transfer him from the homicide division to the personnel department.
In his new role, Callahan takes part in a series of interviews with candidates who are being considered for promotion to inspector and openly shows his disgust at the imposition of quotas to ensure that a requisite number of women are appointed to these posts. In one interview with a candidate called Kate Moore (Tyne Daly), his questions reveal that she's spent all her career doing office work and has no experience in the field and has never even made an arrest. Callahan's scepticism about promoting people with no proof of their competence in the field leads to him being branded a Neanderthal and his concern about their safety on the streets is also summarily dismissed.
After DiGiorgio is killed attempting to arrest a group of terrorists who are in the process of stealing rocket launchers, explosives and a variety of other weapons from a munitions warehouse, Callahan is reassigned to homicide with a new partner, Detective Inspector Kate Moore. The way in which this unlikely partnership tracks down the terrorists who try to hold the city of San Francisco to ransom, surprisingly leads to them becoming friends before their mission reaches its action-packed climax at Alcatraz Island.
It's interesting that in "Magnum Force" Callahan's attitude to vigilantism changed because of what happened in that story and similarly, in "The Enforcer", his experience of working with a woman who showed her competence and bravery, leads to a certain softening of his attitude to the idea of women working in the homicide division. With his eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched, Clint Eastwood again does a good job of showing Callahan's disdain for various types of people but it's in his scenes with Tyne Daly that he shows greater subtlety as Callahan's new partner gradually starts to win his respect and friendship.