Bad day in the office but with guns, and it's not in an office.

A psychopathic sniper is on the loose and our main man (Harry Callahan - Clint Eastwood) is trying to shoot him. But Harry's bosses seem intent on making our hero go by the book and Harry's having none of it...

Because they only give him the dirty jobs.

"Oh! Trips to school on the school bus!! It brought back such happy memories of being smacked in the kisser by the big kid in charge..."

"More guns than you could shake a stick at."

"More sneers than you could shake a gun at."

"It is amazing that the school bus managed to hit that pile of sand which looks like it was in the middle of nowhere."

"Did you know that Eastwood actually jumped from the bridge onto the school bus... thank goodness the bus was only traveling at 1 mile an hour when he did it."

"Has anyone else noticed that Eastwood has a very big head for his shoulders?"

"BANG! Oh keep the noise down I'm trying to sleep."

Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a plain clothes police inspector in San Francisco.

Harry doesn't get on with his superiors, presumably because he doesn't follow orders although he seems well motivated which must count for something.

His bosses are determined for Harry to go by the book, but Harry is determined to do the right thing. His long term career prospects don't look too good when he eventually gets to kill the sniper at the end of the movie...

Don't fear fans there was a Dirty Harry 2...

From the looks of things, Clint Eastwood was one of the last actors in Hollywood to be offered this movie. Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman were all offered the role before Eastwood accepted it. Could this have been Sinatra's finest hour?

Eastwood plays a good caricature of a mean and snarly police officer loner. Almost cartoon like at times. Harry is sort of like a Willie Coyote but not accident prone and not a wolf and doesn't shop at The Acme Company... he's just damn keen...

A good and dark thriller and Eastwood is cynical enough to pull it off.

A riveting dark and gritty actioner filled with guns going bang or being waved about threateningly and sneers from moody characters. Eastwood is superbly moodily-cynical and you can't help but get on his side, especially as he is just crazily doing the right thing, forget the pension and the income... what drives these people? (Although come to think about it if he wasn't like that then it would have been a much shorter movie, perhaps would only have been made into a Looney Tunes cartoon.)

Has all of the feeling of the 1970's TV cop shows but without the crap bad-boy actors and poorly choreographed dancy-fighting. It is well acted throughout; in fact the bit on the school bus is so good it is painful to watch. Did we spot a Charlies Angel's musical riff in the score at the beginning of this movie?

Apparently Frank Sinatra was going to play Harry but he had a wrist injury so pulled out.