Magnum Force

Magnum Force is the first sequel to Dirty Harry. In this second movie Harry has to investigate vigilante killings of criminals. It starts with the assassination of crime lords but after a while also small time criminals are shot. It turns out that the executions are performed by police officers. They believe Harry will be on their side but are of course mistaken. Even though Harry is trigger happy he sees himself as working in the system and obviously he only shoots the ‘right’ people. How to know who are the right people is a problem that the movie, like the first one has a hard time explaining. The right people are criminals that threaten to kill innocent civilians and when caught in the act by Harry start blasting away at him. He simply shoots back and as a result ends up killing them because his aim is near perfect. Unlike the vigilante cops he doesn’t shoot criminals that are not shooting at him or at civilians. That seems to be a slope too slippery even for Harry Callahan. This second movie again caused controversy and in real life Harry Callahan could not be tolerated but in a movie it is nice to see the bad guys get what they deserve without the risk of the wrong person getting a bullet in the head. Maybe some people truly believe that Harry Callahan is the solution to the problem of getting criminals convicted by courts. But I doubt these movies are really advocating that view. I see Harry as a man that lost his humanity having fought crime for too long, having been shot at too many times. And somehow he manages to only kill the ‘right’ people. Not very realistic obviously but it is only movie entertainment.