Movie Review: Sudden Impact (1983) directed by Clint Eastwood
San Francisco is a dangerous city, as seen when a man is given a “.38 vasectomy” and a head shot in his car by his passenger. The next morning, Police Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is not initially investigating that case. He’s in court, where a previous investigation’s evidence is thrown out because Harry didn’t bother getting a search warrant. The assistant DA is not at all happy as Inspector Callahan has done this to him several times (but honestly should have known better than to go to trial with that evidence.) After that, Harry goes for his morning coffee, thwarting a robbery there by killing 3/4ths of the criminals.
That evening, Dirty Harry crashes a mobster’s daughter’s wedding, and manages to give the elderly man a heart attack by suggesting he has evidence linking the man, Threlkis, to a murder. Threlkis’ minions swear vengeance, and most of them die in an attempt to kill Harry. The next night, the jerks from the dismissed case try to murder Inspector Callahan and also perish.
Nobody’s shedding any tears for the criminal corpses, but it’s causing bad publicity for the department, plus civilians could get hurt if they’re near Harry when he’s targeted. However, due to his success rate in prominent cases, it’s no longer possible to fire Harry or reassign him to a desk job. It’s been discovered that the man who died in his car came from San Paulo, a small touristy place down the coast. Inspector Callahan is assigned to do a background check on him to cool off the heat.
The audience has learned that the .38 killer is artist Jennifer Spenser (Sondra Locke). Ten years ago, she and her sister were gang-raped near the amusement pier in San Paulo. Jennifer was traumatized and her sister driven into a vegetative state. The police chief Lester Jannings (Pat Hingle) covered up the affair as his son was a reluctant part of the gang. Recently, Jennifer spotted one of the gang in San Francisco, stalked him, and successfully killed him. This vengeance gave her some satisfaction, and now she’s moved back to San Paulo to hunt down the others.
By a couple of coincidences, Jennifer and Harry meet and find themselves attracted to each other. It helps that Dirty Harry has been given a bulldog he names “Meathead” by his current partner Horace King (Albert Popwell, a bit of a casting gag as he’d been a criminal in each of the three previous movies.) Meathead’s a bit of a handful, but successfully alerts Inspector Callahan to a final hitman. (The dog is injured, but does not die.)
As the bodies pile up, both the rapists and Harry begin to put together the pieces. Unfortunately, the final member of the gang, Mick (Paul Drake) is a real piece of work, and manages to get the upper hand for a while, sparking off a climactic confrontation.
This fourth Dirty Harry movie was also supposed to be the last (just like the third.) It’s even darker in tone than the previous ones with its theme of the consequences of sexual violence. There’s a lot of death here.
Harry’s more sympathetic to the vigilante here than in Magnum Force, at least partially because he’s emotionally involved, but also because she has a finite agenda and doesn’t kill bystanders. Once the revenge is over, so is her vigilante career.
Chief Jannings is initially hostile to Inspector Callahan just for being a violent big city cop acting out of his jurisdiction, but it quickly becomes personal when he figures out the connection between the victims and how it affects him. He’s been carrying around a lot of guilt for his and his son’s actions, and Mick’s been able to leverage that for special treatment. By the time Jannings resolves to do better, though, it’s too late.
There is, as always, some great violent action. The darkened carousel and surrounding amusement park are an effective setting for the climax. There’s a little fun with Harry being out of his element in San Paulo and taking care of a dog.
Political: Jennifer rants about “victim rights”, and has been poorly served by the legal system. She admires Harry for being more about results than procedure. It’s clear reading between the lines though that Inspector Callahan is not very good at getting convictions, only dead perpetrators.
Content note: Deadly violence, some a bit gory; with the last death being well over the top. Rape and attempted rape. Sex, no genitals. Nudity, mostly female. Sexist, racist and ableist slurs. Meathead provides body function humor. Attempted suicide in the backstory. General rough language.
Overall: By this time, “cowboy cops” were all too common in movies, many quite bad. Mr. Eastwood was getting tired of the character and anxious to try more diverse projects. So he directed this (almost) farewell to the series with an eye to how Dirty Harry had been affected by past experiences and a more sympathetic antagonist. It’s not the best in the series, but it’s pretty good. I would like to see a story sometime about the poor cops who have to clean up after Inspector Callahan and do all the paperwork.
