The Enforcer (1976)

Santa was once again very good to me this year, bringing me the forty film Clint Eastwood collection. This set includes all the films Eastwood made for Warner Bros. and it features all five of the Dirty Harry franchise, a feast fit for a King. This, the third film in the series, sees Harry Callahan once more stretching the boundaries of the law; in a terrific opening sequence he drives a car straight through the front of a store where some robbers have taken hostages, and have requested a car to make their getaway. We’re also introduced a troupe of baddies (insistent on blowing things up and eventually taking the mayor hostage) in a sequence that brought back memories of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, which funnily enough was released the same year. The Enforcer strikes an important balance between action and humour, something that both Dirty Harry (1971) and Magnum Force (1973) struggled to nail down (although both were still thoroughly entertaining movies), and despite the fact that The Enforcer isn’t the best of the franchise, it’s a very solid police thriller, enhanced by an excellent character in Tyne Daly’s Kate Moore, who becomes Callahan’s partner, much to his initial chagrin. The film’s finale also preempts Eastwood’s 1979 Escape from Alcatraz; by the end of The Enforcer you almost feel like you’ve been watching a Clint Eastwood greatest hits (minus the westerns of course) and it’s easy to see how Eastwood nails Callhan so well- three films in and still entertaining. 7.3/10