On a recent afternoon at the Warner Bros. lot, Clint Eastwood took a break from a long day in the editing bay and strolled over to a hushed screening room. There, his armed-and-dangerous past was waiting for him, and the filmmaker winced when he looked it in the eye.
"Who's that young fella?" he asked, a flicker of a smile crossing his famously craggy face. Up on the screen was Eastwood, circa 1971, staring down the barrel of a huge gun with an expression of cruel calmness. The role was, of course, Harry Callahan, the San Francisco cop with good aim and bad attitude, who opened fire in "Dirty Harry," a movie that ushered in the modern American cinema of vengeance. He kept reloading for four sequels over 17 years, amassing a body count that began in the Nixon era and lasted into the twilight of the Reagan years.
Eastwood, who turned 78 on Saturday, has become an American filmmaker of the highest order -- he first rode to fame as a rangy, amoral redux of John Wayne but, somehow, came back from the desert as a latter-day John Ford. With that career trajectory, it wouldn't be surprising if Eastwood turned his back on Callahan, whose darkly whispered one-liners (". . . You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" "Go ahead, make my day") were long ago drained of any real danger by stand-up comics, politicians and bumper stickers. It's easy to imagine Eastwood the auteur treating the character like a bad 1970s fashion choice.
Instead, Eastwood is reconnecting with the surly old gun nut. Warner Home Video on Tuesday will release a lavish new boxed set of all five "Dirty Harry" movies (the $75 DVD set includes 1973's "Magnum Force," 1976's "The Enforcer," 1983's "Sudden Impact" and 1988's "The Dead Pool") that comes with a faux police badge tucked inside an eel-skin pouch. There's also a letter to fans penned by Eastwood, who has been busy lately putting finishing touches on his latest directorial project, "Changeling," and presenting it at the Cannes Film Festival (it hits U.S. theaters in November).
Sitting in the screening room at Warners, Eastwood explained that the role of Callahan was "a real turning point" for him -- and American popular culture. There's also a sentimental aura around the first film: It was directed by the late Don Siegel, Eastwood's mentor and friend, and brought the actor back to his hometown of San Francisco. He also knows that, for good or bad, in the minds of movie fans he will forever carry Callahan's .44 Magnum.
