Dirty Harry retires to Detroit

Rating: 4/10 (14 June 2009)

I have always liked Clint and I grew up in the Detroit area so I had high hopes for this film. Unfortunately, the movie did not deliver. It's biggest weakness (and there are many) is its dated story. The 'angry white guy struggles to come to terms with racial diversity' theme was interesting and relevant in the early 1970s (e.g, All in the Family) but it's very tired and predictable now. Within the first few minutes of the film, you just know that Eastwood's character is going to end up being friends with the Asian family next door.
The setting of the film also seemed strangely dated to me. The film showed Eastwood's character all resentful and nostalgic for the time when his neighborhood was all white. However most of those old Detroit neighborhoods began changing 40-50 years ago. The attitudes and reactions of the Eastwood character seemed to belong to someone who was just beginning to experience this change and not someone who had been living with it for 50 years. I think the film would have made more sense if it had been set in the 1960s when these changes were underway rather than today.
Clint does have an aura of timelessness about him and he stills look damn good for a guy his age. However, the math in this movie doesn't work. Clint was just too old for the part which of course should not have been written as a Korean War Vet. Korean war vets are now well into their 70s and 80s. I have a hard time imagining guys this age driving around gang infested neighborhoods in Detroit with a pistol. It's even more implausible to think of such a person leaping out of a truck to face down three thugs on a street corner. But there was Clint doing the 'Dirty Harry' shtick well into his 70s. I found myself cringing in these scenes and wishing that Clint would have had a bit more dignity.
Clint has had an amazing career but this movie clearly shows that he should retire as both an actor and director.