MovieChat Forums > Dirty Harry (1971) Discussion > Something I've Never Understood

Something I've Never Understood

posted 14 years ago by TheButlerDidItYes
17 replies | jump to latest

Okay. I like this movie a lot but there is one thing I just can't understand. After Harry tortures Larry Cotton he gets yelled at by the D.A. who cites recent Supreme Court rulings like Miranda and Harry seems to have never heard of these rulings or their bans on the kinds of police abuses Harry engaged in. How could Harry be ignorant of this? Not only because he's a seasoned cop but he's clearly old enough to have been a cop back in the 60's when those issues were in the news or if not a cop at least old enough to follow the news.

The poster formerly known as EloiMorlock

[–] grobmaster 14 years ago

He did know of those rulings. His overriding concern was to save the girl. Based on what he known at that point in time was she was going to dead within a hour or so unless the killer gave up her location and the only was that was going to happen would be for Harry to torture him

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jewellrunner 12 years ago

Are you really this stupid? He didn't know the girl was already dead at the time, which is explicitly mentioned in the film. As far as A) is concerned, I'm sure if you found out your daughter was due to die in 1 hour your biggest concern would be for the psycho's rights huh?

My Film Journal - Chrisfilm.wordpress.com

[–] montrossboc-1 8 years ago

Hooray for Harry.

Short Cut, Draw Blood

[–] jkono29 12 years ago

Probably because he was masked and they didn't have any rock solid proof he was the same guy? But I do agree that in the real world the city would find or INVENT a reason to keep the guy in custody.

[–] Guardia 12 years ago

He was masked but the leg wound would match. The blood at the scene etc.

But maybe in the 70s the police only had the power to prosecute the most recent crime.

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

[–] jkono29 12 years ago

Leg wound is not identity -- there is a chance someone else has the same wound. Not sure if city cops in the 70s could do much with blood. Definitely no DNA analysis, and blood type can only really eliminate people, not prove identity.

[–] Guardia 12 years ago

Well if they can't prove any of it was Scorpio, than they can't show that it was Harry torturing and intruding at the stadium either. In other words, it's all arbitrary.

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mcgill-646-33556 12 years ago

Speaking as one who is decidedly outside the United States; wouldn't one need a warrant to get some of Scorpio's blood in order to compare it with the blood on the knife? The police/doctors cannot obtain evidence from Scorpio without his explicit consent. And speaking from experience, I doubt a warrant would be issued in order to recover evidence that had been lost due to improper processes.

Besides, the "Goddammit, Callaghan!" scenes just add to the movie. If Harry went through the legit processes, it wouldn't be a Dirty Harry movie... it would be... Law and Order?

[–] badmilly 12 years ago

The DA never said, '...Scorpio could not be prosecuted.' He said "I'm not going to waste taxpayers money on trial we can't possibly win." Meaning, they had all the needed evidence to tie him to the crime(s) but with Callahan's failure to advise him of his Miranda warnings and using obviously improper questioning techniques (I.E. Torture!) they would have had to have some serious luck to even get him charged. If that would have miraculously occurred, they would have had NO CHANCE of winning a conviction, as all of the evidence would have been tainted. What lawyers and judges commonly refer to as, 'fruit from the poisonous tree'.
Harry was an old-school cop, who was portrayed as somewhat ill-informed (by design) on such minor inconveniences like Miranda and due process. He needed to find the girl, then worry about the s**tbirds 'rights' later.
But who really cares about that much realism in a movie..? It's about Harry kicking some a$$, giving the dirt-bag a richly deserved beating that makes everyone feel so much better!

[–] ericsugarland 10 years ago

This is an excellent sequence. I agree with the poster who said Harry would be familiar with the law. Any policeman would know that seizing that rifle without a warrant would be a problem. I also agree with the others who said that Harry did the right thing in getting that information out of the suspect, regardless of the method.

[–] glaeken777 10 years ago

It is the weakest, perhaps the only weak scene, in the film. The purpose seems to be to give the audience a quick 25 cent tour of constitutional law and due process -- but it foolishly does so at the expense of making Harry look ignorant, willful or not.

[–] maybe730 8 years ago

Another weak scene is when they stake out the rooftop at night because the brass and Harry believe Scorpio is going to try and kill a priest at the nearby church yet it's only Dirty Harry and his partner on an adjacent rooftop with the only other police presence being two cop near the ground who apparently were oblivious to everything. It's a weird scene displaying the ineptitude of not just Scorpio and the SFPD (which had just been done minutes before in the helicopter scene) but Harry himself. Harry's good at happening to be around when robberies are committed, fighting, and shooting folks but not much else police-wise.

[–] kisshooters69 10 years ago

Who's Larry Cotton?

Quote: I don't like repeat offenders. I like dead offenders. Ted Nugent.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]