MovieChat Forums > Dirty Harry (1971) Discussion > Basic premise absurd based on San Franci...

Basic premise absurd based on San Francisco Geography

posted 11 years ago by steven_torrey
2 replies | jump to latest

Anyone who lives in San Francisco knows that the city is 7 miles wide, by 7 miles long--49 square miles. It would only take about 4 hours to walk from Ocean Beach to the Embarcadero on the Bay... Probably a little longer to walk from say Legion of Honor to Daly City--along Sunset Boulevard--because of the hills... So the basic premise of hiding, or being lost in the city is almost an absurdity... The same defect occured in Nash Bridges, which also takes place in San Francisco, that somehow one can be lost in the city...

[–] nickm2 11 years ago

Yeah I'm a local & do get a bit of a laugh with the 'run around' Harry is given by Scorpio...sure it's utterly impossible, but it's still a good sequence. I haven't seen it in years, do I remember wrongly or did the 'run around' start & Laguna Honda streetcar station & end at the Mt Davidson cross? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Laguna Honda is right below Mt Davidson, no?

[–] steven_torrey 11 years ago

I just saw it the other day at the Paramount in Oakland, Ca--and I think you are correct... I might add, in 1971, the downtown urban renewal project had cleared housing on Mission and Howard between 4th and 5th Streets (I think) which in 1971 was nothing but a huge parking lot. I think that parking lot existed for almost 25 years before Moscone Center was built and before Yerba Buena Gardens was built. The only thing standing in that area was St. Partick's Church on Mission. But none of that scenery made it in the movie, though the financial district was visible.