Annoying Holbrook
Is it me, or does Hal Holbrook (Briggs) overuse 'Callahan!' throughout the film?
shareBradford Dillman was more annoying in The Enforcer for me . Magnum Force wouldn't have been the same without Holbrook
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MovieChat Forums > Magnum Force (1973) Discussion > Annoying Holbrook
I agree. Plus he says it a little strange.
shareHolbrook is a good actor, and made more of the part than was written for it.
shareHolbrook's role was indeed annoying but it did show one truth. Crooked cop as he was or not, the system protects criminals and I didn't feel any sympathy for the no-goods that were knocked off & that included the sheister lawyer & mob chauffeur. Bring more on!
shareBleeding-heart Liberals always seem to favor the criminals too. It almost seems like a double standard.
You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan
Bleeding-heart Liberals always seem to favor the criminals too.
Since you're going to insert that hoary old cliche, would you like to provide some instances when such "favoring" has actually happened in the real world? share
Holbrook was excellent in this movie.
"Don't play games with this, Callahan. Whose side are you on, anyway?"
I'm happiest...in the saddle.
No, he was great.
share"Well put your pants back on Calahan"
shareI always laugh when they announce over the police radio that Callahan is on the hijacked plane and there's a quick shot of Holbrook in the car. He just says `Callahan!' and it cuts back to the action. Ha!
And yes, Holbrook was great in this. Dillman was much more annoying.
"I always laugh when they announce over the police radio that Callahan is on the hijacked plane and there's a quick shot of Holbrook in the car. He just says `Callahan!' and it cuts back to the action. Ha!"
Reminds me of J.D. Cannon in any given episode of "McCLOUD".
he does call him Harry on a couple of occasions.i thought he was the best superior "Callahan" had in the whole series.
shareHal Holbrook is great in this movie. I love his reply to Harry in the morgue scene, "You're all heart, Callahan." In the final scene when Briggs has a gun pointed at Harry, I like the way Briggs wipes away the blood from his eyebrow with a shaking hand. He's such an abrasive jerk in this movie it was good to see him get blown up.
shareIs this thread serious? Hal Holbrook is one of our greatest living actors.
I take it the OP probably doesn't "get" Mark Twain either.
I keep searching for a bad Holbrook performance in a film and can never find one. He took otherwise average studio flicks like "The Firm," "The Star Chamber" and "Into the Wild" and made them compulsively watchable.
I like him best in "The Fog" as Father Malone. Closest impersonation of Edgar Allan Poe ever--and wasn't even trying!
I like how they cut from the previous scene of Briggs calling Callahan to "Get down here..." and straight to the morgue scene with a direct continuation of the dialogue "...you and you're partner are back on Homicide."
Eastwood's next line. "This is rather dramatic of you Lieutenant..." It seems like a reference to the edit itself.
If you're going to be annoyed with anyone over this, it should be the script writers. Holbrook's just saying the lines he was given.
shareRegarding the "Get down here" edit: Yeah, I noticed that too.
Callahan, on the phone: "Morgue? What the hell for, Briggs? I'm not on Homicide anymore, I'm a stakeout man now, remember?"
(cut to)
Briggs, now in the morgue with Callahan: "Not anymore, Callahan, you and your partner are back on Homicide."
I imagined Briggs' reply to Callahan on the phone, the reply we don't hear because of the cut, to be: "Listen, Harry, it would look really cool if you were suddenly in this room with me when I answer that question. So just hang up the phone, come down here, and ask me the same thing again. I know it seems strange, but just trust me."
This kind of edit has also appeared in other cop/action movies, and if there isn't a Sniglet for it, there ought to be. (If you watched HBO in the '80s, you'll know what that means.)
Sniglet -- the perfect word for what you are alluding to. Thank you.
Since you caught my attention, you get my two cents on the original premise of this thread.
Yes, I think that Lt. Briggs was quite annoying throughout this film.
Yes, I think that Hal Holbrook acted well in this movie, as he did in most of his roles.
No, I don't think those two observations are mutually exclusive. Rather, I think that Holbrook's superior acting skill is what made Briggs' character so annoying.
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