MovieChat Forums > Magnum Force (1973) Discussion > Kinda spoils the first film

Kinda spoils the first film

posted 15 years ago by keithbalbi
14 replies | jump to latest

I'm 3/4 of the way through Magnum Force so far and although i'm enjoying it a lot, I kind of wish it never got made, along with the other sequels.

The first film was all about Harry turning his back on the legal system. He starts to question whether being a cop is right for him and then when he finds out that Scorpio is walking away free and even being given his money, he turns his back on the system and hunts Scorpio down and kills him. Then he throws away his badge, making the decision that being a cop is not for him anymore.

The only reason he's now back as a cop is coz Hollywood can't leave a good thing alone.

I also don't like how the villains are vigilante cops. This is exactly what Harry was in the first film, but now we're supposed to not like vigilante cops and they are seen as villains?

Despite those points, I do think it's a great film.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] docholliday504 15 years ago

I disagree. There's a very fine line between what Harry did in the first film and what the vigilantes were doing in this film. Harry wasn't a vigilante. He was a cop with little regard for protocol. Harry Never shot anyone in cold blood in Dirty Harry. The most egregious of his offenses in Dirty Harry was torturing Scorpio. He doesn't kill unless he's protecting himself or others. The vigilantes were assassinating people.

Illusions Micheal..illusions...tricks are something that a whore does for money.....or Cocaine

[–] Kroyall1962 14 years ago

Docholliday has it exactly right. Eastwood intentionally wanted to clarify Callahan's motivations in this film and show the distinction between him and true vigilantes. Harry's main complaint with the justice system is it had been rendered ineffective by favoring criminals through legal technicalities and politics among the city police force and government. Philosophically, he supports the system and is willing to work within it but favors pushing the boundaries to get results.

[–] NumeroOne 14 years ago

Harry is very different. He has personal values that happen to go against the system sometimes. The other cops don't really have values- they just want to use their status as cops to get the power to do whatever they want.

That's something I think many critics of Magnum Force miss- that the cops aren't vigilantes as much as TRUE fascists. They believe in using the state and the law to give themselves absolute power. Harry does not. In the original, for instance, he tortures Scorpio out of a desire to save the kidnapped girl, because he couldn't handle the fact that his following the law would result in the girl's death. Harry, if anything, is a humanist.

"Under strengths... You just put 'Accounts.' That's just your job." ~David Brent, The Office

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] LuckyGoldStar 14 years ago

Magnum Force is a great movie and doesn't spoil the first one. Harry threw his badge away because at that point he didn't believe in the law anymore. Harry isn't interested in the law he's interested in justice, he gets justice the best way possible unlike the vigilante cops who didn't give a damn about justice as they were killing McCoy and sacrificing Sweet.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] facebookblows009 14 years ago

Magnum Force is good, but not as good as Dirty Harry. It takes a long time for MF to get started, it feels mechanical as opposed to the realistic and gritty feel of the original, and Harry is not as interesting as he is in the first picture.

However, I do like that Magnum Force expands on the message of the first film. The first picture is about how the flaws in the system try to stop cops from arresting and shooting when it is right to do so. The second film says that a man has to know his "limitations," which means that he must know when it is right to shoot somebody, and when it is wrong; he has to know right from wrong. Harry knows his "limitations." He knows right from wrong. The vigilante cops do not know their "limitations," and they only do wrong.

[–] say_whut 14 years ago

well who defines right and wrong: the same society that produces laws harry can completely disregard in the first film? are you arguing movie logic or real world stuff here?

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] bv-j 12 years ago

These cops were worse than the criminals that they killed. They killed innocent witnesses and also fellow officers. I see the point you ll make about them killing mobsters and the pimp. That's still murder!! Murder is murder regardless of whose murdered. Them killing the criminals didn't bother him as much, but they took things way too far. The pimp was murdered without any arrest or trial. The mobster was acquitted on a technicality.

[–] elrando 11 years ago

When you say " He hunts Scorpio down and kills him." your making it sound like he just straight up finds him and kills him as he's sitting down eating a sandwich. He doesn't lethally pursue Scorpio until Scorpio hijacks a bus full of children. Sure, the officials wanted to try to meet Scorpio's demands and Harry went against them in that respect, but that's a far cry from Vigilantism. He even tries to apprehend him, but Scorpio goes to reach for his weapon, so Harry was totally within his rights to kill him.

"Panic.It crept up my spine like first rising vibes of an acid frenzy."-raoul duke

[–] 11 years ago

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