he has to have so many mitigating circumstances that makes him almost a hero or a victim? Criminals killed his family in front of him, he only targeted parolees; sort of a black Dexter, yadda yadda Maybe it's a law in Canada concerning minority characters?
What are they doing? Why do they come here? Some kind of instinct, memory, what they used to do.
This didn't used to be the case. 'Long about the time Dirty Harry was made, there was a stint when every criminal was black. I think this reflected what was happening with the ubiquity of electronic news, and you'd always hear reports such as "suspect is black with da da da da" description. I used to think, "Don't the black actors get tired of always being the bad guys?" So if things have changed, it's deserved.
Yes, you're absolutely right, I was thinking about that when I wrote the comment. But movies of that era, or maybe it was TV detective shows, it seemed to me for a couple of years, every bad guy was black. And, remember, among the initial criminals that Harry took down was a black would-be robber who caused Harry to utter that all-time famous line, "Go ahead, make my day."
The bank robber at the beginning, the one Dirty Harry did his famous how many rounds did I fired routine, also was a pimp in the next DH movie, then he was a black power radical in the third one, then finally he was Harry's partner in the fourth one. Albert Popwell
What are they doing? Why do they come here? Some kind of instinct, memory, what they used to do.
In fact, 'Clinton Davis' (the name of a British Labour politician back in the 1970s) had no mitigating circumstances - he was a psychopath and a deeply dangerous individual. Just like 'Mitch' was a dishonest, lying lawyer who deserved to lose his job. He certainly didn't deserve to be awarded a Capraesque happy ending with his wife and child, and his reconciled step-brother. Dominic Cooper & Samuel L. Jackson ought to be ashamed of themselves, making garbage like this.
I seriously doubt that the casting came before the script. Chances are, they had a chance to cast Jackson and jumped all over it. The story was already in place. Nothing in the movie suggests that his character had to be black.