Rating: 
Summary: "The dirtiest Harry of them all"
Review: "The Enforcer" from 1976(the bicentennial year),the second sequel to "Dirty Harry",(considered by many to be one of the all time classic detective films,Richard Schickel of TIME magazine,the late great Gene Siskel,and The American Film Institute included),may be a better companion piece to the original than the second sequel, "Magnum Force",(that's open to debate.) It came out at Christmas like the others and was just as big a hit at the box office. The screenplay by the late Dean Riesner who co-wrote the original "Dirty Harry" and the late Stirling Silliphant(Academy Award winner in 1967 for the crime drama "In The Heat Of The Night" and he co-wrote the disaster flicks "The Poseidon Adventure" from 1972 and "The Towering Inferno" from 1974),has a plot similar to the original.Except this time instead of one murdering,kidnapping extortionist,Harry Callahan has to deal with seven of them. I first saw "The Enforcer" in the theatre when it was first released(in the same place I saw both "Dirty Harry" and "Magnum Force",my hometown of Arlington,Virginia),and the movie still holds up after more than 20 years.It became one of the most popular of the series.It was on both the ABC & NBC television networks and was broadcast more than a half a dozen times,a sign of a ratings winner.In fact "The Enforcer" was the inspiration for the 1980's NBC series "Hunter". Tyne Daly gives a good performance in the role of Harry's rookie partner.Back then in the mid '70's she was one of the first women detectives.This was several years before she became known as Detective Lacy in CBS's "Cagney & Lacy" back in the '80's for which she was an Emmy Award winner.In an article in TV Guide in August 2000,Ms.Daly revealed that she turned the part of "Inspector Kate Moore" down a few times.However,Clint Eastwood talked her into doing it after he decided to expand her role and letting her get to shoot some of the bad guys.The picture was directed by James Fargo,who had been an Assistant Director on Clint Eastwood's previous film "The Outlaw Josey Wales" that was released just six months earlier.He also had been Assistant Director on some other Eastwood films and two of then unknown Steven Spielbergs' earliest films,"The Sugarland Express" and "Duel".And, he was Production Manager on "Jaws"."The Enforcer" was James Fargo's first film as Director.The picture has fine cinematography and makes good use of the San Francisco locations. I missed composer Lalo Schifrin's moody music.He was unavailable at the time.The late Jerry Fielding's jazz score is good though.Mr.Fielding had been nominated for an "Oscar" for Best Original Score for "The Outlaw Josey Wales".Unfortunately,he didn't win.Also, even though there were seven villians this time,led by a wacko Vietnam vet,an underground terrorist group who called themselves "The People's Revolutionary Strike Force",(probably inspired by The Symbianese Liberation Army),I didn't build up nearly as much hatred for them as I did for that creep "Scorpio" in "Dirty Harry". Gene Siskel called "Scorpio", "one of the most contemptable louses in movie history".I couldn't agree more.That was Andy Robinson who played "Scorpio" in his very impressive movie debut. Some more trivia for you,James Fargo went on to direct "Every Which Way But Loose" two years later in 1978,which was Clint Eastwood's biggest box-office hit,on the list of the Top 100 All-Time Box-Office Champions,(adjusted for inflation as of December 2002).And,the late actor John Mitchum,who played "Detective Frank "Fatso" DiGeorgio",Harry's occasional partner in all three pictures, is the brother of the late actor Robert Mitchum.He was a year younger.The theatre trailer and the TV ads and the newspaper ads claimed "The Enforcer" to be,"The dirtiest Harry of them all".Judge for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Another fine example of why they call him 'Dirty' Harry.
Review: A group of thugs passing themselves off as The People's Revolutionary Army (or something like that) grab a stockpile of weapons and ammunition, killing Harry Callahan's friend and partner in the process. Callahan's new partner is a woman, something he does not particularly agree with, and she can barely keep up as Inspector #71 tears through San Francisco looking for the PRA. The Enforcer (Dirty Harry #3) lacks the grit and energy of the first Dirty Harry and the excessive bullet riddled body count of the second (Magnum Force). In comparison it almost seems sedate, both visually and in terms of its action content. What the movie does offer is a solid, if a bit routine, police action thriller story made better than average by its script. Harry's deathbed visit to the fading Frank DiGiorgio and his snappy relationship with rookie Inspector Kate Moore are both well done. On the action side of things, fans will no doubt enjoy Harry's unique handling of a hostage situation, a foot chase across San Francisco's rooftops, and the kidnapping of The Mayor. Recommended. Trivia - This is the only film in the series not scored by Lalo Schifrin. He was unavailable at the time. Harry Guardino returns as Lt. Bressler from the first Dirty Harry and Bradford Dillman (playing Captain McKay here) would return as Captain Briggs in the fourth Dirty Harry, Sudden Impact. Albert Popwell makes his third of four Dirty Harry appearances. In the first Harry adventure he is the wounded bankrobber on the receiving end of Harry's famous "Do you feel lucky?" speech. In the second he plays a murderous pimp who gets more than a simple traffic stop. Here is a black militant who agrees to help Harry, for a price. In the fourth he got to play Harry's friend and partner...uh-oh. Sadly he is absent in The Dead Pool.
Rating:
Summary: Not exactly "marvelous", but not bad, either
Review: About a decade before Billy Crystal beat the word to death on SNL, "marvelous" became Harry's little catch phrase in 'The Enforcer', which I consider to be the weakest entry in the entire 'Dirty Harry' saga. The bad guys, a bunch of Symbionese Liberation Front wannabes, didn't exactly put any fear in me. Their leader looked like he'd be more at home hangin' ten down in SoCal than as an urban terrorist. The climax to the obligatory final fight scene at Alcatraz was kinda hokey too. And they also decided to bump off one of the beloved supporting characters that had seen action in the previous two DH flicks. I'll not say who exactly-let's just say he'll not have to worry about "too much linguine" anymore. But, even with these nits, I still find 'The Enforcer' to be a passable waste of an hour-and-a-half. Much like the previous & subsequent DH mo-pics, this one features a future notable TV/film star. Tyne Daly, four-time Emmy winner of 'Cagney & Lacey' fame, saw her action as a street cop here, as yet another unfortunate partner for Harry. Then there's my fave moment: the big in-joke. Our anti-hero's talking to Big Ed Mustapha, a Black Pantheresque militant. At one point Harry asks him if they know each other from somewhere. What's the joke, you ask? Well, here you go: The guy who plays Mustapha (Albert Popwell) appeared in the first four DH movies, each time as a different character. He was the bank robber who felt lucky in DH, the pimp in MF, and Harry's partner Horace in the subsequent 'Sudden Impact'. Now on to the DVD's features. The guys at the WB did a really good job fixing up the picture & sound quality for the DVD release. There's far less crud & clutter on the film, and the new sound mix really gives the gunshots good reverb. As for extras, there isn't all that much- a mini-doc covering the making of 'The Enforcer', and a trailer. One final bit of useless trivia: 'The Enforcer' is the only DH movie where the soundtrack score was not composed by Lalo Schifrin. Strangely enough, however, one of the members of the bad-guy crew is named Lalo. A coincidence? Probably... 'Late
Rating:
Summary: finally THE ENFORCER on dvd!
Review: and it sure looks great on widescreen + it is all in its R rated glory as clint eastwood makes his 3rd film as dirty harry. he reluctantly teams up with a female partner (wonderfully played by tyne daly)as they try to wipe out a militia group terrorizing san francisco. see i use to see THE ENFORCER on TBS a gazillion times with the usual cuts for violence, sex and language. this is the 1st time seeing it uncut and wow! check out harry going undercover (as "larry dickman") in a brothel searching for a female militia member. it is more hilarious to what harry sees there that you didn't see in the tv version. or the classic moment where harry hands his badge (he says "7 point suppository") to his superior (angrily played by bradford dillman). here, harry callahan may be dirty and doing unorthodox methods in fighting crime but he is smart & knows what the hell he's doing while the higher ups, including the mayor, are a sorry bunch of losers.
Rating: 
Summary: Going Through The Motions
Review: Clint Eastwood must have been offered a lot of money to do this picture. Without a doubt the worst of the Dirty Harry movies. It seemed like Clint was doing a parody of himself. The only saving grace is Taye Daly's role as a rookie detective that gives Harry a run for his money. There are also some good oneliners. The next Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact is a major improvement.
Rating:
Summary: Eastwood's Acting is terrific
Review: Clint Eastwood takes up his ledgendary 357.magnum again in the third installment of the "Dirty Harry" Trilogy. While Dirty Harry Callahan is tracking down a group of terrorists holding the city's Mayor hostage for $2 Millon Callahan is forced to work with a female partner who has no real on the job expierence. Viloent and straightforward action with the funny one liners never let up The chemisty between Eastwood & Daly is belivable and thus making the film a classic & a standout in the series. The ending also proves memorable.
Rating:
Summary: A Sequel That Lets Down
Review: Dirty Harry was A Great film, Magnum Force was even Better, But the Enforcer lets down. It has to deal with revelutionary Kids Who kidnap the Mayor, and only Harry Can get him back.This is not a good movie but still watchable for the alcatraz climax
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre Dirty Harry
Review: I think that 1976's "The Enforcer" is where the Dirty Harry series quit trying to be about something. Part one was about how inadequate the law can be in some extream cases. Part two was about the police vigilantes. But this is not really about anything. The story is about extream radicals who are terrorizing the San Francisco area, not for any lofty ideals, but for money. Clint Eastwood was by this time a major action star, and all of a sudden it was not impotant for him to be in a good movie, just in a profitable one. And it really shows. The acting is wooden, the camera work is nothing special, just point and shoot. If there was any good sequences it was the last showdown in Alcatraz Island; that was fast paced and exciting. All though Eastwood was going through the motions, his new partner was really good. Tyne Daily plays Callahan's most resiliant and memorable partner. She is a good cop, just promoted past her abilities. If given time, she could have been a good police officer. All in all this was pretty poor entry, the weakest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Dirty Harry and a female partner face hippie revolutionaries
Review: In the original "Dirty Harry," Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) went after a serial killer and in the "Magnum Force" sequel he went after vigilante cops. To balance the latter, with its liberal nightmare, the third film in the series, "The Enforcer," offers up a conservative counterpart by having the villains be long-haired hippie freaks in something called the Ecumenical Liberation Army (i.e., think about Tanya, a.k.a. Patty Hearst, and the SLA). The obvious point is that when it comes to be judge, jury, and executioner, Dirty Harry does not make distinctions, ideological or otherwise.
On the one hand the villains in "The Enforcer" are the weakest of any of the films in the series, but then the ELA is only Dirty Harry's target and not his opponent. That would be Kate Moore (Tyne Daly). The film begins with another example of how Dirty Harry has this bad habit of going after criminals on the streets of San Francisco in his own special way (hey, criminals ask for a car, Harry gives them a car), which always gets him punished by being transferred from Homicide to something less fun like the Personnel department, which is where he ends up this time, working on the promotion board. When he first Moore she is up for a promotion and although he puts her through the wringer, making clear his disdain for the idea that a woman can be a good cop, the politics of the time not only ensure that she gets promoted to fullfill some quota, but the ironic frame of the film means she ends up being Harry's partner when he is put back on the street so that he has a chance to go around and shoot more people, who, this time around at least, tend to start shooting first so that it is more self defense than natural orneriness when Harry starts firing back with greater accuracy and bigger bullets.
Moore surprises Harry because she is not stupid, either in what she says or does, and manages to learn from him despite his attitude and unwillingness to explicitly teacher her anything about the job. Of course, in due time she actually saves Harry's life and he is forced to mumble something about how he could have a worse partner than Moore. Of course, in retrospect we are not surprised that Tyne Daly, who went on to win four Emmys (including three in a row) for her consummate performance as Mary Beth Lacey on "Cagney & Lacey), can hold her own with Clint Eastwood. Given how laughable the hippie revolutionaries are this film could have ended up being a big joke without her performance and the chemistry she has with the star, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that there is absolute nothing sexual about their relationship.
The best parts of this movie are Harry and Moore establishing their relationship and becoming a team. These are the scenes that have not only the most humor, as Harry's chauvinism runs into Moore's competence, but also that actually bet beyond the facade of the character of Dirty Harry. This is what makes many of the action sequences, in contrast, to seem so cartoonish, especially in the film's end game when the mayor is kidnapped and Harry gets to use a bazooka during the final shootout on Alcatraz Island. It might seem strange that the interpersonal relationship is the best part of a Dirty Harry movie, but that is the part of "The Enforcer" that gets five stars, while the violence that was supposed to be the big attraction gets only a three (and the film almost loses another star because of the costumes and music, even more so now that they are both so outdated).
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Film, But Questionable Message
Review: In this interesting Dirty Harry film, Harry and company duel with a weird group of "revolutionaries." While the plot and characterization are compelling, the scenario gives rise to some questions. How come Dirty Harry never paused from his pursuit of these terrorists, and asked himself, "Why do they hate us?" Harry seemed determined simply to wipe out these terrorists, in a unilateral fashion, as a cowboy would do. He never considered forming a coalition, or dispatching inspectors to monitor the activities of the group -- there was absolutely no mention of the United Nations. Dirty Harry, in his dealings with these terrorists, was at no time compassionate, tolerant, diverse or inclusive. He just seemed to think that killing them was the only way to stop them (which, indicentally, it WAS -- but that's beside the point). Harry did not at any time take into account any specific cultural or religious motivations which might have prompted the terrorists to kill people, and he seemed to have no regard whatever for their feelings. Shouldn't Harry have been more sensitive, diverse, tolerant, inclusive and compassionate? Isn't that the best way, according to about half the people who participated in a national survey conducted November 2000, to deal with terrorists who want to wipe you out?
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