Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" films return to duty June 3, retooled and reloaded for the DVD and Blu-ray formats.
Warner Home Video's special edition of "Dirty Harry" merits a separate Blu-ray release, but you'll have to spring for the box set to get the other four Harry films in high definition.
All of the action movies have been remastered and come with new commentaries, Warner said. An earlier version of this box set came out in 2001. Some of those extras are being ported over to the new discs.
"The Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition" set includes the five films -- from the seminal "Dirty Harry" (1971) to the godawful "The Dead Pool" (1988) -- as well as the feature-length docu "Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows." The DVD box set has seven discs; the Blu-ray five.
Collectors may or may not get excited about a 40-page book, a wallet with badge and I.D. card; some 5x7-inch lobby card repros; a map tracking Harry's hunt across San Francisco for the Scorpio killer; and "never before seen" production correspondence.
I like a couple of these movies, notably "Dirty Harry," even though most of the films are quite dated in that ghastly '70s way. Don't mind the clunky right-wing moralizing that freaks out some folks (even though I'm a Clinton Democrat). DVD Savant, however, had some major issues with the ugliness of "Dirty Harry" back in 2001.
Here's the rundown on the separate DVDs' commentaries and the new extras:
Dirty Harry: Commentary by (the ever-reliable) Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel. New featurette "The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry," about the movie's legacy. The respected docu "Dirty Harry: The Original" with Robert Urlich, repeats from the 2001 DVD.
Magnum Force: Commentary by writer and man of action John Milius. New featurette: "A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry."
The Enforcer: Commentary by director James Fargo. New featurette "The Business End: Violence in Cinema."
Sudden Impact: Commentary again by Schickel. New featurette: "The Evolution of Clint Eastwood," about the star's career as a director (he helmed this film).
The Dead Pool: Commentary by producer David Valdes and Cinematographer Jack N. Green. New featurette: "The Craft of Dirty Harry."
The standard DVD box set will street for $75; the Blu-ray box's bail is set at $130.
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