Magnum Force **** (1973, Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitchell Ryan, David Soul, Tim Matheson, Robert Urich) – Classic Movie Review 1461

Clint Eastwood makes a welcome return in 1973 to his iconic role as maverick cop Inspector ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan in Magnum Force, the first sequel to his 1971 action thriller hit Dirty Harry, this time investigating the case of a vigilante or vigilantes bumping off San Francisco’s most notorious criminals. There might have been a slight sense of disappointment at the time that Magnum Force doesn’t have the force of Dirty Harry, but now it seems an essential, classic police thriller.

Callahan and his new partner, Early Smith (Felton Perry), have been temporarily re-assigned from homicide to stakeout duty. Disobeying the orders of his superior officer, Lieutenant Briggs (Hal Holbrook), Callahan begins to investigate a series of murders of the city’s criminals.

Callahan finds the murder victims were all killed by a slug from a .357 Magnum, the world’s most powerful handgun. But he knows that it is widely used in his own San Francisco Police Department. Could it be that one or more of his former colleagues have turned police vigilantes?

Magnum Force keeps up the expected violence and retribution level of the original film with a plot that is a subtle variation on the first, re-aligning and slightly reinventing the Dirty Harry character. This time Eastwood’s Dirty Harry seems much more of an uncomplicated good guy, a hero even rather than anti-hero, because he is compared to and contrasted with blatantly evil cops who are killing all and sundry.

Director Ted Post delivers a very good, solid genre thriller, with enough force and excitement. But it lacks the relentless, exciting, dynamic pace, the sly tone, the offbeat characters and the classic police detective yarn of Dirty Harry. Nevertheless, two esteemed mavericks of the cinema, John Milius and Michael Cimino, provide an effective plot and crackling dialogue.

Post is a decent action director, as he showed on Eastwood’s Western Hang ’em High (1968), but he can’t reach the parts Don Siegel did on Dirty Harry.

Hal Holbrook really relishes his role as the slimy police villain. David Soul (as Officer John Davis), Tim Matheson (Sweet), Robert Urich (Grimes) and Kip Niven (Astrachan) are well cast as the young vigilante cops. Mitchell Ryan (McCoy), Felton Perry, Christine White and Margaret Avery are also in the fine cast.

The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988) followed.

David Soul is well cast as the young vigilante corrupt motorcycle cop Officer John Davis in Magnum Force in 1973, the first sequel to Dirty Harry.

David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943 – January 4, 2024) appeared in The Secret Sharer (1967) and made his official film debut in Johnny Got His Gun (1971) and then played corrupt motorcycle cop Officer John Davis in Magnum Force in 1973. He starred in The Stick Up and Salem’s Lot.

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