Dirty Harry, 1971

May, 2023 | JOSEPH GERVASE

Dirty Harry is an all-time classic action thriller film that was released in 1971, directed by Don Seigel that pushed the boundaries in terms of moral standing. Starring the legendary Clint Eastwood, it follows the life of Harry Callahan, an American cop for the San Francisco Police Department who acts as a vigilante, often apprehending his suspects with intense aggression and bending the law to his benefit, tasked with tracking down and arresting a ruthless serial killer that goes by the name Scorpio. He was given the nickname Dirty Harry due to the fact that he always took the odd jobs, and never really played by the rules. This film marked the birth, or at the very least, the popularization of the “anti-hero” on screen, a pseudo-protagonist who the audience could not help but root for, even despite all of his heinous actions that can be seen as ethically wrong. 

In the film Dirty Harry, much like a typical modern-day conservative viewpoint on gun control, owning a gun isn’t inherently morally good or bad, it depends on who is wielding it. When thinking about Virtue Ethics, some virtues of a responsible gun owner would include self-control, patience, and an overall high regard for human life. When it comes to the film, Harry Callahan, despite being a police officer, does not possess the traits of a responsible gun owner. At many points during the film, he harasses his suspects and unlawfully interrogates them. Once he finally tracks down Scorpio, he doesn’t even read him his rights, and tortures him to try to get him to confess to his crimes. Obviously, due to this unfortunate turn of events, Scorpio is able to walk free, all because Callahan was highly irresponsible. It provokes thought on the questionable nature of vigilantism and dirty cops as a whole, as he takes the law into his own hands and disregards the legal process.

At the end of the film, Callahan comes face to face with Scorpio once more. He again has the opportunity to arrest him, but he instead opts for the more destructive route. As Dirty Harry shoots and kills Scorpio, it is up to the audience whether or not to decide if this was the morally right thing to do. Once again, Callahan does not display the virtue ethics of a responsible gun owner IN this case, yet it still raises a valid question. From a legal and ethical perspective, it was undeniably wrong, but from a moral perspective, you could make the argument that he took the life of a man who was terrorizing and killing multiple people throughout the course of the film, in turn preventing any more deaths from happening at the hands of Scorpio. Callahan then throws his badge into the river, which is him acknowledging that his days as a law enforcement officer are over, and fully embracing his role of a vigilante.

 We can also see this movie from the lens of Kantian Ethics. When viewing Harry Callahan through Kant's philosophy, his disregard for the law and use of excessive force through vigilantism is ethically wrong. The reason is that it violates the dignity of the criminals he’s apprehending, despite whether or not they are actually good people themselves. At the point in the film where he first gets to Scorpio, he humiliates him and tortures him to try to get him to talk, which goes against what Kant says. Callahan’s detestable actions violate the social contract. Instead of treating the law as an end itself, he treats the criminals he chases as a means to achieving that end, disregarding Scorpio’s moral worth as a human being. He also does this on a number of other occasions, as his inability to uphold the law is constantly getting him into hot water.

At the same time, you could also make the argument against Scorpio and overall gun control in regard to Kantian ethics. The fact that he had the ability to purchase a high-powered rifle, as well as multiple handguns in order to carry out his crimes violates the categorical imperative. Purchasing such weaponry means abiding by the moral laws that every person on Earth must follow, regardless of any other inclination or impulse that person might have. Scorpio disregards this and acts with the express intent of hurting innocent people, so this goes against what Kant says. In this sense, the most interesting part of the film is the fact that Callahan and Scorpio aren’t so ethically different. They both violate the virtues of a responsible gun owner, as well as Kantian ethics. In the end, it almost as if Dirty Harry has become the man he has spent all this time hunting down.

The film Dirty Harry did a phenomenal job at highlighting the numerous arguments in moral philosophy, and they remain prominent conversations over fifty years later. Harry Callahan is a very morally gray character that sheds light on many ethical dilemmas, which is why it is an all-time classic. He violates the virtue ethics of a responsible gun owner, as well as Kantian ethics because he often acts as if he is above the law. It raises the question of the moral standing when it comes to vigilantism, and the interesting nature of the anti-hero overall. If you think about it, he isn’t so different than his antagonist counterpart. I would absolutely recommend this film to anyone who likes the action-thriller genre, and the same goes for those who enjoy a thought-provoking story.