Cop Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) attempts to track down a psychopathic rooftop killer before a kidnapped girl dies. When he is found Harry abuses the murderer's civil rights putting him back on the streets. Once he is released he hijacks a school bus and Harry must go after him again. The only way to stop this vicious killer is in cold blood.
“Dirty Harry is suspenseful, energetic stuff, directed with urgency and style by Don Siegel; embellished with some of Lalo Schifrin's coolest electro-jazz confections; and driven by the inimitable Clint Eastwood as detective ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan.
The film propelled Eastwood to his second round of stardom, left its mark on countless urban cop dramas to come, and marked the beginning of one of the most celebrated director/star relationships in American cinema.” - TV Guide
"I think films are more often a mirror of society than an agent of change, and that when we blame the movies for the evils around us we are getting things backward. "Dirty Harry" is very effective at the level of a thriller. At another level, it uses the most potent star presence in American movies -- Clint Eastwood -- to lay things on the line. If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news." - Roger Ebert