Dirty Harry’s America: Clint Eastwood, Harry Callahan, and the Conservative Backlash

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Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry became the prototype for a new kind of movie cop-an antihero in pursuit of his own vision of justice. The Dirty Harry series helped cement Eastwood and his character, Harry Callahan, as central figures in 1970s and 1980s Hollywood cinema.

In Dirty Harry’s America, Joe Street argues that the series sheds critical light on the culture and politics of the post-1960s era and locates San Francisco as the symbolic cultural battleground of the time. Street maintains that through referencing real events and political struggles, the films themselves became active participants in the culture wars, paying particular attention to the films’ representation of crime, family and community, sexuality, and race.

Unapologetic carrier of right and might, Harry Callahan becomes America’s Ur-conservative: unbending, moral, incorruptible, and most important, always right. Long after the series, Callahan’s legacy remains strong in American political discourse, cinema, and pop culture, and he continues to shape Eastwood’s later political and cinematic career.