US Movie Review: Magnum Force (1973)

One of the nice things about being home visiting the family in the dead of winter is that all this involuntary time in front of the TV affords me the chance to catch up on a LOT of movies...

Especially thanks to the big screen HD TV and FiOS digital TV...      In addition to the newer movies I've had a chance to catch in full HD quality,  i also managed to watch a few old classics in a quality I would only otherwise have been able to see at a revivial showing at an indie movie theater (like we used to do it back in the day...)     Not only is the picture quality closer to the original theatrical release, but in most cases its not edited... meaning I get the bad language, nudity and violence exactly as the original film makers intended! :-P

The other night  the 1973 classic 'Magnum Force'  was on and I had to tune in and watch...  You may(but probably not) know that this is the 2nd of the "Dirty Harry" films that Clint Eastwood did in the '70s....  he was already gristle-y by then, and he was only in his early 40s!

I also recently caught 'Gran Torino' on cable as well (review coming soon)... ironically that's a movie where he plays a somewhat similar character.... 35 years later! :-P

But 1973 Clint is in fine form with his no nonsense, full throttle policing...    The plot is relatively simple - a band of police officers go vigilante and start executing criminals outside of the law.  Of course Harry  dispatches with them all eventually. :-P

Action and drama aside,  for me the biggest attraction of watching movies like these (especially in HD) is getting a sense of how life was at the time the film was made... in this case seeing what 1973 San Francisco looked like.... between the cars, buildings, clothes, etc... its quite entertaining. 

(in the final car chase Harry totally demolishes a 1960's VW microbus just like the one I used to own... same exact color and model... how painful!)

But the real gem of the film was this thing -

Pimp-mobile to the extreme!  if you put this in a movie now, it'd be considered a comedy! :-P

Anyway,  for retro-appeal alone,  I give "Magnum Force" a solid 7/10.  look for early film appearances by Robert Urich and Tim Matheson.