Magnum Force

Plot

Someone in San Francisco is executing some of the criminals, and the police have no leads. Harry Callahan wants to investigate, but his superiors won’t let him. As his investigations grow, his suspicions lead him to the killer being a police officer, but his superiors think it is a rival mob boss. As the days go by and the body count rises, just who is the killer??

Direction

Considering the age of the film, (52 years at the time of the release of this review) some of the direction holds up extremely well. The action scenes, primarily the combat shooting scene between Callahan and one of the rookie officers – the shootout between the police and the Palacino gang, and the final show down between Harry and the antagonists are all well-choreographed and filmed, although a little dark.

There are some fun camera angle used at times too, such as when David Soul’s Davis is loading his gun during the combat shooting scene, and during the ballistics check between Callahan and Briggs.

Cast/Characters

Back is of course Clint Eastwood as Callahan, with all new secondary cast.

Hal Holbrook plays Harry’s no-nonsense Lt Briggs, Mitch Ryan plays McCoy a police officer Harry suspects as being the killer and future stars David Soul, Tim Matheson and Robert Urich play some rookie cops who look up to Callahan.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

I particularly enjoyed that we got to see a little of Harry outside his life as a cop, and his warmth – especially to his friends estranged wife, and his relationship with his neighbour – who is oriental – I think was almost unheard of in that era.

I thought the ‘villain’ was done well, and especially given that the reveal occurs halfway through the film – how Harry will ‘save the day’. There is also a third act twist that I genuinely didn’t see coming either.

There was some dialogue that was a little ‘of the time’ especially the over use of a word beginning with N.

There is a bit of foreshadowing with Harry’s current partner early on, and I was a little disappointed that this occurred.

Overall

I was reasonably impressed with the quality of this sequel – as generally they are quite inferior (there are some exceptions).

While not as good as the first (Scorpio will always be one of my favourite villains) I enjoyed the villains here, and the twist in the third act was still a bit of a ‘shock’. I did find this a little more regressive, with some characters either written un-organically or ** spoiler ** killed off with no mention. However, still a very good film.

4.5/5