Dirty Harry (1971).

[candelabra]

The movie's line "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was voted as the #51 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).



Writer John Milius made a major contribution to the film (as well as Dirty Harry's mystique).
He wrote the lines Harry quotes to punks about "Did he fire six shots or five?" and the immortal "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Dirty Harry helped popularize the Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver which experienced an upswing in sales following the film's release.

The original title was "Dead Right".

In real life, Andrew Robinson is a pacifist who despises guns. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would flinch violently every time he fired.
Director Don Siegel was forced to shut down production for a time and sent Robinson to a school to learn to fire a gun convincingly. However, he still blinks noticeably when he shoots.
Robinson was also squeamish about filming the scene where he verbally and physically abuses several schoolchildren, and the scene where he racially insults the man he pays to beat him up (Raymond Johnson).

Andrew Robinson created a backstory for Scorpio which involved him being drafted into the Vietnam War, and seeing unspeakable horrors.
When he returned home to the United States, he found himself a figure of hate, and his war experiences, combined with the 's treatment of soldiers, caused him to go insane.

After the film was released, actor Andrew Robinson received several death threats, and had to get an unlisted phone number.

Serial killer Scorpio was loosely based on the Zodiac killer, who used to taunt police and media with notes about his crimes, in one of which he threatened to hijack a school bus full of children.
The role of Harry Callahan was loosely based on real life detective David Toschi who was the chief investigator in the Zodiac case.

As is well known, Clint Eastwood directed the scene with the suicide jumper (Bill Couch). However, it is often claimed he directed the scene only because Don Siegel was ill.
This is inaccurate. Siegel was indeed ill, and wasn't on the set, but Eastwood had always been scheduled to direct that scene,
due to the difficult logistics of getting the actors, director, camera-man and sound-man all together on the top of a small ledge.
In the shooting schedule, 6 nights had been set aside for the shooting of the scene.
Eastwood told the studio he could shoot it in two nights. In the end, he shot the entire scene in one night.

Andrew Robinson was cast at the behest of Clint Eastwood who had seen him in a Broadway production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot".
Eastwood then convinced director Don Siegel that Robinson had the right unnerving characteristics to make an effective Scorpio.

When Clint Eastwood approached Don Siegel to offer him the directing job, Eastwood gave Siegel four drafts of the sсript, one of which was written by Terrence Malick.
In Malick's sсript, he had altered Scorpio from being a mindless psychopath killing only because he likes it, to being a vigilante who killed wealthy criminals who had escaped justice.
Siegel didn't like Malick's sсript, but Eastwood did, and Malick's ideas formed the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force (1973).

Clint Eastwood performed all his own stunts, including the stunt where he jumps onto the roof of the hijacked school bus from a bridge. His face is clearly visible throughout the shot.

When Universal allowed its option on the film and characters to lapse, Warner Bros. purchased the rights with a view to cast Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra was interested, however he had broken his wrist during the filming of The Manchurian Candidate (1962) eight years previously, and during contract negotiations, he found the large handgun too unwieldy.
Additionally, his father had recently passed away, and Sinatra decided he wanted to do some lighter material.
After Sinatra dropped out, Warner Bros. considered Marlon Brando for the role, but never officially approached him.
Next, they offered it to Steve McQueen and then Paul Newman, both of whom turned it down. Newman however suggested Clint Eastwood as a possible star.

When Frank Sinatra and Irvin Kershner were still attached to the project, James Caan was under consideration for the role of Scorpio.

For the iconic final shot when Dirty Harry tosses away his badge, Don Siegel was dismayed to discover that they had only brought one badge to the location shoot, so Eastwood had to throw it perfectly in just one take.

Clint Eastwood objected to the end of the film when Harry throws his badge away after killing the Scorpio Killer,
arguing with director Don Siegel that Harry knew that being a policeman was the only work for which he was suited
(and indeed the sequel Magnum Force (1973) begins with Harry still on the force, with no indication that he ever quit).
Siegel eventually convinced Eastwood that Harry threw his badge away as a symbol that he had lost faith in the justice system.