The Enforcer (1976)

With a flamboyantly absurd crew of villains, how does The Enforcer succeed? It's simple, really; make it a Dirty Harry movie and give the bad guys as little screen time as is necessary for a plot to occur.

Director James Fargo (and a good screenplay from Stirling Silliphant and Dean Riesner) saves The Enforcer from the curse of the threequel (which Christopher Nolan recently invoked in his rationale for eschewing a third Batman film - for now) by turning it into a story more about Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) and his new partner Kate Moore (Tyne Daly). Yes, you read that right - Dirty Harry gets a new partner, and this time she's a she. Of course, this isn't exactly welcome news for the traditionalist borderline-vigilante cop, so the movie focuses more on the budding chemistry (decidedly not romantic) between the two inspectors as they try to thwart another city-for-ransom scheme, this time at the hands of the People's Revolutionary Strike Force (a homegrown terrorist group reminiscent of Patty Hearst's abductors, the Symbionese Liberation Army).

Amid hippie terrorists, rocket launchers, and mayoral abductions, it's not difficult for a movie to lose its way, but The Enforcer never forgets that Dirty Harry is the star of the film. Eastwood continues comfortably as the Bauer-esque SFPD Inspector, bearing an irritated sangfroid that makes the criminals cower. Daly holds her own with Eastwood, an excellent straight (wo)man trying to earn the begrudging respect of a partner who doesn't really want anyone around.

The action here isn't too shabby, either. There's a thrilling rooftop chase between Eastwood and a thug who's somehow connected to the bad guys, and though Eastwood never accelerates beyond a brisk jog, there's a sense of urgency and immediacy that's well-handled by the filmmakers. And, over-the-top as it may seem, there's just something damned cool about seeing Dirty Harry wield a rocket launcher.

As the shortest of the Dirty Harry pictures, there's not as much material here for me to cover. Suffice it to say that those who enjoyed the first two pictures will enjoy this one, as absurdist as some of its flaws may be. Because it's all worth it once Callahan, when asked to turn in his badge, calls it a "seven-point suppository."
Like its predecessors, The Enforcer snagged an R rating from the MPAA. There's a brief scene of fleeting nudity as the chase sequence darts through the shooting of a pornographic film, there's brief moments of profanity (only two or so F-bombs), as well as the standard amount of peril, shooting, and resulting blood that one has come to expect from this franchise.