Scanning the page in my normal style and seeing that in this context...
... before reading the text, I completely assumed I was looking at a picture of Rick Perry. I mentioned that to Meade, and he said he did too. Watch the clip in which critic A.O. Scott talks about the greatness of the movie and why the character Dirty Harry reverberates in the American psyche:
Now, think about what it means if Rick Perry resonates with whatever that is.
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55 comments:
Are you also seeing Perry in your toast?
Perrydolia
The reviewer is an idiot.
"Of course you don't approve of his methods..."
Yes, I do.
I don't know if I've *ever* seen a picture of Rick Perry.
Having now watched the review, let me just add that the reviewer completely reminds me of John Cleese in Monty Python.
No way. Rick Perry has better hair.
I saw somewhere else on the interwebs, "The Most Interesting Man in the World does not always vote, but when he does, he generally prefers Rick Perry."
Well, ISFADHIC, that movie was right on. That's the attractiveness of a Rick Perry.
Yep, there's a balance to be struck and as a society, we've lost that balance to the point that the bad guys are almost winning.
Of course, we don't yet know what the downside might be but maybe Garage Mahal and his fellow cohorts will tell US.
Ah shucks, GM and buds don't have a clue.
So Dirty Perry is now a compliment?
Don Siegal? Oh, yeah, yeah...that guy who did the opening montage (and voiceover) for Casablanca...
Saw mention of, but haven't yet read up on, the "fact" that Perry was a campaign organizer for ManBearPig back in 1988. Couple that with the vaccine thing, the DREAM act thing, and a couple other dubious big government programs he supposedly supported...and I'm not so sure about this guy.
Much more reading to do...
Dirty Harry's character is not a cold man with a murderous rage.
He is a totally normal lawyer with an opponent and a case to win.
The similarity to Perry lies in Harry's focus on winning. That can be seen in his body language and eyes.
Harry's other opponent is always the PC crap that is basically an intentional confusion of categories so that decisions become too cloudy to allow for decisive actions.
That is Bureaucracy in everyday operation. It cleverly NEVER ends a problem since it lives off of the problem that it was created to manage.
Harry quite traditionally says it is clear to him, and then does what's needed.
Let me add that Perry is not a Dirty Harry at all.
He just plays one like a good actor.
Perry is emotionally in tune with his audience. And that makes him too Texan at times.
The Texan persona is a restrained bragging that they back up with accomplishments. Nevertheless (Lawyer word) Perry will need to quit that display of pride outside of Texas where it will not be understood.
He is a totally normal lawyer with an opponent and a case to win.
What movie did you see? Harry Callahan was a police detective. With a gun, "the most powerful handgun in the world."
The other idiocy is the reviewer claiming that the bad guy Scorpio's evil was "too crazy, too demented, too disproportionate to reflect any particular social reality"
Whatta load of crap.
The whole movie was about how the social reality of the early 70s fostered and encouraged guys like that.
I hope you both have eye exams scheduled soon. In the meantime please do not try to drive or operate heavy machinery.
I thought it was Christopher Reeve ay first.
You need to get your eyes checked.
Mary Beth...The result of a lawyers focus is a Final Judgement.
A Final Judgement is the biggest gun there is in the legal system.
Harry Callahan was a frustrated lawyer who turned to his own 44 cal. instead of sending the Sheriff's Deputies with many guns out to enforce his his Judgement.
But you are right. Clint Eastwood came to the rescue faster than a Court works.
"too crazy, too demented, too disproportionate to reflect any particular social reality"
Ha! The reason Dirty Harry isn't very dramatic is that the bad guy is so wimpy. Harry Callahan is way tougher and stronger.
Dramas like this live or die on the strength of your bad guy. You should feel like the bad guy is scary and overpowering.
Darth Vader is a terrific bad guy, for instance.
All the Dirty Harry movies have weak bad guys. The first one is interesting, and Eastwood is amazing as always to watch. But it doesn't really work as a drama because the bad guy is a long-haired whiny hippie assassin.
(Had some trouble spelling "assassin". Ass ass in? Can that be right?)
By the way, The Dark Knight is obviously a reworking of the Dirty Harry idea. How far should we go on the war on crazy? Should we spy on innocent people? Should we torture bad guys for information?
That movie really works as a drama, because the bad guy is one of the most amazing bad guys to ever grace the screen.
If he gets to the first debate and asks Little Zero, "Ya feel lucky, punk?", it's more than a coincidence.
If you like Dirty Harry, by the way, you have to see Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, which is far and away the most awesome cop movie ever made.
He makes Dirty Harry look like a little wuss.
"too crazy, too demented, too disproportionate to reflect any particular social reality."
Well, considering that Scorpio was directly based on the Zodiac killer, I'd say the reviewer is talking out his ass.
Actually, he kind of looks like Arnold Schwarzengegger in that still. Conan, the dirty hairy barbarian.
Get off Rick Perry's lawn.
Yea, I like how the reviewer suggests that the serial killer character is just allegory, while Callahan is a dangerous reality.
I bet far more people have been killed by the allegory than stopped by that reality.
The thing that matters most about "Dirty Harry" isn't that he was his own law or that he had a big gun, it's that it didn't have Sondra Locke in it.
Old Kezar Stadium, the original home of the 49ers. Saw my first professional football game there.
"Now, think about what it means if Rick Perry resonates with whatever that is."
It would mean that he wins about 54% of the vote, but I think that your resonator needs adjusting. Dirty Harry was just a movie you know.
Now imagine there is a Giffords type shooting at one of Perry's appearances and he pulls out his handgun and stops it by gunning down the killer.
How does that effect the election?
The debates:
Perry: I got that punk.
Obama: Yea, well I got Bin Laden.
We got ourselves a gunfight. Woohooo!
I've only seen one Dirty Harry movie that I can recall, and that was sometime back in the 80s (on tv), but I recognized Clint Eastwood right away. He doesn't look anything like Rick Perry.
Great idea for a new Dirty Harry movie. Cast Eastwood as an 81-year old Dirty Harry Callahan being tried for the 40-year old murder of Scipio. A new San Fran DA decides that after another autopsy of Scipio that he was murdered in cold blood. Eastwood is brought in in chains and cast into the deepest dungeon in Nob Hill while waiting trial.
That would make a fitting bookmark on the life of Dirty Harry and of the Socialist attempts to bring down America.
@ old-grouchy: perfect!! the new SanFran DA finds everyone overlooked the autopsy finding Scorpio was uncircumsised, ergo, it was a "hate crime" murder by Dirty Hairy. The City Council pushes for prosecution--just like madtown in the land of Oz.
Eastwood himself has transformed our interpretation of Dirty Harry.
Gran Torino shows the development of a character that spans many decades, movies, names, jobs, eras, and ends with an expression of redemption through sacrifice not revenge, as it is in the sacrifice that the broader community is embraced rather than the independent momentary satisfaction of revenge.
We have the active revenge taker with little to no consequences in the Dirty Harry movies, the broken man who still takes revenge in Unforgiven, after we are shown the corrupting effects of violence, and then in Gran Torino just when we expect the same story, we find he lets go the violence, accepts it upon himself, making a turn away from violence as a comprehensive response.
Eastwood has had a career cycle exploring and developing this theme.
And I don't think it has very much to do with Rick Perry, though maybe the NYT wants us to associate the cowboy lawman with Perry, because that's the association that was used against Bush.
When I first caught a glance of Perry's video "Texas Succeeding" I thought it said "Texas Seceding".
Honestly. I thought, 'well, I'm glad he'd gonna set the record straight on his views but a lot of people might think it funny he's thinking about that at all . . .'
Yep, there's a balance to be struck and as a society, we've lost that balance to the point that the bad guys are almost winning.
This is somewhat in tune with my comments yesterday about Perry. Obama doesn't seem to have much direction, except to increase government spending and intrusion when we least need it. There seems to be almost a hunger for a strong leader to step in and show us the way out of this mess. Obama sure isn't going to do it.
And, this is where that macho alpha male Clint Eastwood/Rick Perry thing may come in - we may now be more willing to follow that sort of figure now than in better times.
And, yes, some eggs will need to be broken, some bad guys put away, etc. as we turn our country around. We need to dump a lot of our government spending, ranging from ethanol subsidies through unemployment extensions and trains to nowhere. Get back to (inflation adjusted) 2006 levels of spending, before the Dems took back Congress.
"MAKE MY DAY"
Harry was always in the mainstream.
".. before reading the text, I completely assumed I was looking at a picture of Rick Perry. I mentioned that to Meade, and he said he did too."
Believe this might be a case of "Sure Honey, I see what you're seeing...", followed by head-turn and eye roll.
Well, a man's got to know his limitations.
I've only seen one Dirty Harry movie that I can recall …
The commentor is lucky. Four good movies to look forward to viewing.
… maybe the NYT wants us to associate the cowboy lawman with Perry, because that's the association that was used against Bush.
For sure NYT wants to I think the nation’s consciousness may have changed since the BDS days. “Cowboy lawman” may just be the association that wins.
My fav Eastwood films: The Unforgiven, White Hunter, Black Heart and Gran Torino. But any Eastwood film is well worth watching.
Fav dialogue, from The Unforgiven:
Will Munny: It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have.
The Schofield Kid: Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming.
Will Munny: We all got it coming, kid.
For sure NYT wants us to think less of Perry. I think the nation’s consciousness may have changed since the BDS days. “Cowboy lawman” may just be the association that wins.
It is the eyebrows. They both have bushy eybrows
Gran Torino was a very good movie with a lot of subtle catholic symbolism.
Being car person, I was extremely concerned about the Gran Torino and pleased at the result (I won't say what so as not to spoil the movie)
As a teen I had a huge crush on Rowdy Yates (Eastwood)
Some how this seems apropos: Texas Governor Rick Perry shoots, kills 'wily' coyote while jogging.
Yours,
Tom
Rick Perry on the Fed:
“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we — we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”
"Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous — or treasonous — in my opinion."
Wow.
I can't say I like that talk at all. Too much like Joe Biden calling the Tea Party terrorists. Over-heated rhetoric, intemperate, and it sounds pschokiller. It sounds like Ann Coulter, or anonymous people on Althouse.
I am getting a bad vibe off Rick Perry. He's a candidate for 3 days and he's already threatening people with violent rhetoric.
Neither Reagan nor Bush talked that way. I'm not aware that we've ever had a President accusing policy-makers of "almost" treason, or suggesting that ugly things should happen to them.
I thought it was Robert Downey Jr.
Why do you hate Perry so much?
Why do you hate Perry so much?
I don't hate him. I agree with him on a lot of issues, way more than I agree with Romney. If he was just some guy in a bar saying Bernacke is almost guilty a treason, I would agree with him. I would say, "Fuck yeah, he's printing money like we're in a banana republic. Bernacke is horrible."
Even violent rhetoric can be funny. "Ben Bernacke should be tarred and feathered," something like that would be okay. I would think that is funny. A lot of humor is violent or cruel, slapstick. I think humor is a really healthy way to diffuse aggression.
But I'm not getting a comic vibe from Perry. He's a bit too serious when he says that Bernacke is almost a traitor, or that ugly things would happen to him in Texas. I don't like it.
I like Perry's website. It's all jobs, jobs, jobs. And he calls on Obama to do a regulatory freeze. That's exactly right.
Dirty Perry. Has a nice ring to it.
Doesn't look a damn thing like Perry.
I wonder what Harry would of done to the douche that grab Ann's camera last weekend?
Ironic that San Fran and Madison are both bastions of anti-Harry sentiment these days.
Dirty Perry sounds good to me.
Where do you get your "0bama '12' Adios Mofo" bumpersticker?
I live in Northeast Texas. The first six years of Perry's Governance were great. Unemployment was slightly better than national unemployment and that was pretty good, under five percent nationally in the dog days of the '06 election. Then came the Pelosi Reid Congress and the bottom fell out of the national economy. This, naturally, was Bush' fault. Then came Obama. Things got even worse. Still Bush's fault. Now, going on three years since the Dems have even submitted a budget, the blame is being transformed from Bush to Perry. Sigh.
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