Clint Eastwood was initially hesitant to film Dirty Harry’s cynical finale because he believed it would detract from the plot. Still, it is the right climax to the film.
The ending of Dirty Harry is great, but Clint Eastwood almost ruined it. Eastwood established a name for himself with Westerns such as the Dollars trilogy and Hang ‘Em High, but by the end of the 1960s, it was evident that the genre was dying.
Clint Eastwood took over as Dirty Harry when John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and Paul Newman declined. It was not just a great smash upon its initial release in 1971, but it also demonstrated that cop movies had mostly eclipsed Westerns in terms of viewership.
While many moviegoers associated with Harry’s unrelenting adherence to the law, many prominent critics, such as Pauline Kael, deemed the film’s perspectives fascist.
These accusations were so serious that in the first sequel, Magnum Force (1973), Eastwood’s character was pitted against a group of vigilante officers to emphasize that the original wasn’t endorsing “Dirty” Harry’s methods.
In the original film’s climactic sequence, Andrew Robinson’s serial killer Scorpio was shot by Harry after kidnapping a school bus full of children. In rage, Harry killed the assassin and threw away his badge.
On the other hand, Eastwood campaigned to have Dirty Harry’s conclusion removed because he disliked how frequently his partners died tragically.
During the book, Harry becomes increasingly upset with the court system as Scorpio is granted a pass despite his culpability.
Harry throws his badge to represent his dissatisfaction with the system, as he went to vigilantism only to ensure Scorpio couldn’t escape again.
Eastwood believed that the ending of Dirty Harry marked the character’s departure, and that Harry’s decision to hand away his badge sent the wrong message to the audience.
“At the very end of the film, there was a tremendous fight between Don and Clint about what to do about the badge,” Robinson told Rue Morgue. Since “he’s an anomaly, a vigilante,” Robinson and filmmaker Don Siegel agreed Harry had to give up his badge.
Eastwood objected to the angle and persuaded Siegel not to record it. Dirty Harry’s franchise potential, in his opinion, could be hindered by the character’s retirement from the force.
On the big day, though, Eastwood changed his mind and decided that the character should truly toss away his badge.
It’s tough to imagine an other ending when the character merely walks away, but Dirty Harry’s final shot is flawless. Eastwood didn’t have to worry about reenacting this scenario because Magnum Force was released only two years after the original picture.
As the novel begins, the detective is back at work, and the sequel makes no reference of Harry putting away his badge. Eastwood reprised the character three more times in the films The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and the 1988 slasher The Dead Pool for his longest-running series.
