You know what? It's a little hard to believe that Dirty Harry, at the end of the movie when he's got Scorpio dead to rights, would then recite the entire legendary "Do I Feel Lucky" monologue again, word-for-word from earlier in the movie. Especially since Harry's pretty worked up right then, pretty overwrought. The first time he unspooled that little verbal ditty to the bank robber, he was just talking shit off the top of his head, enjoying himself and the moment. Finishing his hot dog. But in the scene at the end, his nerves are rubbed raw. He's through with this punk, and the world at large. He's on the verge of throwing his...in fact, he does throw his badge away. You can't tell me Harry Callahan's going to stand there at a moment like that, reach within himself and pull out a prepared soliloquy for the occasion.
Let alone the fact that quite a long time had passed by then, since he first said it. What did he do, memorize it on the spot? Rehearse it a couple times later? Dirty Harry doesn't seem like the type to run home after a hard day's violence and say "You know, that was a great speech I laid on that punk earlier. I need to write that one down in my Taunt Journal!"
The repetition here smacks of nothing more than young 70's Hollywood's nascent awareness of the Pop Culture cachet attached to a sweet catchphrase or sound bite, if you can feature and market it right. Some script wizard said, "hey, that's a great speech! We gotta see if we can work that in again someplace. Audiences will eat that up, people are going to go for this speech in a major groovy way." Or some similar 70's smooth-hype talk. And you know what, the guy who said that was right! - about the speech. It's a great speech. But the thing is, while that may be a reason for them to put a speech in twice, it's not any kind of a reason for Harry Callahan to say it that second time. They created an iconic character over 90 minutes or whatever, a guy who is no-bullshit, irate righteousness incarnate. Then in the last reel, they have him reciting his big speech like a local theater type eager to try out his delivery on you. It rings a little false.
They didn't realize the power and purity of what they had created, maybe. They figured "hey, it punches up the moment! So it's a false character note, who cares?" But the problem is, the better job you do creating a character, the less leeway you have to fudge actions and motives.
I suppose it is just possible that, as with Jules Winfield's own personal version of Ezekiel 25:17, Harry has just been saying this speech for years. Maybe he just trots it out because it's a cold-blooded thing to say to a mother fucker, right before you pop a cap in and/or arrest his ass. But even for Harry...isn't it a bit of a stretch, to think he finds himself in enough of these situations to make it worth the effort? Situations where he can stand there at his leisure, reeling off a sweet speech to a guy he's shot at six times? (Or...was it only five...?)
I don't know. If this is really the kind of guy Callahan is, preparing monologues in advance to spring on unsuspecting perps at the peak dramatic moment...I'd have wanted to see a few scenes that spotlighted this whole theatrical side of his a little more. Maybe he could have done a little Shakespeare in the park in between suspensions.
No comments:
Post a Comment