Dirty Harry

In the first sequence of the opening to “Dirty Harry” we are shown a sheriffs badge which says ‘San Francisco police’ on a memorial plate. This straight away sets the scene and where the film is going to happen. A pan shot of the San Francisco lets us see the sky line and emphasise that it is a large city and anything could happen, we also see the San Francisco golden gates quickly after this to enforce the setting.  A pan of the city also shows the narrative the fact of the busy city life combined with first impression of genre, the audience are persuaded to use their knowledge of other cop style movies and they get the feeling that there will be things like car chases and a killing.

We know that the genre of the film is going to be a thriller/cop action movie, as the first thing to be shown is a sheriff’s badge. This helps to show the narrative, that someone is going to be killed and that the detective is going to find him. We also get the idea of it being a modern style western film from this badge.

Suspense is added to the film by having a close up of a guns barrel instead of showing the killers face, this means we are not shown the identity of the killer and we are going to have to use the clues just like the detective to try and work out who he is. A point of view shot through the gun is also added to create suspense to what might happen, though we do know his actions as we see him following a girl through the gun for a moment, before a quick extreme close up of the trigger being pulled is shown.

We are put on the detectives side right from the start, as the ideology of seeing names of police officers on a memorial plate, the idea of the men that have been looking after the public have died for us makes the audience see them as the good guys. This way we know that ‘Dirty Harry’ is going to be the protagonist straight away, even if he does something bad we should be on his side. Because of this when we first see the barrel of a gun covering the face of, what we think is the killer, we suddenly see him as the antagonist. This sets the idea that he is going to kill someone and the ‘good guy’ will serve justice and capture him. The way the killer is portrayed also makes the audience see him in a bad light, as he has been put with large crazy hair and during his scene where he is trying to shoot; distorted, weird music is played. Compared with when Dirty Harry enters, funky, upbeat music is played, this small change of music puts the audience in a different mood and therefore enforces the idea of one being good or bad. We find the status of harry when he walks through a crime scene and he is not stopped for a badge by other officers and we know he is higher as the mise en scene put him so he not wearing a uniform, this instant change in costume show us that he is a detective not a simple police officer. Again to show his high status a low shot is used to make him look big, powerful and in charge.

 The other character is the female victim, she is portrayed as innocent and she is very stereotyped by making her beautiful and setting her swimming in a pool. By doing this it makes the audience more afraid as the antagonist is just killing anyone for no reason.