Sudden Impact - Cartoon Vigilantes

May

19

Sudden Impact - Cartoon Vigilantes

≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Clint Eastwood
Year: 1983

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Does Sudden Impact succeed as action? Nope. It’s too pokey. How about suspense? Not really. You’d have to have characters you believe in for that. Character study? You’ve got to be kidding. Sondra Locke, Clint’s girlfriend at the time, is absolutely horrible in the picture. But comedy? Sure.

Sudden Impact doesn’t work as a stand alone movie at all, but if you’ve seen the other Dirty Harry thrillers, there’s a lot of entertaining riffing on the tropes of the series.

The plot, for one thing. Supposedly, director Clint Eastwood wanted to explore the idea of vigilantism through the character of Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke). You see, Jennifer and her sister were gang raped by a bunch of punks. The sister is now catatonic and Jennifer goes on a revenge spree.

The thing is, the rape/revenge plot is hopelessly trumped up. They’ve included a baby sister so Jennifer isn’t getting revenge for herself, which would be unseemly. Director Eastwood piles on the grotesqueries in the depiction of the rapists so we’ll cheer on Jennifer as she executes them. Sudden Impact is billed as being a deepening of the series, a more complex exploration of the ideas, but really, this whole line of thought was already covered in the Dirty Mary episode in the original Dirty Harry, in which neighbors of Dirty Mary think Harry is peeping on her and beat him up. Naturally, Harry refuses to arrest them because lynch mobs are righteous in principle.

Anyway, the rape/revenge plot plays like satire. When one of Harry’s buddies gets caught in the crossfire, Harry gears up for a little revenge of his own. The ending is never in doubt.

Actually, due to pacing problems and predictability, the rape/revenge plot is the least entertaining aspect of the picture. What’s alot more fun is the setup and assorted adventures Harry goes on, a staple of the series.

Comic interludes include Harry commenting on a fellow detective eating a hotdog with ketchup on it at the scene of a castration, Harry interrupting the wedding of a mobster’s granddaughter to regale the wedding party with a description of the mobster’s torture and murder of a prostitute, and Harry commandeering a retirement home’s minibus to chase a robbery suspect while senior citizens in the back cheer him on.

Frankly, part of the fun of Sudden Impact lies in the clumsiness of the writing and the direction. Director Eastwood holds on the image of a carousel unicorn so long that when someone ends up impaled on it, it’s not even a surprise. The resolution of a scene in which Harry’s car is hit by molotov cocktails is an insult to the intelligence of the viewer. One chase scene is so leisurely, it’s a little like watching a granny chase down a crippled purse snatcher. Albert Popwell, who had been in all of the previous Dirty Harry movies, graces us with his cheesy presence. The scene where he sneaks up on Harry is just plain silly. The script is full of clunkers like “The bitch is mine!” and “I’ll show you how good dog shit is now, Callahan!” Even composer Lalo Schifrin, who is normally so reliable, contributes a risible funk theme and some ghastly synth drums in the score.

In spite of all of these flaws (and sometimes because of them), Sudden Impact works as a comic exploration of the Dirty Harry mythos. When Harry appears towards the end of the picture in silhouette against a boardwalk (in a clear nod to Western iconography), the bluntness of the allusion makes me laugh every time I see it. As long as you don’t expect the rush of a good thriller or the celebral pleasures of a thoughtful character study, you won’t be disappointed.