Dirty Harry's America
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A01=Joe Street
Author_Joe Street
Category=ATFA
Category=JBCC1
Clint Eastwood
community
Conservatism
criticism
culture war
Dirty Harry
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family
film studies
Harry Callahan
History and criticism
Hollywood cinema
Motion pictures
movie cop
Political aspects
political struggle
race
representation of crime
sexuality
United States
Product details
- ISBN 9780813061672
- Weight: 517g
- Dimensions: 151 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 13 Feb 2016
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry became the prototype for a new kind of movie cop—an antihero in pursuit of his own vision of justice. The Dirty Harry series helped cement Eastwood and his character, Harry Callahan, as central figures in 1970s and 1980s Hollywood cinema.
In Dirty Harry’s America, Joe Street argues that the series sheds critical light on the culture and politics of the post-1960s era and locates San Francisco as the symbolic cultural battleground of the time. Street maintains that through referencing real events and political struggles, the films themselves became active participants in the culture wars, paying particular attention to the films’ representation of crime, family and community, sexuality, and race.
Unapologetic carrier of right and might, Harry Callahan becomes America’s Ur-conservative: “unbending, moral, incorruptible, and most important, always right.” Long after the series, Callahan’s legacy remains strong in American political discourse, cinema, and pop culture, and he continues to shape Eastwood’s later political and cinematic career.
In Dirty Harry’s America, Joe Street argues that the series sheds critical light on the culture and politics of the post-1960s era and locates San Francisco as the symbolic cultural battleground of the time. Street maintains that through referencing real events and political struggles, the films themselves became active participants in the culture wars, paying particular attention to the films’ representation of crime, family and community, sexuality, and race.
Unapologetic carrier of right and might, Harry Callahan becomes America’s Ur-conservative: “unbending, moral, incorruptible, and most important, always right.” Long after the series, Callahan’s legacy remains strong in American political discourse, cinema, and pop culture, and he continues to shape Eastwood’s later political and cinematic career.
Joe Street is senior lecturer in American history at Northumbria University, UK. He is the author of The Culture War in the Civil Rights Movement.
