Yuku free message boards

Well, he sorta did try his hand at horror with PLAY MISTY FOR ME.

As for DIRTY HARRY, I always took the film as a fantasy catharsis. The real-life Zodiac Killer was never caught, so we got to go to the movies and see it happen. Obviously, the story was rigged to make Harry's actions seem justified, down to the "time lock" on how long the buried girl would live, which was used to justify Harry's torturing of Scorpio.

I don't know whether Seigel was a lefty; I kinda doubt it. Rather, he had sympathy for the guy working the street, who actually had to do the dirty jobs and put his life on the line, while his bosses could pose for the cameras - it was easy for them to worry about following procedure because they were not on the front lines, so to speak.

As for THE GAUNTLET, I would call the film a satire rather than a spoof, but it is definitely very funny - the action scenes that everyone is complaining about are intentionally over-the-top. The significance of the bus scene at the end is pretty obvious, too. Ben Shockley is a fallen hero - a drunk - and he has to redeem himself by running the gaunlet, just like the knights of old. The scene is a big unsubtle visual metaphor, and realism (like cops getting caught in their own crossfire or shooting at the tires) is not the point. After the scene of the house being shot into Swiss cheese, and the spectacular helicopter crash (the best ever on screen), I think Eastwood had done all he could to tell the audience that they were watching something completely off-the-wall