On our own campus we have Ed Callahan to protect us. San Francisco has Detective Harry Callahan, Clint Eastwood's memorable "Dirty" Harry. Newly available on DVD from Warner Brothers, Dirty Harry, directed by Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), still packs a punch.When a serial sniper who calls himself "Scorpio" threatens to murder again unless the city of San Francisco pays his ransom, "Dirty" Harry Callahan is called to the case. Playing the quintessential reluctant tough-guy, Eastwood (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) takes the case, pursuing "Scorpio" through 'Frisco's darker corners.

The film, spectacularly vicious for its time, set the stage for an entire genre of gritty, tough 1970s crime dramas. Its director, Don Siegel, came from a lengthy tradition of culturally well-tuned films, including the Red Scare horror flick, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He weaves Dirty Harry a story that is as much about the failings of the criminal justice system as it is about its central character.

Clint Eastwood, in one of his most defining roles, is the driving force behind the film. His delivery of the film's now infamous line, "You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?" remains thrilling in its understated, controlled power. One of the special features includes a small amount of trivia on the film. Of particular note is that Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate) was originally considered for the part of Harry Callahan, but he turned it down due to an injury. Somehow, Sinatra as "Dirty" Harry does not strike me as remotely effective.

The DVD includes two documentaries - one originally released in 1971, the other from the film's 30th anniversary. Additional features include production notes, the theatrical trailer and a unique feature that I have not yet seen on other DVDs: an interview gallery which contains about 10 short interviews (some no more than 30 seconds long, others several minutes long) with various persons involved in the Dirty Harry franchise.

While Clint Eastwood's interview is the most extensive and interesting, but other interviewees of note include Arnold Schwarzenegger, who speaks of Eastwood and Dirty Harry as inspirational to him in his career, and the editor, Joel Cox (Mystic River), who gets a little time to discuss editing for Eastwood. However, most of the interviews, unfortunately, are vehicles for praising the 74-year old Oscar-winning actor and director and do not shed much light on the lives, careers or artistry of the interviewees.

Interestingly, Eastwood does not spend much time in his own interview discussing a topic dear to his heart-violence on screen. Although his most memorable characters, "Dirty" Harry and the Man with No Name from the Leone Spaghetti Westerns, tend to be rough, shoot-em-first-ask-questions-later types, the films Eastwood have directed tend to rely on cinematic violence in a very different way. In stark contrast to contemporary films, which kill scores without hesitation, Eastwood has a way of limiting his films to one, maybe two murders, each of which hits us hard in the gut, where it should. For all of the Eastwood in the rest of the mini-interviews, I wish it were scrapped in favor of a longer interview with the actor/director himself.

A brief note on the music: Lalo Schifrin, whose music includes one of the most memorable television themes in history (Mission: Impossible), composed the music for Dirty Harry. Surprisingly, he is also a composer for a film I reviewed several weeks ago - the very different-sounding THX-1138.