Badass Movie Scenes: ‘Dirty Harry’
If you want to understand modern masculinity, watch this amazingly offensive early ’70s crime thriller
“I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?”
Dirty Harry gives a would-be bank robber this speech as he stands over him. The African-American crook is on his back, wounded, his own shotgun a few tempting inches away. But he doesn’t feel lucky.
“Hey,” he says as Harry saunters away. “I gots to know.”
Harry points his handgun at the perp and pulls the trigger. Click. An empty chamber. It turns out, the punk was lucky. Or was he?
This iconic scene is badass, even if the rest of the movie is a reactionary fairy tale about the state’s right to summary executions. What makes this scene truly badass, however, is…
