4 May 2025

Review: Dirty Harry 4K UHD

4K UHD Blu-ray: Dirty Harry (1971)

Back in the early 1980s my dad rented a VHS player from Radio Rentals (remember them?) to record TV shows…we watched The Young Ones many times on repeat.

Then he heard about one of those new fangled “video rental stores” opening up 20 miles away. So we got in the car and did the 40 mile round trip to join and rent our 1st movie…which was Dirty Harry.

My dad was already a huge Clint Eastwood fan and had brought me up watching his movies when he saw they were going to be on TV. So we drove back as I held the Warner Bros big box puffy VHS case in my hand and read the synopsis on the back many times, before watching it virtually every day together until we had to take it back 1 week later.

Jump forward to 2025 and I’m just as excited to watch Dirty Harry again, this time in a superb 4K UHD release that makes it almost like a first time watch again. Sadly my dad passed away 30 years ago, but I know he would have bloody adored this release and we’d have been watching it together again.

The narrative surely doesn’t need repeating, but for those who may not be familiar with the film, Harry Callahan is a San Francisco police inspector in the homicide department. He is jaded with “the system” which seemingly gives more rights to the perpetrators than the victims, and so very often goes “off the book” to bring justice.

His methods are pushed to the limit though when a serial killer appears in the Bay Area, announcing himself as ‘Scorpio’ and going on a random killing spree.

Will Harry be able to constrain his usual lack of regard for ordered police procedure, or will his more basic instincts be the only way that Scorpio can be stopped?

I’ve watched Dirty Harry MANY times over the last 40+ years, but have never seen it look or sound as good as it does in this Warner Bros 4K UHD release. Keeping its cinematic look with a layer of fine film grain, the picture is sharp with just the occasional softening of the picture due to focus shifts and low lighting. While the audio choices contain a 5:1 mix that was created for earlier DVD and blu-ray releases, but now also includes the original mono mix presented in DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio.

The special features include both archive and new material, all of which are well worth your time going through.

This first time 4K UHD release of a Clint Eastwood classic is everything I hoped it would be and will be continued to be watched many more times in the future.

Dirty Harry 4K UHD contains the following new and previously released special features:

Commentary by Richard Schickel – NEW
Generations and Dirty Harry – NEW
Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry – NEW
American Masters Career Retrospective: Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso
Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Fighting for Justice – NEW
Interview Gallery
- Patricia Clarkson
- Joel Cox
- Clint Eastwood
- Hal Holbrook
- Evan Kim
- John Milius
- Ted Post
- Andy Robinson
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Robert Urich
Dirty Harry’s Way
Dirty Harry: The Original