From 'Bullitt' to 'Dirty Harry' via the Supreme Court

The article traces the start of a shift in mainstream crime movies over 1967-71, looking beyond customary fixation on plot and character, in order to highlight links with social change, and new developments in the justice system and policing. Examining in sequence 'Bullitt', 'Get Carter', 'The French Connection' and 'Dirty Harry', initial stress is placed upon how the respective films were shot and how camera crews handled scenes. The article starts with how the directors of the four films consciously rejected the received conventions of 1960s crime movies, and embraced cinema verite. It briefly shows how 'Bullitt' introduced/pioneered a new approach to film even as it invoked plot formulas lingering from Hollywood cowboy movies. 'Get Carter' and 'The French Connection' are shown to have subsequently pioneered a new mature, 'gritty', socially-alert urban realism. Scenes in both films are unpicked to reveal strong subtexts propelling the story, and the view of urban life it presses. The article then foregrounds the turbulent events of 1967-68, especially in San Francisco, as well as how the US Supreme Court forced changes in the practice of policing. It then explores how 'Dirty Harry' initially aimed to respond to these factors by showing an old-style policeman hampered by the new regulations that had just been introduced. The article finishes by indicating how crime movies then quickly undermined these breakthroughs by settling into a new set of safe conventions. 11 pp.