Sudden Impact (1983)

"All the action anyone could want. Eastwood looking leaner and tougher than ever.  Archer Winsten, New York Post
"...has enough classic Harry Callahan moments to make it a worthy addition to the series.  Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily
"...dark and layered...Sudden Impact is certainly one of the stronger films in the Dirty Harry series...  Michael Rubino, DVD Verdict
"Dirty Harry draws again. Vintage Clint.  Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
"...the action is put over with great force...Eastwood has all his moves down pat and is effective as always...  Variety

Editor's Note After a seven-year break from playing Harry Callahan, Clint Eastwood returned to direct, produce, and star in this, the third sequel to DIRTY HARRY. In this one, Harry gets himself in trouble with the police brass yet again. To get him out of town, they send him to a coastal town to do a background investigation on a murder victim. Unfortunately, his enemies follow him. That's unfortunate for his enemies, of course. Callahan also finds himself falling for a mysterious woman (Sondra Locke) who may be more than just the survivor of a gang rape a decade before.

	Bradford Dillman
	Sondra Locke
	Pat Hingle
	Clint Eastwood
	Clint Eastwood - Director

Clint Eastwood is Detective Harry Callahan in SUDDEN IMPACT, the third sequel to DIRTY HARRY. This is probably the most violent film of the series. Here the brutal but effective Callahan is looking for a killer who shoots her male victims in the genitals. Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke) is tracking down the people responsible for raping her and her sister 10 years earlier, killing them one by one. Callahan is on the case, but will he stop her from meting out her own brand of justice, which is uncomfortably close to his own? Eastwood himself produced and directed this action-packed film in which Harry dodges so many different foes, the violence almost becomes cartoonish. The film is directed like a full-frontal assault, with Eastwood projecting his trademark toughness. The filmmakers also created a main villain so repellent that no comeuppance seems punishment enough. Variety
"...[The] action is put over with great force....Eastwood has all his moves down pat and is effective as always..." 12/07/1983

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Most of what you hear about pop art and pop culture is pure hype. But there comes a moment about halfway through "Sudden Impact," the new Dirty Harry movie, when you realize that Harry has achieved some kind of legitimate pop status, as the purest distillation in the movies of the spirit of vengeance. To all those cowboy movies we saw in our youth, all those TV Westerns and cop dramas and war movies, Dirty Harry has brought a great simplification: A big man, a big gun, a bad guy and instant justice..."Sudden Impact" is a Dirty Harry movie with only the good parts left in. All the slow stuff, such as character, motivation, atmosphere and plot, has been pared to exactly the minimum necessary to hold together the violence. This movie has been edited with the economy of a 30-second commercial. As a result, it's a great audience picture. It's not plausible, it doesn't make much sense, it has a cardboard villain and, for that matter, a hero who exists more as a set of functions (grin, fight, chase, kill) than as a human being. But none of those are valid objections..."Sudden Impact" is more like a music video; it consists only of setups and payoffs, its big scenes are self-contained, it's filled with kinetic energy, and it has a short attention span. - Roger Ebert

Qwipster's Movie Reviews 6 of 10
Sudden Impact is the fourth entry in the "Dirty Harry" series, and the one in which his character finally turns into a caricature. The film itself plays out more like a parody of the series thus far, with Harry (Eastwood, The Gauntlet) constantly getting chewed out, blowing bad guys away, and opting to use guns that grow hilariously larger the more pissed off he gets. Although the previous two sequels, Magnum Force and The Enforcer, tried soften the "fascist" image that many criticized the original Dirty Harry for, Sudden Impact fully embraces it, pushing the limits on just how far Harry would go to see justice served to the criminal scum walking the streets...Sudden Impact isn't the best of the series, but it is probably the most accessible for those that are not huge fans. The plot is straightforward, if a little too convenient in its use of happenstance to resolve issues, and it does contain some memorable dialogue that seeped its way into popular culture (President Ronald Reagan parroted the movie's most famous line, "Go ahead. Make my day", to admonish Congress about to send him legislation that would raise taxes). It is a bit overlong, with underdeveloped characters, and stereotypical maniacal villains, but for those only looking for action, suspense, and for Harry Callahan to return to what he does best -- kick criminal ass, the goods are delivered and then some. - Vince Leo