Synopsis
When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.
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Cast
- Clint EastwoodInsp. Harry Callahan
- Sondra LockeJennifer Spencer
- Pat HingleChief Jannings
- Bradford DillmanCaptain Briggs
- Paul DrakeMick
- Audrie NeenanRay Parkins
- Jack ThibeauKruger
- Michael CurrieLt. Donnelly
- Albert PopwellHorace King
- Mark KeylounOfficer Bennett
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Sun-Times
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. - 75
ReelViews
A viscerally effective, fast paced thriller. - 70
Variety
A brutally hard-hitting policier which casts Clint Eastwood as audiences like to see him, as the toughest guy in town. - 70
Chicago Reader
The film is split down the middle, with many elegant symmetries and curling plotlines bridging the two halves: one part is a bracing, funny, almost Keaton-esque comedy starring Harry as a deadpan center of disaster; the other is a brooding, brutal film noir, starring Sondra Locke as a vengeful femme fatale. - 63
Miami Herald
Harry is more fun, and he is less the fascist. Considering the genre -- bloody crimebusting and to-hell-with-your-rights- pal -- these are no small blessings. [12 Dec 1983, p.C6] - 60
TV Guide Magazine
Eastwood keeps things moving at a furious pace and the series' formula of having a steely-eyed "dinosaur" like Harry cutting through the red tape and vanquishing the scum of the earth remains irresistible. - 60
Newsweek
The trouble with Sudden Impact is that it has the makings of a fascinating, multileveled melodrama, but settles for crude, comic-book detail. Eastwood doesn't want to let down his Dirty Harry fans, but at the same time he wants to take this character into deeper and murkier waters. The result is curious, a disquisition on the justice of revenge written with a spray can. [12 Dec 1983, p.109] - 50
Time Out
The real problem here is technical; Eastwood the director is far less sure-footed than he was with the likes of Play Misty for Me or The Outlaw Josey Wales.
