Originally titled, Moving Target, the script was left for
Eastwood at his Carmel restaurant, The Hog's Breath Inn, by two aspiring screenwriters
(Gail Morgan Hickman and S.W. Schurr). Eastwood was interested enough to turn it
over to two of his favorite script doctors, Sterling Silliphant and Dean Riesner.
Moving Target primarily focused on Harry's battle with a Bay
Area terrorist group, culminating with a standoff on Alcatraz island.
Eastwood was particularly intrigued with the script's inclusion of a priest
that secretly aided the group.
When Sterling Silliphant came on board, he suggested giving Harry a
female partner. His idea was to focus more on the evolving
relationship between the two characters. Dean Riesner's task was to combine the action-oriented Moving Target
with Silliphant's more character-driven approach.
Gail Morgan Hickman later offered Eastwood a second Dirty Harry
script, Chain Reaction, but Eastwood had decided to move on from
the series.
The People's Revolutionary Strike Force was inspired by
Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Front. Eastwood also
had them in mind while filming the climax on his next film,
The Gauntlet.
Eastwood took the title from the Humphrey Bogart film of the same name
(also owned by Warner Bros.), but was taken to court in 1980 by someone accusing him of
plagiarizing it. The case was dismissed.
This film marks one of Tyne Daly's first major film roles, although she almost didn't
accept it. She initially turned the part down three times, because she thought the
character would simply be used as comic relief. Eventually, the producers convinced
her to meet with Eastwood to discuss the role. In an attempt to flesh out the
character, she asked him to "let me confront one little bad guy". Clint
agreed, and Lalo's fate was sealed.
The original concept was to have Harry and Kate become romantically
involved, but Eastwood and Fargo quickly decided against it. Daly
also felt the relationship should
remain strictly professional. In researching the role with real
officers, she discovered: "If you fall for your partner, you
get a new partner right away. Otherwise, you're putting yourselves
in jeopardy, because you're not operating at peak efficiency."
The car Harry delivers to the liquor store is a 1974 Plymouth
Satellite. He later drives a 1974 Ford Torino.
This is the only film in the series which wasn't scored by Lalo
Schifrin. He was unavailable due to his prior commitment to Voyage of
the Damned.
Rob Reiner has a cameo during the rooftop chase sequence. (He's the guy
that Henry Lee bumps into while running from Harry.)
Terence McGovern portrayed the deejay and was an actual San Francisco radio personality
from station KSFO. Among his previous film credits were
American
Graffiti and THX-1138 for George Lucas.
While working on the latter, he flubbed a line and exclaimed, "I think I ran over a
wookie back there." It stuck with Lucas, and later became a household name
thanks to Star Wars.
Eastwood originally intended this to be the last Dirty Harry film, leaving it at a
trilogy.
