Spare the Rod: Clint Eastwood, Pauline Kael and Dirty Harry

Dirty Harry was released near the end of 1971 and became an immediate hit, and just as immediately began a feud between its star, Clint Eastwood, and Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics in America. In her review, published in the New Yorker on January 15, 1972, and titled "Dirty Harry: Saint Cop", Kael called the film "a kind of hardhat The Fountainhead" and "an almost perfect piece of propaganda for para-legal police power." "When you're making a picture with Clint Eastwood, you naturally want things to be simple, and the basic contest between good and evil...