"Dirty" Harry Callaghan (Clint Eastwood) faces a new threat in this film. Not criminals this time (although he does get to waste a few of course) but an enemy within. Someone, probably a rogue cop, is shooting the city's bad guys who use the court system to avoid justice. Harry at first thinks it is his old buddy Charlie (Mitchell Ryan) who has gone a bit crazy but when Charlie is killed himself he knows the answer is somewhere else...
A group of young cops who graduated together raise his suspicions. Led by Davis (David Soul) they have formed a sub-culture, a death squad. When Harry is getting too close he finds himself under fire himself. But who is their leader, he asks his superior Lieutenant Briggs (Hal Holbrook)...
A tough, sometimes sleazy, sometimes a bit exploitation-ish crime drama. There is a warning about vigilantism but really this is all about Clint Eastwood acting cool and shooting lots of people. It is of course completely ridiculous and quite over the top and very violent. It is also incredibly 1970s.
