Cinematic Icons in American Law Enforcement

Ben Simington

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" —Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)

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"Dead or alive, you're coming with me."  —Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

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"Ah, well, we got a little problem here.  Uh, apparently this lady got a cab here to 8011 East 24th, and, uh, she didn’t, the cab driver didn’t have any change.  So when the, when the cab arrived here it was a dollar ten cent.  So then he goes 27th and two, I mean 27th here and Charlotte somewhere to get some change and drives back around here, and he wants her to pay that extra forty cent or something for him going to having to get the change, and she doesn’t want to pay that.  Which I could understand."  —Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman, 1969)

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Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman was recently the subject of a retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art.  His newest movie Boxing Gym is currently screening theatrically.

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Frederick WisemanPaul VerhoevenDon SiegelQuick Reads
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