An insightful look at the way in which the film's sense of morality – of right and wrong – is measured against the social climate of its time. Don Siegel's 1971 crime thriller Dirty Harry has become synonymous in the popular imagination with the practice of a certain kind of brutal utilitarian logic, "Dirty Harry ethics" in which the ends justify any means, however shocking, as long as they contribute to the greater good. At the time it came out, there was a view that Dirty Harry embodies a reactionary political agenda, endorsing violence as a simplistic solution to social problems. The Dirty Harry series is a fascinating study of an American period that begins with the disillusionment in the early 70s and ends with "Morning in America" Reagan era, and when the country was even more polarized than it is now, where words like "fascist" and "communist" were banded about too easily. Filmmakers, social scientists and authors take a provocative look at the moral, political and ethical themes of the Dirty Harry films.