While people are rightly noting the irony that the pro-vigilante Dirty Harry directed Mystic River, they should take a second look at the franchise. True, the first film, directed by Don Siegel and released in '72, might well be referred to as fascist chic. Full of nods to the Western-Eastwood tosses his badge into the water much like Gary Cooper tossed his badge into the dust at the end of High Noon-the movie took its knocks for the rogue cop's many minority-status targets. In the sequel, Magnum Force ('73), however, the pro-vigilante theme is inverted; Eastwood finds himself fighting a secret society of rogue cops who've taken the law into their own hands. Sickened by a court system which has let so many criminals go, said society ends up knocking off anyone they don't like-something Eastwood ends up fighting, realizing they've taken the vigilante thing way too far. Helmed by cult filmmaker Ted Post (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, The Baby), this sequel is well worth another gander. Available on DVD at Boîte Noire. » Matthew Hays