Clint Eastwood: One of the best lines in cinema has a delicious origin

Go make my day! This iconic line from Inspector Harry (Clint Eastwood) is so closely associated with the character that you’ll swear you’ve heard it in every film in the saga. But this is not true: it is only used in the film “Inspector Harry Returns” in 1983. It is so famous that AFI (American Film Institute) ranked it 6th. His top 100 The most famous lines of American cinema, 2005.

At the beginning of the film, Harry Callahan intervenes against three thugs who take the cafeteria hostage. After killing two, he targets the third and delivers his final blow: “Go ahead! Make my day!” (“Go! Make me happy!”)

Below, the famous sequence in the original version…

And the same in French:

According to the writer of the French version and soundtrack of the film, Max Piquepe, the original expression is not an invention of the film’s screenwriter Joseph Stinson, even if the line was written by John Milius, it is not otherwise recorded in the film. Credits.

At the time of filming, this was already a very popular expression. For the record, the producers preferred the translation “Happier!”Finally quite neutral than “Light me up!”First suggested by Max Pikeppe and which appears to have been a provocative take on the Dirty Harry character.

Anyway, the phrase was used two years later by some Ronald Reagan, then President of the United States, when the latter threatened to use a presidential veto to prevent a Democratic majority in Congress from passing tax-raising legislation. Another version of this little story claims that Reagan used the phrase as a challenge in response to terrorists who boasted that he was a future target.