Jason Statham thriller Blitz let the star do his very own take on a classic Clint Eastwood character. Statham once revealed his biggest acting heroes to Men’s Journal, which included Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman, and Bruce Lee. In most Jason Statham action movies, it’s clear to see the influence of all those actors on his career, particularly when it comes to choosing actions over words. Sadly, Statham only got to work with one of his acting idols, having collaborated with Stallone many times on The Expendables movies.
Eastwood feels like he would be a natural fit for The Expendables, but thus far, the screen icon has yet to appear in the series. Despite being a star for over 50 years, there aren’t that many Clint Eastwood franchises in existence either. Outside of the Dollars trilogy or the Every Which Way… duology, Eastwood has avoided making sequels. Of course, the big exception is the Dirty Harry movie series, where he played the rogue San Francisco cop no less than five times.
Blitz Is Jason Statham’s Take On Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry
What if Dirty Harry grew up in London?
Statham is permanently typecast in the action genre – a label he seems perfectly content with. That said, he will occasionally stretch out to other genres, be it drama (Hummingbird) or comedy (Spy). 2011’s Blitz is a hybrid of gritty thriller and classic Statham vehicle, where he plays a gruff cop called Brant. The film has fight scenes, but it can’t be called an action movie either. Instead, it feels like a modern-day riff on Dirty Harry with Statham in the lead role.
Brant obviously doesn’t carry a .44 Magnum or regularly gets himself into shootouts, but the ending still involves him taking a not exactly legal route to stopping Blitz for good.
All the key Dirty Harry beats are there; Brant is a cop who plays by his own rules and takes justice into his own hands. The movie’s titular killer (played by Game of Thrones Aidan Gillen) targets police officers throughout London and craves publicity and attention. This is also true of Dirty Harry’s killer Scorpio (Andrew Robinson) who, despite his obvious guilt, is able to weasel his way out of legal trouble and gain sympathy using the press.
Brant obviously doesn’t carry a .44 Magnum or regularly gets himself into shootouts, but the ending still involves him taking a not exactly legal route to stopping Blitz for good. The film received mixed reviews (48% on Rotten Tomatoes) and wasn’t much of a success, but Blitz has found a following in the years since its release. It helps that the cast is stacked, with Paddy Considine, Luke Evans and Mark Rylance backing Statham up, while it makes great use of London as a location.
Blitz Was Meant To Launch A New Jason Statham Franchise
Statham almost had another series on his hands
There’s no shortage of Statham franchises already, but had Blitz made a bigger splash, there could have been more adventures with Brant. The film is based on a 2002 novel by Ken Bruen of the same title, and Blitz was one of many novels featuring the character of Brant, including Calibre and Vixen. A sequel would have depended on the original being a solid hit, but while it did well in the UK, it went straight to DVD in the States.
This is a pity because, while the original was flawed, it featured one of Statham’s best performances from that era. Brant is a character that felt custom-built for the star, and one that offered him a meatier role that didn’t require any heavy action beats. Blitz is about as close to Statham playing a Clint Eastwood role as audiences are likely to get, and while the film’s take on vigilante justice isn’t subtle stuff, it was at least made with some craft.
Why An Actual Dirty Harry Remake Never Happened
Only one actor can play Dirty Harry
Given its iconic status, some might be surprised that Warner Bros has never attempted a Dirty Harry reboot. Eastwood signed off on the role with The Dead Pool and ruled out a Dirty Harry 6 in the years that followed. During the early 2000s, reports suggested Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was being lined up to take over Dirty Harry, but those talks came to nothing. In truth, it would be very hard to see anybody else in the Dirty Harry role but Eastwood.
In the same way the poor actor who takes over Clint’s role in the proposed A Fistful of Dollars remake will have a hard time escaping his shadow, Dirty Harry is just too closely tied to Eastwood. The originals were also controversial in their day for depicting a cop who shoots first and asks questions later, so a modern remake might be a tough sell to audiences. Still, for fans of the Eastwood saga looking for something similar, Statham’s Blitz is very much cast in the same mold.