Death Wish (1974) vs Dirty Harry (1971)

Dirty Harry.

Dirty Harry, obviously. Not sure how anyone could even seriously ask this. Just on purely cinematic grounds a case can easily be made that DH is better than DW.

Music (Herbie Hancock vs. Lalo Schifrin): Lalo clearly wins hands down here. Although both Hancock and Schifrin were jazz-based composer and both turned in solid scores, it is the Schifrin Dirty Harry and Scorpio themes that have become iconic

Cinematography (Arthur J. Ornitz vs. Bruce Surtees): Although you could argue the photography in both of these films is a bit too dark and grainy at times, Surtees is clearly, the better of the two.

Supporting Cast: (Death Wish (1): Vincent Gardenia / Dirty Harry (7): Harry Guardino, Renee Santoni, John Larch, John Vernon, Andy Robinson, Woodrow Parfrey, Josef Sommer, etc.) Another clear win for Dirty Harry

Quotable Dialog: (Death Wish: can't remember any / Dirty Harry: aside from the "Do you feel lucky" monologue there are too many to count)

The Torture Scene at the Stadium from Dirty Harry is the best directed and photographed scene from any of the DW or DH films, and the helicopter pull out just caps the whole thing

Easily Dirty Harry. Death Wish is very entertaining, but there's a certain sleaziness associated with its cheap production that makes it all seem amateurish. Dirty Harry is much more slickly made, better written, and has a compelling villain that's far more interesting than the rogues gallery of retarded scumbags that litter Death Wish.

Dirty Harry by a mile!
A game changing movie with one of the best psycho villains to grace the silver screen

Both are great but Dirty Harry is a little more serious, whereas Death Wish is more of a rah rah yea go get em movie.

Dirty Harry. The script, dialog, direction, music, cinematography, and cast were all superior to Death Wish.

DIRTY HARRY.. I'm honestly surprised DIRTY HARRY made it unscathed without the dreaded cancel culture cancelling the movie for the dialogue in some scenes, like why his friend "Fatso" refers to him as DIRTY HARRY.. He says because Harry doesn't discriminate and hates all spics and niggers is what he said..

I really enjoyed Death Wish but Dirty Harry is the superior movie.