Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry in 8K
January 27, 2025
By Chris Forrester

Clint Eastwood’s Malpaso production house is scanning the 35mm version of the classic Dirty Harry movie into 8K. There will be dedicated screening of the classic detective drama at the Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival, commencing on February 13th.
Eastwood, writing on X, said the screening will utilise an 8K scan of the original 35mm camera negative from 1971, noting: “The digitally restored image has been adjusted to maintain the original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Additionally, the sound has been restored from the original source materials. This initiative is part of a collaboration with the upcoming 4K UHD Steelbook release, which is anticipated to be available in mid-2025.”
This is not the first time that Eastwood has embraced 4K and Blu-ray and his enthusiasm extends to Pale Rider (1984) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) both of which will be available later this year on Steelbook, special edition Blu-ray issues.
According to IMDb, and reported by super-fan Patriot LaJuett, Dirty Harry was shot using Eastman 100T 5254. Eastman 100T 5254 was a 35 mm Kodak colour negative film stock considered special for its excellent skin tone rendition, wide exposure latitude, and smooth, creamy grain structure, making it a popular choice for cinematography, particularly in the 1970s and early 80s, especially when shooting under tungsten lighting due to its ‘T’ designation, meaning it was balanced for artificial light sources.