Death Wish (1974)
- written January 2000
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Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is just an ordinary "Joe." He’s an architect who has everything going for him: a great job, beautiful wife, awesome daughter. But all that ends when some thugs attack Paul’s wife, Joanna, and daughter, Carol, just home after a trip to the market. The 3 thugs kill the wife, rape the daughter and even do some painting of the home’s interior. Carol’s husband calls Paul and gives him the bad news. The police have few leads and seem not to do much and with the anger building inside him, Paul decides on some revenge. Paul’s first venture in the harsh world has him armed with a sock full of quarters and one night with that, gets him high and on edge. It is then that for work he is sent to Tucson to help with a development project. It is there that Paul starts to let his darker side grow and come to the surface. He is brought into the world of guns and shooting ranges, and he’ll never be the same. Now armed, Paul goes back onto the streets of NY to reek havoc on muggers everywhere. The problem is, his vigilantism is getting massive publicity and if anything, crime is going down. The NY Police Commissioner’s Office is actually asking the police and NY Cop Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) to back off, even when they know what Paul is up to. Will NY actually arrest the best crime fighter they have or let him continue to do their job for them?
Overall: One of the better Action films out there. We get to see Jeff Goldblum’s film debut as "Freak #1" and in general this film really tries to take the idea of Vigilantes seriously and probe the issues. It does a decent job showing Bronson as despondent, scared, fearful, etc. The plot also takes twists as his daughter ends up needing psychiatric help and the strain on the son in law and father is evident. The bummer part for this film is that the sequels tend to always make the original looks weaker and cheezier. Don’t be fooled. Good film with decent action sequences. And the series fits the horror genre because of the rape scenes. Comparison: Dirty Harry meets I Spit on Your Grave |
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