What do you think of when someone says "Charles Bronson"? If you're a youngin', you probably just went "who?" - and if that's the case, get off my damn lawn. But if you’re a child of the seventies and eighties, you probably instantly think classic 'tough guy' like Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin or Chuck Norris - and when you star in Tough Guy classics like Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, and The Great Escape, you've got a right to be hard as nails. Of course his most well known "tough guy" flick has to be the granddaddy of the vigilante rape/murder/revenge fantasies: Death Wish and its countless sequels.

Meet Paul Kersey (Bronson), a mild mannered architect in New York. He's a family man with a loving wife and daughter and a good job. He's a devout pacifist and believes that the underprivileged only need a chance and perhaps some sympathy. Of course Kersey has a change of heart when a trio of thugs (including Jeff Goldblum in his first starring roll - and unfortunately 100% more Jeff Goldblum ass cheek than I ever wanted to see in my life) break into Kersey's Manhattan apartment and savagely attack his wife and daughter. The wife is beaten to death and the daughter raped and left in a catatonic state.

As the cops prove to be ineffectual, he takes the law into his own hands and begins blowing away the scum of the earth left right and center. While Chuck is gunning down bad guys, the cops - headed by Detective Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) - have been tasked with bringing the vigilante killer to justice. And so the intricate cat-and-mouse game between the fuzz and Kersey begins, with the criminals caught in the crossfire. . . .

Given today's non-stop action flicks with wall to wall body counts and rapid fire editing, the slow and meticulous pace of Death Wish seems quaint at best and cheesy at it's worst. After the initial burst of violence, the film takes its time getting to the mugger mayhem - Kersey's trip to Arizona seems to go on forever, but is actually important to building up the character and filling in his reluctance to raise his hand against the criminal elements back home. The slow pacing of the movie allows to build Bronson up into his reluctantly vigilante role with weight and purpose.

Chuck, of course, is Bronson being Bronson, playing the part with his usual, stoic acting style. Some might say that Bronson comes off as wooden - and I would say you're dead on if we were talking about the sequels. But here, it's much more believable. Some people deal with loss and grief in crying and having a complete emotional breakdown while others internalize it. One could argue a good case that Kersey was so traumatized by the rape and murder that we get no outward sign of what would be considered a "normal reaction".

Meanwhile Vincent Gardenia is excellent as the cop who sees the need for justice but is sympathetic to Kersey's cause. And of course you could make a drinking game of "Spot the future star". There's the aforementioned Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Guest (fictional lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap), Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Freddy "Boom Boom" Washington from Welcome Back Kotter), Daniel Stern (Phil from City Slickers), and Sonia Manzano (Maria from Sesame Street) were just a few of the folks I noticed.

I do have to take a moment to mention, speaking of the production, the soundtrack by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock (you know, the guy with the dancing robots in that 80's music video). It's a hell of a cool soundtrack, even if it isn’t entirely appropriate. In fact it sounds more like Paul Kersey is being stalked by a wandering band of jazz musicians - but at least they sound good doing it!

Speaking of production styles, I do have to tip my hat to director Michael Winner and his stylish ways. While New York in the seventies was a nasty, crime ridden Gotham, Winner really goes hog wild with the menacing low-key lighting that fills the crevices with sinister shadows and brings out the bleakness. Then add in rapists, thieves, thugs and murderers at every turn and Death Wish becomes less a drama and more a Batman comic book.

You know, it just occurred to me as I was writing this - while the tropical paradise Kersey enjoys in the opening and the wide-open spaces of Arizona "where a man can breath" were an opportunity to round out the characterization of our gun-touting hero, they also serve to further underline what a hell hole New York has become. Actually, that's quite subtle!

Sadly this subtly was not to last. Much like the Rocky series, Death Wish became progressively more goofy and over the top. After the first film, the rights to the series were purchased by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and brought under the Cannon Films Group banner - you know, the studio that brought us classics like Invasion USA, American Ninja and Breakin' II: Electric Boogaloo - and the series became bigger, louder and more eighties as time went on. Eventually Paul Kersey wound up wrestling Mister T behind the Iron Curtain for the fate of the free world. No, actually that didn’t happen, but if we had gotten a Death Wish 6, I bet we would see something equally unlikely.

That said, Death Wish is a solid and entertaining enough effort - even if it is a bit dated.

BREASTS: 2
EXPLOSIONS: 0
ROUNDS FIRED: 18
PUNCHES THROWN:4
HANDRAIL DEATHS: 0
CAR CHASES: 0
FRUIT CARTS DESTROYED: 0
NINJA? No
BODY COUNT: 11

THE DVD -
Shame on your paramount! I know that you don't like to lay out the serious coin on these back catalog flicks, but this looks diabolical! The blacks look good (fortunate, since there are a LOT of night scenes) and the colors strong, the picture is really soft and sports lots of visible edge enhancement artifacts. Then you add in that the print they used was not in the best shape, with dirt and scratches everywhere. The soundtrack sounds kind of flat and tinny - although I suspect that's more an artifact of the original production than a flaw with the disc.

THE EXTRAS -
Par for the paramount low budget discs, we get a trailer - and that's it. And if you though the print of the film was bad, wait until you see the trailer! Oi vay!

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Having been parodied into the ground, having been ripped off left, right and center, having been the target of a Hollywood remake (well, upcoming remake), it's easy to dismiss the original Death Wish as a cheesy exploitation flick. On the surface, you'd be right - bad haircuts and bad acting abound - but there's a surprising amount of depth to the film if one was willing to look for it.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older