Review: Death Wish - 1974

Death Wish

Director: Michael Winner

1974

Drama/Action/Thriller

When Paul Kerseys wife and daughter gets attacked in their home, the wife killed and the daughter raped and left mentally disturbed, he takes the law into his own hands and become a one man vigilante army. He tests himself, where are his limits, can he actually withstand a mugger armed with a knife or a gun? At first he has grave problems with the violence but after a while he arms himself with a gun and goes out to provoke the scum of New York to attack him. He then shoots them down without mercy!

I first saw this years ago during the raids to my local video stores that I mentioned in an earlier review. This must be one of the best know film with Charles Bronson and most defiantly THE vigilante film! As I recall it  I didn’t think it was such a big of a deal back then but when I saw it again yesterday, the first time in fifteen or twenty years I realized how much to the point it really is. It’s not the violence that makes the movie, not the action. But rather the cover up. When Paul Kersey (Bronson) has shot several victims the police finds out who he is, mind you it’s done by some pretty far fetched methods, and the try to cover it up. They don’t want him to be arrested and definitely not killed. They don’t want a martyr.

Because if they catch him they will trigger even more vigilantes to start defending themselves i.e. killing bad guys, commit murder. The police must uphold the law but on the other hand, he gets rid of some of the scum that the police will never catch and the crime rate goes down during his reign of the dark night streets. Instead they try to force him to stop and get out of New York. A bit like an old western and there’s even a comment about it in the dialog. Kersey asks if he should be gone before sundown. Brilliant line really.

The acting is really nice and the direction is swell. I can’t say that it needs any improvement on those matters. It does feel a little bit dated though and it might have past it’s expiring date when it comes to the story. There are some many films which are more explicit nowadays and the political satire may have become obsolete, I don’t know. But on the other hand, the debate of gun control is still a pretty big issue as I understand it so maybe it’s still pretty accurate after all. In this film the scale turns from pacifism to quite the opposite when the need arise. It’s all about revenge and how people might think in a situation like that. I don’t think any of us would think rational if this happened to us. Yet this is what Paul Kersey seems to do. His plan is thought through, at least up to a point and he doesn’t panic once he got the hang of it.

It might not have the most fantastic story of all the Charles Bronson movies but it’s pretty realistic and if you look fast you’ll see Jeff Goldblum as a bad guy in the very beginning of the film. I can’t say that he’s fantastic or anything but this was his debut. That ought to count for something I think.

8/10

Review: Mr. Majestyk - 1974

Mr. Majestyk

Director: Richard Fleischer

1974

Action

The only thing Mr. Majestyk really cares about is his melons. The only thing on his mind is to harvest them and do it in his own righteous way. He doesn’t like it when other try to force him to hire help or when they oppress the Mexican minorities. He communicates his opinions to the local thugs i.e. with violence. This in turn means that he’s now has an assault charge to sort out with the police. They claim that he’s beaten a man with a rifle but the truth is that it in fact was the guy own rifle and that it only seconds earlier was pointed at Mr. Majestyk! The police doesn’t believe him of course and he’s soon on a prison transport together with a infamous thug and contract killer. The transport krasches but Mr. Majestyk doesn’t help the gangster, instead he plans to get him taken in by the police again. After all, the most impostant thing is to harvest the melons…. This makes the thug hate him at such a level that he will stop at nothing to get him killed! But Mr. Majestyk is not an easy target…

Many, many years ago, before it became old-fashioned to rent movies in physical stores, my local stores was raided by me and my friends in order to get all the films staring or co-staring Charles Bronson. Everything was of interest so after a while there was nothing left to see. I would like to say that I saw millions of Bronsons films during this period but thirty or forty is more truthful! About the same time I also saw Swamp Thing or possible it’s sequel Return of the Swamp Thing where a you girl, possible Heather Locklear, was threatened by some bad guys. She told them that the police was on their way, The CIA, FBI and… CHARLES BRONSON!! He was also the ultimate weapon in a radio sketch during that time. It was a comedy radio show called Sextio Sekunda Minuter where the Russian and American leaders brags about their weapons. They tried to scare each other with their fantastic arsenals. They threatened each other with double nuclear bombs and all kind of exaggerated weaponry until the American leader won the argument by claiming he would send in CHARLES BRONSON!

The reputation he had was about his own personal being, not the characters he portrayed in the movies. This release has a couple of great quotes I’d like to add to that conclusion. For instance, Don’t Fuck with Bronson. It says a lot about this actor. I wonder if it would be just to call him  the king of the revenge movies? I think you could say that! Loads of movies with a talent that forgives the sole impression on his face. You can’t fail!

This is a really tough film and Charles Bronson makes it even tougher. It’s rumored that Clint Eastwood initially was to play the leading part but I don’t think that would have been as good and tough as this is. Clint is tough to be sure, but not as tough as Brosnon! The storyline is pretty stupid. But that’s to be expected from a revenge film like this. They’re almost always the same. That the thug would be so stupid and proud that he would seek revenge at all costs is absurd. It’s also far fetched that Mr.Majestyk should be so manipulative that he could outsmart the whole organization of criminals.

But essentially I have no problem with that. We want our hero to succeed and we really don’t care what character his in. When Bronson did these movies, hi did them with himself as a main character. I mean that it’s BRONSON we like to see, we don’t really care what his characters name is and if he grow melons for a living or not. Charles Bronson IS the ultimate weapon!

8/10