Death Wish (1974)

Directed by Michael Winner. Starring Charles Bronson, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, Stuart Margolin, Hope Lange, William Redfield, Jack Wallace, Stephen Elliott, Robert Kya-Hill, Kathleen Tolan. [R]

Self-proclaimed liberal Bronson, who hasn’t touched a gun since the Korean War, changes his tune after his wife and daughter are assaulted by a pack of violent crazies, turning into a vigilante who guns down muggers in the mean streets of NYC. Morally dubious (if not occasionally repulsive) action pic based on Brian Garfield’s novel changes the prevailing attitude—the book was against vigilantism while the movie is almost always in favor of it—by having its “hero” hand down life sentences to street thugs without any sense of regret (just nausea following his first act). Since the terms are so simplistic and based on counter-response emotions, there’s no attempt to reasonably argue the philosophy on conflicted terms; as such, its worth (or lack thereof) must be weighed against Winner’s hard-hitting treatment of gritty, violent thrillers and Bronson’s typically laconic, cold-steel approach. Jeff Goldblum has a bit part as one of the creeps that attacks Bronson’s family; Christopher Guest and Olympia Dukakis also appear briefly. Followed by several sequels and remade in 2018.

47/100