This week our roundtable review crew takes on the 1974 Charles Bronson classic, DEATH WISH. Rumor has it that Sly Stallone is looking to remake this brutal tale of vigilante justice, but before that happens, lets take a look at why this film sparked four sequels over a 20-year period and why DEATH WISH is still relevant today.

The full House of Shame crew — Bill, Ashlon, Stewart and myself — are on-board tonight. If you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comments area at the bottom of the review! Stewart gets us rolling…

Stewart: DEATH WISH is a film that allows us to indulge in the most primal of nature’s instincts: Taking another life in protection of our own. Bronson plays Paul Kersey, an architect by trade who lives a pretty good life amidst the scum of 1974 New York City. After returning from a lovely Hawaiian vacation with his wife, Kersey’s life is tossed upside down when three punks follow his wife Joanna and their daughter Carol home from the grocery store. Carol is defiled and Joanna is killed. From this tragedy is born vengeful and merciless Kersey. A man bent on ending the lives of street urchins all over the city. But hot on his trail is Detective Frank Ochoa charged with the task of
running this wild vigilante out of town.

Bronson is no Lee Marvin but he is one tough SOB. I wish Bronson had played up his pain and anguish just a little more. He seemed more annoyed with his son-in-law incessantly calling him “Dad” than he did about his wife’s death. I thought the shootings were awesome but just so matter of fact. Maybe that shows just how detached Kersey is from reality now. Is Bronson a brilliant thespian or a wooden actor?

Ashlon: Bronson’s portrayal of Kersey is just that … all Bronson. He’s stoic yet on the edge of a complete breakdown. His emotions are lost somewhere in the close-ups of the picture behind his small eyes and even smaller mustache. While Bronson is certainly a lost gem of American cinema, I struggle with the challenge of identifying his range, thus chalking it up to simply Bronson playing Bronson.

Andy: I think you nailed the main glitch with DEATH WISH Stewart. Bronson isn’t just wooden — The man’s expression is fixed like a Toltec mask. At best he musters a smirk.

On the other hand, some people deal with grief in different ways. Some can find comfort in crying and wearing their heart on their sleeve. Some internalize it. Because DEATH WISH is such a potent piece of film, and just a damned good movie, I like to think that Bronson’s character was so damaged by the incident, that he couldn’t have what we would consider a normal emotional reaction. In this respect, DEATH WISH may be more convincing than we think.

Bill: Bronson is wooden — there’s no getting around it. He was a physical actor with a very limited range. I think he was well aware of his limitations and capitalized on them by playing these stoic, tough-as-nails characters.

But in the right part, I think he was very effective. I also think he has to stretch a little bit more than usual for Paul Kersey. There’s the scene where Kersey, an admitted “Conscientious Objector” and “bleeding-heart” liberal, shoots his first thug, and his reaction is one of physical revulsion (he can barely make it to the bathroom before throwing up). Despite it being difficult to pierce through Bronson’s tough veneer. I find these early scenes of Kersey acclimating himself into killing to be the most interesting moments in the movie. It’s almost like watching the origin story for a very dark superhero where the character is first discovering his powers and a bit confused about how best to use them… I guess you could say DEATH WISH is like an Anti-Superhero film.

Stewart: How about that doofus Jack Toby (Stephen Keats)? I can’t imagine that I’d let such an ill-equipped man marry my only daughter. And I really thought something was going be done about the “dad” dropping. I thought Kersey might show up and set that fool straight before he left town at the end. But then, this film had other weird minutia that perplexed me. Was Detective Frank’s sniffling throughout the investigation a character trait? I tend to think that actor Vincent Gardenia probably had a cold the entire shoot. I just don’t understand the point of his asthmatic huffing and snorting. And how about the Boris Karloff cameo of Lt. Briggs? “WWweird.”

Bill: The mise-en-scene is also a constant delight in how utterly dark and hellish it is. I think the only other cinematic portrait of New York that is as bleak or bleaker than this is TAXI DRIVER. Director Michael Winner (a Brit who might have had a foreigner’s uninformed, heightened attitude toward the dangers of New York) fills every shadow, every nook and cranny with rapists, thugs and murderers (including a young, leering Jeff Goldblum, credited as “Freak 1″). In this regard, the film is very much like a comic book. All Kersey has to do is walk outdoors for less than a block and he’s being accosted by yet another stooped, cackling criminal.

Adding to this dangerous atmosphere is the menacing low-key nighttime photography. I love how the main light source always skirts across brick and stone buildings to bring out the textures in the surfaces and the deep shadows in the crevices. Even interiors have a sickening tinge from the green and blue fluorescent lighting. This environment is simply relentless in its abuse to the people who live in it. Kersey’s wife’s funeral is set in the middle of a near-blizzard, with people bracing themselves against the torturous wind and snow; Kersey’s boss talks about how out in Tucson, people can “actually breathe”; and then there’s the running gag of the police commissioner who’s constantly sneezing from a cold.

Stewart: You’re right about the grime of the city Bill. As my own NYC experiences go I never came across subway stations quite that lonely nor did I ever see the amount of graffiti that covered every municipal landmark of DEATH WISH. It’s no wonder so many roamed the streets though, with home decor being what it was how could anyone have stayed home for an extended length of time?

Bill: To further illustrate his point of new York being Hell, Winner gives us several contrasting locations - Hawaii, Tucson and Chicago - that are like breaths of fresh air and sunshine in the middle of the stifling, cold darkness where these people have chosen to live.

Andy: What took the piss out of the movie for me was that he never catches up with the trio of punks that raped his daughter and blackjacked his wife to death. I was waiting for him to bump into them in some dark alley and start popping. The revenge angle took a backseat to the more philosophical and/or socio-political message over the legality of vigilante justice.

NRA members probably love this movie. It adds fodder to the debate that if everyone carried a gun, the world would be a safer place. Not to get off on a personal note, I think giving everyone a gun is like giving underage kids a condom in middle school. It may be intended for preventative purposes, but it also carries with it the notion that shooting people/having underage promiscuous sex is OK. Maybe I’m wrong.

Stewart: Nah, I don’t think you’re wrong Andrew. Then again the Tucson, Arizona of the DEATH WISH universe seems like quite the breath of fresh air. I think gun/penis-toting Ames said it best, “… This is gun country. And unlike your city, we can walk our streets at night and feel safe. Muggers out here, they just plain get their asses blown up.”

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