Sun 5 May 2019
February 5.
DEATH WISH. Paramount Pictures, 1974. Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, William Redfield, Stuart Margolin, Stephen Elliott, Kathleen Tolan. Based on the book by Brian Garfield. Director: Michael Winner. [Watched on HBO.]
Since I’ve never read Brian Garfield’s book, I can’t hope to compare the two. It’s my opinion that movies taken from other sources have to stand on their own anyway, and in its fashion, this one definitely does.
There is one change I know was made. In the book the nae of Charles Bronson’s character is Paul Benjamin, but in the film it’s been changed to something-Polish-sounding-that-starts-with-K [Kersey] (I don’t takes notes, and I’m not going to, so bear with me once in a while.)
Otherwise the basic outline of the story is the same, although the message is not. A mild-mannered architect loses his wife to a muggers’ attack, and his daughter retreats into a catatonic shell. In retaliation he becomes a deadly sharp-hooting vigilante haunting the streets and subways of New York City. As he does so, he attracts a considerable amount of press coverage, and the police end up not daring to catch and arrest him if they could.
Incidentally, and this is the only flaw in what otherwise is an ultra-realistic portrayal of a New York City no one knows — simply because they’re all huddled together behind triple-locked doors — I’ve never seen subway trains as clean as they are in this movie.
The film is excellently done, and I have to say this even though the message rubs me the wrong way intellectually, not emotionally. It’s a movie perfectly tailored for audiences fed up with crime-on-the-streets. The NRA would love it.
Rated R, of all the obvious reasons.
May 6th, 2019 at 7:27 pm
I can’t fault the film as a film, it does what it sets out to, but it is also “loaded” in that it doesn’t deal with anything vaguely resembling reality, unlike the Garfield novel it was based on.
In the end the storyline was too slick for the more serious subject matter, and while it may have fit the mood of the era, the era was full of a lot of hot air about so called law and order.
May 6th, 2019 at 8:14 pm
I agree with everything you say, David. But for what it’s worth in terms of my judgment, I’d better add that I’ve still never read the book.
May 7th, 2019 at 5:31 pm
I always enjoyed Bronson’s work, but thought he was better as a supporting actor than a leading man, thinking of The Magnificent Seven, Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen.
May 8th, 2019 at 11:38 am
I think Bronson’s screen presence was so overpowering that when he worked as the lead, it could often work to his disadvantage. (Not so much in this film. Bronson was the perfect actor for the movie they wanted to make.)
When he was part of a larger ensemble cast, he was forced to tone himself down a notch.