Whatever I may think of the franchise it spawned (and indeed hundreds of similar movies, shows and comic books), the original Death Wish is a much more grounded story, and one that actually escapes the formula it's meant to have written (it's kind of like Halloween that way). A wife killed and a daughter traumatized at the hands of the thugs out of A Clockwork Orange (including baby face Jeff Goldbloom!) sends pacifist Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) onto a dark path, but unlike the imitators, it takes him a while and we're with him every step of the way. As his righteous killings are reported, he becomes a phenomenon and the movie addresses public (and government) reaction with some realism. And while a script doctor might have given the character and audience more closure, the movie avoids that as too easy. These surprises keep Death Wish from being entirely too familiar from having been copied so many times.
I think it walks a fine line between being racist or not racist by not espousing most of its ensemble character viewpoints, but it's a whole lot of fun. It feels like a comic book origin story meets...the first season of breaking bad?
The film's simplistic understanding of vigilantism, presented here crudely as a crime reducer, and its absence of psychological dimension make "Dirty Harry" seem like a paragon of complexity. A leftover from the 70s, this hideously made cartoon (cf. its lurid portrayal of the muggers) deserves to be forgotten.
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Siskoid
Whatever I may think of the franchise it spawned (and indeed hundreds of similar movies, shows and comic books), the original Death Wish is a much more grounded story, and one that actually escapes the formula it's meant to have written (it's kind of like Halloween that way). A wife killed and a daughter traumatized at the hands of the thugs out of A Clockwork Orange (including baby face Jeff Goldbloom!) sends pacifist Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) onto a dark path, but unlike the imitators, it takes him a while and we're with him every step of the way. As his righteous killings are reported, he becomes a phenomenon and the movie addresses public (and government) reaction with some realism. And while a script doctor might have given the character and audience more closure, the movie avoids that as too easy. These surprises keep Death Wish from being entirely too familiar from having been copied so many times.nick-samuel
Good film!Flops
Perfect final scene.senorroboto
I think it walks a fine line between being racist or not racist by not espousing most of its ensemble character viewpoints, but it's a whole lot of fun. It feels like a comic book origin story meets...the first season of breaking bad?mpouk
The film's simplistic understanding of vigilantism, presented here crudely as a crime reducer, and its absence of psychological dimension make "Dirty Harry" seem like a paragon of complexity. A leftover from the 70s, this hideously made cartoon (cf. its lurid portrayal of the muggers) deserves to be forgotten.