Death Wish (1974) * * *

 

Directed by:  Michael Winner

Starring:  Charles Bronson, Stuart Margolin, Vincent Gardenia, William Redfield

Paul Kersey (Bronson) leads an ordinary life as a New York architect with a loving family.  He served as a medic in the Korean War and classified himself as a "conscientious objector."   He doesn't own a gun.  All of that changes when his wife is murdered and his daughter made comatose by home invaders posing as supermarket delivery persons.   Paul grieves (as much as Charles Bronson would allow us to see anyway) and soon accepts an assignment in Tucson hoping to get away from New York for a while.   In Tucson, Paul is given a gun by the property owner overseeing Paul's housing development design and is taken to a gun range, where he shows an aptitude for accuracy.  

Paul decides to use his newfound gun skills on would-be muggers and assailants.   He walks alone at night in the park or subway, luring attackers, and then killing them.   At first, this causes Paul to vomit, but then he gains a rhythm for it.   The police are ambivalent towards the vigilante whose killings are causing a steep drop in crime.   On one hand, they don't mind someone doing their dirty work, but on the other they wonder if vigilantism won't lead to a whole city of one-man judge, jury, and executioners.   A haggard detective (Gardenia-who is seemingly battling a constant cold throughout the film) suspects Paul, follows him, but not to arrest him, but to make him a deal to get out of town and stay there.

Bronson made a career after Death Wish playing a vigilante in one form or another.   He was quite good at it.   Director Winner once said of Bronson that although he never saw Bronson explode at a co-star or crew member, it wouldn't surprise him if he did.   He just seemed capable of violence and that makes it all the more realistic when he snaps.   In Death Wish, the morphing is slower and more deliberate, showing us that Paul is indeed an ordinary man driven to extreme lengths in his quest for vengeance.  The movie spawned four inferior sequels in which Bronson became a one-dimensional killing machine. Not to spoil the ending of Death Wish, but it's a shame he never catches up to the guys who attacked his family.