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Death Wish is a 1974 crime action drama starring Charles Bronson as the character Paul Kersey, a man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered by home invaders. The film was a huge commercial success and begat 4 sequels. Widely denounced by critics for advocating unsanctioned violence against criminals, Death Wish became a metaphor for a rising public tide of anger against unchecked violent crime. Tagline: Vigilante, city style -- Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
Introduction The original film, directed by Michael Winner and based on a novel by Brian Garfield, depicts Kersey as a peaceful New York City "everyman". A land development engineer by trade, and a conscientious objector from military service, Kersey's passive attitude toward crime is transformed into vigilantism after his own family is attacked by criminals. While the protagonist's killing spree is framed from Kersey's point of view, the film also dramatizes the conflict between Kersey and City Hall, who publicly denounce his actions by means of politically-correct, often ironic statements on the crime of vigilantism against criminals. One commentator noted that the film perfectly "encapsulates an American era—the early 1970s, when many urban Americans started to feel they couldn't walk outside without fear of being attacked." * Although the film was denounced on its release by several film critics as 'fascist' or 'quasi-fascist', the Kersey character is in fact a civilian who has no contact with police or government forces. In fact, the film portrays the unintended consequences of a ineffective police force and unenforced criminal laws, forcing the general public to resort to individualized and unsanctioned violence to combat unchecked lawlessness. Sequels The popularity of Death Wish spawned a number of sequels. Death Wish II Death Wish II (1982) is considered by many to be the weakest of the series. The film discards the social commentary and thematic elements of the first movie in favour of exploitive and graphic violence, which garnered it an X-rating although it has been cut for an R rating. Ironically, it had the highest box office draw of the five movies in the series, earning $15 million, despite critics panning it. In Death Wish II, Paul Kersey(again played by Charles Bronson) again turns to vigilantism, now in Los Angeles, in response to the rape and murder of his maid and his daughter. Jill Ireland plays Kersey's fiancée, who leaves him when she discovers what he has done. Death Wish 3 Death Wish III (1985) is considered the best entry by many fans of the series, despite most professional critics favoring the original. In it, Paul Kersey (again played by Bronson) returns to New York City to visit a war buddy from the Korean war, only to find his friend brutally murdered. Soon afterwards, the police coerce Kersey into attacking a criminal riot in a dangerous neighborhood as a way of exploiting his freedom from legal restraints. In the film's climax, Kersey mows down many of the criminals with a Browning M1919A4 machine gun, then obliterates the criminal leader with a mail-ordered rocket launcher. Death Wish 3 has the largest body-count of all the Death Wish films. Because of its over-the-top action, quotable dialogue and complete embrace of the absurd, Death Wish 3 has developed a cult following. This is also the sequel that made the .475 Wildey Magnum that is manufactured in Connecticut by Wildey Inc. world famous. Wildey founder Wildey Moore says that every time Death Wish III plays on cable the firm receives orders specifically requesting the magnum featured in the film. The release of Death Wish III in 1985 actually saved the company from bankruptcy. Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Death Wish IV: The Crackdown (1987) is set in Los Angeles and follows the activities of Paul Kersey (again played by actor Charles Bronson, who was 66 years old at the time of filming), which are financed by a wealthy individual bent upon avenging a drug-related death. In a single week, Kersey succeeds in destroying the entire drug trade of the city. The weapon Kersey uses throughout is a silenced Ingram MAC-10. Death Wish V: The Face of Death Charles Bronson vowed that Death Wish 4 would be the final film in this series, but he went on to make Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994), in which Paul Kersey's new wife is killed. In response, he retaliates against the "fashion mafia," which also has a grip on his dead wife's daughter. Death Wish V was Bronson's last theatrically released film. Kersey uses a Colt Cobra .38 Special revolver snubnose revolver throughout the film. Paul Kersey Paul Kersey is the central character in the Death Wish novels and movies, which follow Kersey's crime-fighting activities beginning in the early 1970's and continuing for the next twenty years. Brian Garfield is the author of the original novel Death Wish, in which the character of Kersey is introduced as Paul Benjamin (later renamed Kersey for the film). In this book he is an accountant (later changed to architect in the movies) in his forties and a political liberal who turns to vigilantism to avenge the death of his wife at the hands of a gang of muggers. The sequel, Death Sentence, describes Kersey's attempts to deal with a copycat vigilante while at the same time continuing his war against petty criminals. The movie series, beginning with the original Death Wish and continuing through four (increasingly absurd and unlikely) sequels, features a middle-aged (and later, elderly) Kersey, portrayed by Charles Bronson. The Kersey of the movies also starts out as a liberal and an architect, a man who disliked violence so much that he registered with the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector during the Korean War. In the movies, those close to Kersey are constantly being raped and/or killed, providing Kersey with ever-fresh reasons to resume vigilantism. In the later movies Kersey's architect work is seldom mentioned, and he seems to have taken up full-time work as a one-man mercenary squad. As the years pass Kersey's former abhorrence for violence and liberal views are never discussed, and his skill with firearms and other impromptu means of death-dealing has increased exponentially. During the final movie sequel, Kersey (now a senior citizen) dispatches large numbers of hardened criminals with cold-blooded ease. Trivia Death Wish in popular culture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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