The original Death Wish movie is still the only one worth watching. A slick, well-made and enjoyably amoral vigilante drama, it was a huge box office hit in its day. It starts with a chilling rape sequence - still provocative thirty years on - and develops from there into an exciting and perversely funny story of how a man whose life is affected by these disturbing events gets his revenge.
New York businessman Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is devastated when his wife (Hope Lange) and daughter (Kathleen Tolan) are sexually assaulted in their own home. His wife dies from her injuries and his daughter is so deeply traumatized that she is left in a permanent vegetative state. Kersey tries to get some normality back into his life through work, but deep down inside he's burning for revenge. He knows he will never get the actual gang who harmed his family, but he also realises that crime in general is spreading through the city like a plague. So, armed with a gun and a sense of vigilante justice, he starts patrolling the streets by night, killing muggers, hoodlums and rapists. But for how long can he hand out his own brand of justice without being caught? And at what point does his course of action stop being justifiable? When does he become just as bad as the crooks he is trying to rub out?
The film is based on a Brian Garfield novel, but in the book vigilantism was illustrated as an extension of crime - just another problem as opposed to a solution. Here Michael Winner, a director always happy to create a few ripples, presents the vigilante as an out-and-out hero. The film basically gives a great big nod of approval to Kersey's actions. The sense of humour really helps the film (I still laugh at the scene where some construction-workers kick the hell out of a crook, and one workman nonchalantly states to the TV reporters: "Erm, we roughed him up a bit before the cops arrived!") Death Wish was a pretty influential film for its era, and in spite of its dated air and its morally dubious stance, it is still a great flick. Just make sure you steer clear of its four utterly terrible sequels.
