Messenger of Death

Bronson is rather miscast as a reporter (who still can punch and defeat any opponent), but this is one of his least typical and most solid vehicles from the 80's. It begins with a weird, effectively staged massacre and includes some offbeat elements along with the familiar ones. It's still nothing special, though. It's one of those curiously forgettable films that keep you interested while you're watching them, but leave no lasting impression.

A movie where Charles Bronson doesn't kill anyone. Despite the title. Despite the poster or the video cover. There are indeed deaths, in a Mormon family, where children and women are massacred (this is the beginning of the film). Charles Bronson is a journalist who investigates to understand why a family of Mormons has been decimated. He conducts the investigation on his own, at his own pace, independently of the police, supported by his newspaper, which wants to create a sensation.

The documentary side of the film presents us with the thought patterns of these Mormons, where God's will (which explains everything) and vengeance go hand in hand, in a country where guns are freely available. The messenger of death is the killer who decimated the family, unrelated to the character of Charles Bronson who investigates. Or, the journalist through his investigation, who will indirectly provoke reprisals between Mormon families.

Another interesting element of the film is the natural settings of Colorado. Let's add a superb music that can make us think of a horror movie: the composer, Robert O. Ragland is unknown to us, but has signed many film scores. This one is interesting, because it suits the suspense and horror.

The film ends with evil capitalists and politicians greedy for money.

The film can be watched without any problem. The scenes in the city (Denver, the capitalists, the important people) are the perfect counterpoint to the scenes in the countryside where Charles Bronson investigates and ends up putting the pieces of the puzzle together in the Mormon farms.

I'd watched this movie in october 1996 for first time on television, in that time l'd rated 5/10 but now on full length DVD with original audio it's seem much better, Cannon made a lot of movies during the 80' action movies and J. Lee Thompson was really good director of this kind of movies, Messenger of Death has Charles Bronson as newspaper's reporter an unusual role to the "Stone Face", the plot is totally improbable.

However is around two Mormons families whom are in clash after women and children massacre, although Bronson suspicious that the real reason is a Water Company, apart the plot the amazing Colorado landscape is breathtaking and the music score is properly fine, as always Bronson never disappoints his fans.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1996 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.5.

One of the things that bugs me most about the later Charles Bronson-movies is that so many of them flaunt a terrible supporting cast. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see Stephen Elliott ham it up as Bronson's boss in "Assassination" or Juan Fernandez as a creepy pimp in "Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects" but aside from one or two OK performances good old Charlie was too often surrounded by grade-C actors or good but uninspired actors, the last two decades of his career.

"Messenger of Death" however, is an exception.

Here the legendary action-hero is surrounded by the likes of Jeff Corey, Daniel Benzali, John Ireland, Charles Dierkop (Police Woman) and given likeable female support from Trish Van Devere. The story itself is just average, but certainly not as ludicrous as the paper-thin material in movies like "Assassination" and "Death Wish 4" and "5" and you know where I'm going.

British veteran director J. Lee-Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone) did an impressive nine movies with Bronson, and "Messenger of Death" was their 8th teaming. It opens with a horrifying scene where a large family is executed in cold blood (the entire scene is brilliantly done and much better than what one would expect from someone who just did "Death Wish 4" and "Firewalker"). The movie then delivers a lot of beautiful scenery, a smashing action-scene with some trucks and a likeable finale where the guilty party is unmasked.

Compared to most Bronson-fare at the time this is better-than-average, much thanks to the afore mentioned good supporting cast. But don't expect mindless vigilante action, Bronson plays a reporter but he still gets to kick some ass, and he does a nice job considering he was in his late sixties at the time.

Boy, this is a mess. This is one of those films that, on paper, look like they have a lot going for them but, when they put it on the screen, nothing meshes. There's a decent cast – Bronson, van Devere, Benzali, Ireland, Corey – and an intriguing setting, but the plot is fatally anaemic and the direction, considering it comes from an old trooper like Thompson, is surprisingly shoddy. Much of the acting is second-rate at best, while characters perform abrupt about turns for no explicable reason. For instance, Orville Beecham (Charles Dierkop), a clean-living Mormon farmer, is crazy for revenge after mysterious intruders murder his wives and children and yet is full of forgiveness after the rest of his family is wiped out in a gunfight.

The film opens well, with an atmospheric prologue in which two mysterious gunmen massacre the wives and children, although why the gunmen's identities are concealed is something of a mystery as they disappear for the next thirty minutes and are immediately confirmed as the killers when they re-appear. Anyway, from this neatly paced opener, the film goes rapidly downhill. Charles Bronson plays a Denver reporter who gets involved with the warring Mormon clans who go to war over the killings, and he's pretty bad here. He was 67 when the film was made, and he looks bloated and tired. On top of that, he's saddled with an awful script and a frankly ludicrous storyline – which is a crime really because the unusual subject matter here deserves much better writing than that offered by 73-year-old writer Paul Jarrico. Director J. Lee Thompson manages a couple of effective scenes, and there is a good sequence in which two water tankers attempt to crush Bronson's vehicle on a winding country road, but for the most part his direction is flat and uninspired and the story simply fails to engage.

Bottom line: give this one a miss.