hyped garbage

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I do remember watching "Death Wish" back in my childhood in the 1980s, and remembering that Charles Bronson seemed to be a cool guy in the movie. Then I got a chance to revisit the franchise many, many years later and of course I did sit down to watch the movies again.I have to honestly state that this is a very slow paced movie. "Death Wish" is based on a very good concept though, and it had lots of potential for taking the character Paul Kersey and evolve on him. And I said it had potential to do so, but it failed to do so.The blood in the "Death Wish" movie was painstakingly and obviously just brightly colored paint, as it looked so fake it would even make a blind person go "wait a minute!"It had a very predictable storyline, and you knew the outcome of the movie from the very beginning, which was a shame because director and writer Michael Winner didn't offer much to challenge the intellect of the audience.It was fun to see a young Jeff Goldblum as a hoodlum in this movie.Why this movie spawned a 2018 remake is beyond me, because it is adequate enough as it was.

Filmed in 1974, Death Wish was a good movie for its time. The cinematography was sub par and the plot was decent however the lesson it's trying to teach us is sublime! The main character's wife has been murdered and he decides to do something about it as a vigilante. He begins going out and posing as an easy target for criminals only to shoot them dead when he's provoked. Criminals can't do anything to stop him and through the majority of the film neither can the cops. The lesson we learn in 1974, just before the end of the Vietnam war that has divided americans young and old, is that a happy medium is needed in order to move forward as a nation. The older generations sense or law and order is still relevant however it needs to be more flexible, whereas the younger generations free spirited way of life is immoral and must have some type of boundaries.

Kicks ass and takes no prisoners, that best sums Death Wish..., indeed there were a few sequels that followed the original in later years, but none of them were as raw and shocking as this first one.Charles Bronson was never the greatest actor, rather stoic in his approach he came across as unloving and didn't possess much emotion, hence why he was the perfect fit for the character of Paul Kersey, otherwise known as the vigilante killer!The idea behind Death Wish was sound, who doesn't want to watch scumbags and general low-lives get their comeuppance? And that is basically what Death Wish is, a guy who's wife is senselessly murdered by a trio of thugs ends up heartbroken and mentally damaged by his loss, this leads to the guy going out on a killing spree, looking for the right kind of scumbag in the right kind of place and leading them to their death. What struck me as odd was how lax the police were in finding the killer, it felt like I was watching a superhero film where the hero always seems to evade the law and everyone else, how Charles Bronson's Paul lasted so long without being caught was just a tad fantastical, in reality the police would've done better and Paul would've slipped up at some point. Death Wish was also a shining example of the changing times, seedy and dreary, and a tad erotic too..., e.g. a woman at one stage shows her bear breasts for all to see, it goes into disgusting detail when the two ladies are being assaulted by the thugs, and I believe one of them may have been raped; the murders also were overly detailed and shown in all their vile glory......Alas the film Death Wish was released in 1974, only ten years prior though this kind of film would've been outlawed by the strict rules imposed on Hollywood at the time, how times change indeed, Death Wish was released well after the New Hollywood era has emerged and explicitly demonstrated how much freedom there now was in Hollywood. Not an overly amazing film but definitely a landmark film of sorts, a perfect example of what a certain era in cinema history was like, in this case the 1970's and the New Hollywood era.

Though the theme had been tackled many times before, it can be argued that Death Wish is the father of all revenge films. Countless knockoffs, both good and bad, have been made since its release in 1974. Yet to characterize it solely as a revenge movie would be a disservice. It is a culturally significant movie which raises issues about the role of vigilantism in our society. Charles Bronson, who'd enjoyed previous success in feature films prior to Death Wish, became an anti-hero of sorts in a couple dozen movies throughout the next fifteen years after its release.Bronson plays Paul Kersey, an architect who lives in a New York City apartment. His world is shattered when his wife is beaten to death and his daughter is savagely raped by thugs posing as grocery deliverymen. After an unspecified mourning period and for cathartic effect, he is sent on a land developing assignment in New Mexico, where he meets client Ames Jainchill (Stuart Margolin). In contrast to Kersey's conscientious objector war beliefs, Jainchill embraces responsible gun use and winces at the "toilet" New York has become. He piques Kersey's interest at a gun range and a Wild West re-enactment show. Following completion of the project, Jainchill sees off Kersey at the airport and puts a gift in his luggage: a shiny new revolver.Kersey is accosted one night by a mugger and shoots him dead, after which he returns to his apartment and becomes physically sick. Ruminating on the death of his wife and his now-catatonic daughter, he sets himself up as a target for a variety of street scum throughout the city, killing them at various intervals and earning himself the tag of "vigilante killer" by the Press. Police Detective Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) is tasked with the dilemma of upholding the law in identifying the killer while facing the reality that his superiors and many New Yorkers are not all that upset at the city unconventionally being relieved of its criminals.Death Wish was extremely popular during a dreary period in the city's history when crime was rampant and presents the obvious ambiguity of vigilantism in a civilized society. The assault on Kersey's wife and daughter are brutally depicted, even by today's standards of viewing. It allows us to justify Kersey's actions towards a variety of unsavory characters. Disturbing to some, however, is the controversial way Kersey sets himself up as a target to draw out the criminals, a sense of entrapment if you will, in going from hunted to hunter.Not surprisingly, the financial success of Death Wish spawned several sequels, none of which were memorable. But the original packs a punch and tests our own beliefs about street justice. A very good film from the 70s which still holds relevance today. Highly recommended movie.