#15: Death Wish

Release Date: January 1st, 1974

Format: DVD

Written by: Wendell Mayes

Directed by: Michael Winner

3 Stars

Man the ‘70s went hard, especially films post-Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist. Death Wish definitely borrows from Clockwork in its glaring depiction of violence that sets in motion Paul Kersey’s vigilantism in not one, but five Death Wish films:  A brightly lit, violent gang rape during a home invasion where an elderly family member is incapacitated while a younger female is overpowered and assaulted. While you watch, you want somebody, anybody, to intervene. Help, please! Somebody help!  

Like many things Kubrick, his vision is the original and genius, visually arresting but equally philosophical. Death Wish follows the tonal blueprint and cheapens it, but it’s still affecting. It’s tough to watch that attack on screen. It’s just not something that would be filmed today, or at least not filmed in that style. 

Death Wish also takes from the technical aspects of The Exorcist, which dug its claws into cinema goers the year before. I think most people chalk up the terror of The Exorcist to the head spinning and pea soup, but that film slowly evokes the viewers’ horror far before Father Karas is battling the devil. There is a harshness to the sound design in The Exorcist that Death Wish copies effectively. Hard shoes click on cold pavement. American sedans breathe low and dirty exhaust into the streets. Machines whir and clank. Voices are loud and agonized. Evil laughs overwhelm any sound of joy.

It’s been interesting watching these Death Wish movies in the order I have (3, 4, 1). It feels as if I had watched the Rocky franchise in a random order. Death Wish 3 is Rocky 4: Unabashedly fun, unbelievable, and probably slightly embarrassing for the people involved in making it. Death Wish 4 is Rocky 3: You can still see the DNA of the original, but the movie has imbued its once everyday hero with almost superheroic powers. And the originals, Death Wish and Rocky, are relatively low budget, deeply affecting movies in completely different ways. In a hard world, Rocky shows hope and love and realizing your potential in spite of the odds.

Death Wish shows vengeance. It’s a simple movie. Does that make it ineffective? Nope. I’m tossing DW 2 on tonight, and I’m pretty excited about it.