Death Wish (novel)
- This article is about a series of films. For the term in Freudian psychiatry see death instinct.
| Death Wish | |
|---|---|
| File:Death Wish Poster.gif | |
| Directed by | Michael Winner |
| Written by | Brian Garfield |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Starring | Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Jeff Goldblum |
| Distributed by | Paramount |
Release dates | July 24, 1974 |
Running time | 93 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $36,000 |
The Death Wish series consists of five movies starring Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter raped.
Introduction
The original film, directed by Michael Winner and based on a novel by Brian Garfield, depicts Kersey as a sort of New Yorker "everyman" when his non-interventionist attitude toward crime turns into revenge-driven vigilantism. The protagonist's punk-killing crime spree is framed to elicit audience sympathies, but the film also dramatizes the conflict between Kersey and the city police, who disapprove of his actions, and treats the theme of vigilantism and law and order in the context of the crime-ridden urban centers of the United States in the latter 20th century. One commentator noted that the film "encapsulates an American era—the early 1970s, when many urban Americans started to feel they couldn't walk outside without fear of being attacked." [1]
Sequels
The popularity of Death Wish spawned a number of sequels.
Death Wish II
The second movie Death Wish II (1982) is considered the weakest of the series by many as it disregards all the societal commentary and thematic elements the first movie featured in favour of exploitive and graphic violence, which garnered it an X-rating. Ironically, it had the highest box office draw of the five; accumulating $15 million, despite the fact critics panned it. Its plot is built around the reversion of Paul Kersey in Los Angeles (again played by Charles Bronson) to vigilantism as a 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 held by many to be the best entry of the series. In it, Paul Kersey (again played by Bronson) returns to New York City, where he finds a friend from the Korean War he was supposed to visit brutally murdered. Soon afterwards, the police coerce him into attacking a criminal riot in a dangerous neighborhood as a way of exploiting his freedom from legal restraints. In the end of the film, Kersey mows down much of the criminals with a Browning machine gun, then obliterates the oppressive 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. It's founder Wildey Moore admits that everytime this movie is shown on cable they get new orders for this specific gun. When Death Wish III came out in 1985 it actually saved the company from going bankrupt.
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 the movie was made) 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.
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 also was Bronson's last theatrically released film.
Trivia
- Death Wish was the favorite movie of John Ausonius, the Swedish racist serial killer who roamed the streets of Stockholm looking for “criminal immigrants” to kill.
- Jeff Goldblum had his screen debut in Death Wish, playing one of the young thugs who assault Kersey's wife.
- Laurence Fishburne was seen in the second film as a ghetto thug wearing sunglasses.
- Marina Sirtis portrayed a rape victim in Death Wish 3— right before joining the Star Trek franchise. Subsequently, Tim Russ was seen as a hitman in Death Wish 4 long before Star Trek: Voyager.
- Alex Winter, from the popular Bill & Ted movies, made his film debut with Death Wish 3.
- Multiple-time Grammy award winning Jazz musician Herbie Hancock, produced and composed the original score for the soundtrack to the original Death Wish movie. This would be his second film score, behind the 1966 movie Blow-Up.
- Isaac Hayes was recommended by the producers of the second film to compose the score; however, the original film director chose former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
Death Wish in popular culture
- The Bernie Goetz case in 1984 led Charles Bronson to speak out against the values of the character he played in Death Wish, and to disavow vigilantism.
- The Death Wish series and Bronson himself were spoofed in issue 174 of MAD Magazine.
- Bronson has been parodied numerous times on The Simpsons, including the town of Bronson, Missouri and a fictional cameo on the set of The Andy Griffith Show.
- An episode of The Critic featured a preview for the fictional sequel, Death Wish 9; featuring Charles Bronson lying in a hospital bed, saying "I wish I was dead, oy!"
- Death Wish 3 was made into a video game [2].
- In the pop song Anaheim by They Might Be Giants the line "I don't want to stay in tonight and watch Death Wish 3" appears.
- Jim Carrey had a skit in the comedy show In Living Color were he played Bronson blasting away street trash. [3]