Death Wish 3

Paul Kersey (Charlie Bronson (The Mechanic)) returns home to NYC to visit a friend but arrives just as he’s dying.  A gang of punks beat him for kicks and left him for dead.  When the cops show up they think Kersey is the culprit and arrest him.  The police chief (Ed Lautner (Cujo)) recognizes him though from eleven years prior (or whatever number they use, I haven’t mentioned this yet but there’s zero consistency with any character’s recollection of how long ago Kersey’s original crime spree was).  He makes a deal with Kersey that he’ll let him go if he cleans up the streets.

Once again the fucking cops look the other way because they basically agree with Kersey’s measures.  I don’t know what it is with this universe and corrupt police.  A key difference this time is they’re onto him from the start making the concept go down easier.  It’s better than magically waving your hand at the end and saying “ok we’re gonna let you walk on who knows how many homicides we haven’t really firmed up the final tally yet but listen pal, you better not do that again”.

The whole movie’s more fun than the previous two.  From the ridiculous Escape from New York type premise to the mostly omitted rape scene, it’s lighter all around.  Kersey acts as protector of the neighborhood and given permission to do so which makes his actions feel more legit.  The filmmakers do a good job of acquainting you with some of the people who live in the area and how horribly they’re treated by the thugs who have the run of the place giving you a reason to side with Kersey and the police chief.

And the city truly is a shithole.  There’s rubble where buildings and sidewalks should be, trash and graffiti everywhere, attacks on citizens occurring constantly, things are far worse than they were in ’74.  Now NYC was actually like a really dangerous place in the 70’s and 80’s but the crime here still seems on a cartoonish level.  Again, this exaggeration works in the film’s favor though giving you a reason to get in Kersey’s corner.

They take a lot of leeway with the action too adding more variety than ever before.  Instead of Kersey only using a handgun he sets booby traps like rigging a wooden board to spring up and smack someone in the face if they crawl through the window.  He also throws a guy off a roof, fires a giant WWII era machine gun and uses a rocket launcher!  They definitely rack up the highest body count yet.

Part 3 continues the tradition of casting a future star as a gang member and in this film it’s Alex Winter (Bill from the Bill & Teds) in his first role.  He’s not quite as vicious as Jeff Goldblum or Laurence Fishburne were but he still participates in killing an innocent man and jumps on the hood of some poor lady’s car terrorizing her.

Jimmy Page’s score is back and a lot of it sounds recycled from Part II.  For whatever reason the roaring guitar (or synth?) slides work better here.  I think it’s the way they edited it plus the new music they added is nicer too.

If you think about it Paul Kersey has some of the worst luck in the world.  He keeps finding himself the victim of heinous crimes involving rape and murder.  He’s still an asshole though because he makes insane decisions like stalking the streets at night blowing away anyone he thinks deserves to die.

At least this one isn’t totally the same picture as the original like the previous sequel is.  It goes off the rails for sure but in a good way.  It’s embellished to the point where we can have fun with the concept of a vigilante taking bad dudes out.  I mean Kersey’s being blackmailed so you can justify all this shit in your mind if you want to.  But hey, for all we know he would’ve taken the loss of his friend really well and not rediscover his taste for blood.  Maybe.  Nah, he definitely would’ve killed a whole bunch of people anyway.