Death Wish

Death Wish is a conflicting movie for me.  I sorta like it overall but I have serious issues with Paul Kersey, how vigilantism is portrayed and the very tidy ending.

First things first though, that title is one of the best ever in cinema history.  It evokes so much mystery.  Who has a death wish?  Why?  What happened to get to this point?  However, I contend Kersey doesn’t really have a death wish.  He’s bereft but not to the point where he doesn’t care if he lives or dies.  If that’s not the case the filmmakers should’ve been more overtly explicit.  Maybe he was more depressed and on the edge in the book this was based on.

With that out of the way let’s dive into the man himself.  Kersey suffers tremendous hardship when his wife and daughter are beaten and raped.  His wife eventually dies from her injuries while his daughter breaks from reality remaining in a catatonic state.  The cops have virtually nothing to go on so finding the perps is next to impossible.  Kersey’s conclusion is if the cops won’t do their job he’ll do it for them.  So with immense pain in his back pocket Kersey turns rogue and dishes out his own brand of justice to any mugger he comes across.  He’s confused, blinded by rage and naturally thinks he’s doing the right thing.  The world isn’t safe so he’ll make it safe one dead body at a time.  A co-worker in the beginning of the film calls him a bleeding heart liberal and we find out he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War which is setup to make his turn towards violence seem all the more disturbing.  The agonizing evolution this character goes through is fascinating and terrifying.

If this series wasn’t inextricably linked to Charlie Bronson (Hard Times) you might think it would be hard for him to pull off being such a mild mannered person who gets pushed into berserker mode because he was known for playing tough as nails characters.  He definitely has that strong stoic presence here but he exudes a softness that I don’t think I’ve seen from him in some of his other films.  He’s believable as someone who initially wouldn’t hurt a fly but then a switch is flipped in him to where he views human life as something less than precious.

You could say Bronson is emotionless for most of the run except for a couple of scenes and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree.  I like his performance though because it reminds me of Steven Segal’s cool under pressure poker face.  He has little dialogue but he makes it count when he has to.  Underplaying the character like this makes him more enigmatic in a good way in my opinion.  We don’t really know what he’s thinking so you can interpret his actions for yourself leading to endless debate.

It’s a marvel how efficient the storytelling and editing is.  The longest scene probably only lasts about two minutes.  For a movie with such a simple plot, but complicated protagonist, it’s smart filmmaking.  I appreciate that they keep shit rolling and tell as much as they can through the visuals.  Like when Kersey paints his apartment a new color to establish he’s started a new part of his life or when he looks through his recent vacation pictures that show his dead wife smiling on the beach it’s the tipping point when his emotions boil over.

Paul Kersey is sort of what a real life superhero would be like.  No ridiculous costume, no fancy gadgets, no network of helpers, just a guy with a gun weeding out crime on his beat.  He’s like Batman if you stripped away all the trappings.  They’re both wealthy white dudes who appear amiable and gentle during the day but at night they say “fuck the law” and write their own justice.  Of course the key difference is Batman either turns the criminals over to the cops or intimidates the shit out of them so they’ll think twice before committing any nefarious activity.  Kersey straight up massacres them.

Besides being an iconic role for Charlie Bronson this movie is also famous for featuring a young Jeff Goldblum (Nine Months) in his first feature (that’ll be a recurring theme with the sequels).  He plays one of the home invaders who calls Mrs. Kersey the c-word and rapes her daughter.  Interesting debut.  Additionally, Christopher Guest (Best in Show) has one brief scene towards the end as a rookie cop who actually has a pivotal role in the wrap up.

Before we get to more serious matters I want to mention Herbie Hancock’s really cool score.  It’s a great mix of jazz and classical that stirs up the energy in some scenes and remains beautifully subdued in others.  It’s definitely one of the strongest elements of the picture.

Ok, things get dicey when you start to dig into the racial and class aspects of the movie.  Kersey is a rich white guy going around killing people because his wife and daughter were beaten and raped and he feels it’s his duty to rid the world of the type of low level scum that violated his family.  Nothing gives him the right to do this but his actions are condoned when (spoilers) the cops let him fucking walk.  That’s right, they let this asshole go! 

Bronson said he doesn’t think the film promotes taking the law into your own hands but that seems kinda crazy to me considering Kersey was successful in his mission of slaying as many thieves as possible and the cops decide to look the other way.  It’s sorta clear the movie’s saying vigilantism works or at least isn’t that bad.  And even if you’re caught the most you’ll get is a slap on the wrist.  I don’t think the police would’ve been so gracious towards someone else with darker skin.  Being rich and white gives you a lot of leeway.

It’s also fucked up that aside from one cop black folks are exclusively portrayed as crooks.  For instance, while Kersey usually uses himself as bait to lure out attackers there’s one time that he flashes a wallet full of cash in front of two black dudes in a restaurant.  He knows they won’t be able to resist.  Would these guys have committed a crime if Kersey hadn’t come along?  We’ll never know.

This is a tough one.  I mean on a technical level it’s a pretty well made movie.  But I certainly feel like I shouldn’t like it because in terms of the story and the character of Paul Kersey it’s problematic as fuck.  A rich white guy gunning down muggers in the street and essentially getting endorsed by the police in the end is a pretty big middle finger to, well, everyone but especially anyone who isn’t rich and white.

Now, Kersey does wait for someone to actually attempt to rob him before he pulls the trigger.  We never see him preemptively blow someone away.  That still doesn’t give him the right to end people’s lives though.  He seeks out trouble by setting traps which doesn’t feel fair.  I wish the film was a bit more nuanced and there were consequences to Kersey’s actions.  It makes you think about how vigilantism is done in movies and why we’re ok with it when it’s a superhero but it’s messed up when Kersey’s on the prowl.  I think it’s safe to say this is how NOT to do vigilantism.

It’s the fact that the cops let him go that I have the biggest issue with.  This decision robs the film of being a more legitimately challenging picture.

I love the way this poster looks.  The awkward firing over the shoulder pose,
the leaf-less stark trees, the eerie cold feel of the rust, white and black coloring. 
It's more like something out of a horror movie.  Just magnificent.