Based on the novel of the same name, Death Wish (1974) launched a franchise that spanned into the late eighties. Like many other franchises, it became a caricature of its former self. Turning the leading man into a super hero. Charles Bronson stars as Paul, the spouse of victims of an attack. The attack didn’t even happen to him, but he sought justice anyways.

Like Dirty Harry, it follows the same type of anti-liberal tropes that push a very conservative agenda. Unlike Dirty Harry, it doesn’t tend to mask it behind jargon or stereotypes. This movie tries to pretend that it is a conversation about it. But is definitely more of a counter-argument to liberal ideology and broad “every man” tropes.

While it does take 40-minutes to get into the subject matter, he is more of a killer than a hero. Luring people to attack him rather than coming to the aide of the people under their rule. The film itself plays that as a good thing.

Shownotes for “Death Wish”

Articles:

Death Wish (Wikipedia)

A Death Wish – 1974 (True Myth Media)

Novel: Death Wish (Wikipedia)

Videos:

Main Death Wish (1974) Trailer (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers)

Get a Transfer Scene (Movieclips)

Death Wish – “This is gun country” (Dari L)Poor Guy Must Have Fell Down (RealTomySawyer)

This is the final installment of the gritty crime dramas, as well as our first season. We will be back on October 8 with the start of our second season. That is to line-up with the 17th anniversary of The Lazy Geeks.

We will kick off October with spooky movie month, in honor of Halloween. The line-up for the month is funny but not a whole lot of “scary” movies. As I am not a fan of jump scares, but we won’t miss many of them. Just a warning, we will ease into it.

Enjoy The Disgruntled Cinephile: Death Wish (1974), and we will see you in two weeks.