Whereas DIRTY HARRY was labeled a vigilante treatise, but was actually more layered than the knee-jerk American public could discern, DEATH WISH is written (by novelist Brian Garfield, screenplay Wendell Mayes) as that blunt vigilante instrument that audiences could readily understand. As New York architect Paul Kersey, Bronson enacts pure and simple revenge on New York's thug life after thugs attack his family, murdering his wife (Hope Lange) and causing his daughter (Kathleen Tolan) to be institutionalized.

Though his reputation as a man's man is still intact, Charles Bronson proves his acting chops have never been all that sharp. Unless he's killing thugs with that laconic cowboy demeanor, his attempts at diverse emotions are kinda laughable. (We realize what a grandiose performance Eastwood's Harry actually is, alongside this other tough guy's attempts at emotional nuance.)

Watch for Jeff Goldblum's screen debut as "Freak #1" as he rapes Kersey's wife at knifepoint - in a Jughead cap! (Everything's Archie!) Later, we see another young lad playing a thug who would go on to greater things - as a Sweathog! (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Freddie Boom-Boom Washington in WELCOME BACK KOTTER.)

When the police have no leads in his wife's murder and don't seem to care (of course not! they're not here to stop crime, they're here to apprehend people for the revenue!) and his son-in-law (who looks like Martin Landau) continually whines about the catatonic state of his daughter, Kersey takes matters into his own hands to protect himself from further muggings in the hostile underbelly of the city. He starts by carrying a roll of quarters in a sock. But, as every anti-gun advocate knows, quarters are a gateway weapon, and when a client (Stuart Margolin) makes him a present of a handgun, Kersey is all over it like punks on an old lady's purse.

He goes out into the night, armed, and soon enough is propositioned for money by a mugger, which he guns down. This first kill is a shattering experience for him - this is not simply Bronson in tough guy mode - and he rushes home to vomit and gnash his teeth. Yet he feels enough of a compulsion to walk out again night after night and continue the judge, jury, executioner role on small time punks trying to steal from him or others.

Playing an unconvincing curmudgeon detective is Vincent Gardenia, tailing Kersey through New York's underbelly with his soft doughy-guy underbelly. Watch for a young Christopher Guest (THIS IS SPINAL TAP) as a cop who gives Kersey's gun to Gardenia.

DEATH WISH loses its potency when Kersey's actions bring him anonymous renown with the New York populace. Because Kersey is killing only small-time hoods, the police would firstly not care enough to connect the killings and secondly, on lackadaisically filing the murders and not following through with them, the press would not get wind of the killings and dub the mysterious killer The Vigilante, therefore he would never gain renown.

Kersey's actions remind me of the SUPERMAN conundrum: how Superman - with powers beyond belief - only addresses crime on society's bottom rung, when he should be addressing crime at the higher levels that CAUSE the social disparities that create small-time crooks.

Granted, Kersey hasn't the wherewithal to target higher profile criminals, yet his vigilante gains the publicity that would only come with higher profile kills. Even in Eastwood's MAGNUM FORCE (1973), the vigilante killer of high profile criminals did not get the kind of publicity that Kersey's vigilante gets in DEATH WISH. He's killing the demographic that would be relegated to dead files and unresolved cases.

My one question to the muggers of New York City: Why would you pick on someone who looks like Charles Bronson?!


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