Review# 13: Deathwish (1974)

Why is it that whenever a movie finally shows a guy in a speedo or something, it’s a guy that looks like Charles Bronson? We get to see a lot of his in-shape yet aged body in the first scene of Deathwish. Refraining from making any jokes about wishing I was dead after that I must say that this movie was very, very cool. The premise is an architect (Bronson) goes vigilante after his wife and daughter are attacked in their home by street punks. The copy on the video says: “His daughter is raped, his wife raped and murdered.” First of all the wife isn’t raped at all. Secondly, the daughter is only barley raped, by Jeff Goldblum in a jughead hat, no less. She does suffer a humiliating experience at the hands of a thug named “Spraycan”. You should just see it. After the wife dies and the daughter goes nuts and becomes a vegetable, Bronson goes to, um…Arizona I think…the southwest somewhere, on business and this cowboy takes him to a shooting range. There we learn why Bronson is both a bleeding-heart liberal and a dead-eye with a pistol. Upon returning to New York he hits the streets, taking out muggers with knives by SHOOTING THEM UNTIL THEY’RE DEAD! This movie rocks, I can’t wait to see the sequels! It seems pretty low budget, but the cinematography is good with some GREAT location settings. The score by Herbie Hancock is perfect as well. I’ll try to get some images up here soon. I’m having connection trouble.