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#63 - Death Wish 3
Michael Winner, 1985
After coming back to New York to find his friend murdered by a local street gang, an old man resolves to start defending himself and his newfound neighbours against the incredibly vicious locals.
I already gave the original Death Wish some serious guff for being an incredibly dull take on the vigilante sub-genre, but I still felt like watching the sequels because they managed to play up the vigilante angle and result in films that were apparently of low quality but also of high entertainment value (a view backed up by Mark Hartley's Electric Boogaloo, which featured the Death Wish sequels as part of its off-kilter reverence for Cannon Films). Death Wish 3 is supposedly the "best" of these sequels because it goes into some weird territory that grants it a cult status all its own, so naturally I had to see it.
There is plenty of ridiculous stuff on offer here. By this point, Charles Bronson is in his mid-sixties yet here he is still capable of fighting off an army street thugs who are at least half his age (as well as have a trite romantic sub-plot with a public defender who is also half his age). The street gang, distinguished by red-and-black paint on their foreheads, come across as being so cartoonish that they make the gangs from The Warriors look down-to-earth. The gang leader is noteworthy for having what I guess would be considered a reverse mohawk where his head is shaved right down the middle. Despite guns not being allowed in New York, Bronson is able to get a gun (and, eventually, a rocket launcher) mailed to him from out of town without any consequence. They even go into unnecessary detail explaining that one victim of the gang didn't get murdered by the gang but died because of a broken arm. The background score is composed by Jimmy Page. Yes, the same Jimmy Page who wrote some of the most beloved guitar anthems ever ended up producing a horribly generic synthesiser score for this film because of reasons I can't begin to comprehend on my own. The list goes on, really.
Unfortunately, despite this film developing a considerable so-bad-it's-good reputation, the end result isn't all that entertaining. I still tend to side-eye these kind of films that go a little too far in trying to titillate audiences by having instances of gratuitous nudity occur during scenes involving rape or sexual assault. The film also takes a long time building up to any kind of truly entertaining action - at least half the film is Bronson puttering around meeting new characters. Even when he does get around to fighting or killing people it's still not too impressive - he shoots them or he stabs them or he quite simply just punches them. It ultimately takes the film's climax, where the neighbourhood becomes wrapped in a war between the gang, the cops and the residents, for the film to live up to its ludicrously violent potential. Until then, be content with having Bronson do things like mourn his dead friend or make new friends in between performing the kind of violence that's not exactly novel for '80s action movies. Also, having the gang be nasty. Still worth a shot if you're into bad action movies, though.
Michael Winner, 1985
After coming back to New York to find his friend murdered by a local street gang, an old man resolves to start defending himself and his newfound neighbours against the incredibly vicious locals.
I already gave the original Death Wish some serious guff for being an incredibly dull take on the vigilante sub-genre, but I still felt like watching the sequels because they managed to play up the vigilante angle and result in films that were apparently of low quality but also of high entertainment value (a view backed up by Mark Hartley's Electric Boogaloo, which featured the Death Wish sequels as part of its off-kilter reverence for Cannon Films). Death Wish 3 is supposedly the "best" of these sequels because it goes into some weird territory that grants it a cult status all its own, so naturally I had to see it.
There is plenty of ridiculous stuff on offer here. By this point, Charles Bronson is in his mid-sixties yet here he is still capable of fighting off an army street thugs who are at least half his age (as well as have a trite romantic sub-plot with a public defender who is also half his age). The street gang, distinguished by red-and-black paint on their foreheads, come across as being so cartoonish that they make the gangs from The Warriors look down-to-earth. The gang leader is noteworthy for having what I guess would be considered a reverse mohawk where his head is shaved right down the middle. Despite guns not being allowed in New York, Bronson is able to get a gun (and, eventually, a rocket launcher) mailed to him from out of town without any consequence. They even go into unnecessary detail explaining that one victim of the gang didn't get murdered by the gang but died because of a broken arm. The background score is composed by Jimmy Page. Yes, the same Jimmy Page who wrote some of the most beloved guitar anthems ever ended up producing a horribly generic synthesiser score for this film because of reasons I can't begin to comprehend on my own. The list goes on, really.
Unfortunately, despite this film developing a considerable so-bad-it's-good reputation, the end result isn't all that entertaining. I still tend to side-eye these kind of films that go a little too far in trying to titillate audiences by having instances of gratuitous nudity occur during scenes involving rape or sexual assault. The film also takes a long time building up to any kind of truly entertaining action - at least half the film is Bronson puttering around meeting new characters. Even when he does get around to fighting or killing people it's still not too impressive - he shoots them or he stabs them or he quite simply just punches them. It ultimately takes the film's climax, where the neighbourhood becomes wrapped in a war between the gang, the cops and the residents, for the film to live up to its ludicrously violent potential. Until then, be content with having Bronson do things like mourn his dead friend or make new friends in between performing the kind of violence that's not exactly novel for '80s action movies. Also, having the gang be nasty. Still worth a shot if you're into bad action movies, though.