#CHARLES BRONSON DEATH WISH MOVIE#
#CHARLES BRONSON DEATH WISH SERIES#

The British filmmaker worked with Bronson six times over 13 years, including on the first two Death Wish sequels (only one of which is good, sadly).

If you notice stylistic similarities between The Stone Killer, Death Wish, and The Mechanic, thereвЂ™s good reason: all three were directed by veteran action auteur Michael Winner. Spoiler alert! Only one makes it out alive. Roper would become Jack TripperвЂ™s landlord. Best of all: Fell shares a scene with John Ritter, three years before Mr. And the ever-reliable Margolin, Angel on The Rockford Files and the man who gives Bronson his gun in Death Wish, is memorable as the stone-killer-in-chief. Ralph Waite (the dad on The Waltons) is TorreyвЂ™s unapologetically racist partner. ThreeвЂ™s Company legend Norman Fell is the long-suffering LAPD captain who just wants to retire in peace (donвЂ™t we all). Like that complex crime classic, The Stone Killer also boasts a stellar supporting cast of familiar faces. The Stone Killer may remind you of William FriedkinвЂ™s The French Connection, as Bronson cat-and-mouses with drug dealers, snitches, and wiseguys on both coasts. His Lou Torrey is a surprisingly nuanced character вЂ“ a cop whoвЂ™ll throw a punch at a suspect, but will still call out his bosses for racial profiling. ItвЂ™s more of a procedural/caper movie, with Bronson in a race with the clock to prevent a crime nobody knows is happening.

#CHARLES BRONSON DEATH WISH MOVIE#

Released a year and a half after Francis Ford CoppolaвЂ™s The Godfather captivated moviegoers (and Oscar voters), the film goes refreshingly light on the mob movie tropes. and international markets like Italy and France (where Bronson was well-known, thanks to foreign co-productions). The Stone Killer was BronsonвЂ™s third film under contract to independent producer Dino De Laurentiis, and it was a critically acclaimed success in the U.S. Lawrence ( Stuart Margolin), who trains the mercenaries for their murderous mission in the Mojave Desert, far from view. These co-called вЂњstone killersвЂќ are ex-soldiers and recent Vietnam veterans proficient in вЂњcombat, transportation, and communications.вЂќ The team of 40 is led by the mysterious Mr. In order to exact his vengeance on вЂњmade men,вЂќ Vescari must use hired hitmen who are not members of the Mafia. And you thought your family held grudges. Lieutenant Lou Torrey transfers to Los Angeles, where he uncovers a plot by elderly Mafia don Al Vescari ( Martin Balsam) to avenge the Prohibition Era assassinations of Sicilian crime bosses by killing their descendants.

#CHARLES BRONSON DEATH WISH SERIES#

But between those two unforgettable classics, Bronson gave a subtly brilliant performance in a film thatвЂ™s often overlooked today: The Stone Killer.Д«ased on a novel by John Gardner вЂ“ the successor to Ian Fleming on the James Bond novel series вЂ“ The Stone Killer is the story of an NYPD cop forced to step down after shooting a teenaged suspect in self-defense. That character was firmly in place by the time he played an aging assassin in The Mechanic in 1972, and it became a controversial archetype two years later in the brutal revenge fantasy Death Wish.

He was the solitary sheriff, transposed to lawless, post-Watergate America.ДЄlthough he was a key member of epic 1960s ensembles like The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Dirty Dozen, Bronson took two decades to perfect the everyman action hero persona for which heвЂ™s best remembered today.

Even when the film wasnвЂ™t credible, Bronson was. It was his quiet confidence, that slight hitch in his voice, the vaguely haunted look beneath the bushy bangs. It wasnвЂ™t so much about the movies, which got increasingly outlandish as Bronson aged. Just as Humphrey Bogart defined masculinity for the Greatest Generation, and James Dean and Steve McQueen did the same for the 1950s and вЂ60s, Bronson became an icon for guys who came of age in the early days of VHS and cable. Not that women donвЂ™t, but the one-time Pennsylvania coal miner and decorated World War II veteran has a particular resonance for male viewers. Men, as a rule, like Charles Bronson movies. ItвЂ™s a wonderful moment in HepburnвЂ™s six-decade film career, and an early demonstration of what was great about Bronson: he didnвЂ™t take himself too seriously, even at his toughest. Barely thirty and at the peak of his physical prowess, Charles Buchinski вЂ“ he didnвЂ™t become вЂњBronsonвЂќ until 1954 вЂ“ gets roughed up by Katharine Hepburn twice. If you want to know why some of us love Charles Bronson, you have to go back to one of his first film roles: as a thug in George CukorвЂ™s 1952 comedy Pat and Mike.

Charles bronson death wish