Hooray for Hollyweird! Bronson’s ‘Death Wish’ a real motion picture, not an ‘action flick’

FloridaGator80

For this year, I’m going with the reminder of the fractured phrase: Hooray for Hollyweird! Most of us love movies and I enjoy recommending what you should watch on any given day. So, Hooray for Hollyweird … and for today’s recommendation, let’s go back to 1974 and watch Charles Bronson in “Death Wish.” Guess what? “Death Wish” isn’t anything as you might remember it.

I’ve been disappointed going back and watching a film I was positive about three decades ago (take “Bobby Deerfield” with Al Pacino and Marthe Keller – a real stink bomb), but if you go back, might not remember that “Death Wish” isn’t just Bronson shooting muggers … it is a measured, layered and intelligent drama that includes shooting muggers.

In case you need a refresher, “Death Wish” is a story of a family destroyed by violent crime; the survivor getting his feet under himself; coming to realize that people don’t need to shrink away when bullies emerge; and offers quite a psychological spectrum that director Michael Winner made into an excellent motion picture. Not a flick. Not a movie. A motion picture.

Winner had worked with Bronson on the excellent hitman movie called “The Mechanic” two years before “Death Wish” (and its sequel from 2011 with Jason Statham just didn’t hold up – click here to read my review of the sequel) and both motion pictures go far beyond the “action” quality that you probably have assigned them in your memory.

The best scene in “Death Wish” is when Bronson, an architect on a business trip to Arizona, is brought to a gun club by a client, has to tell his host that he was a “CO” in the military – “conscientious objector,” not a “commanding officer.” Well, it turns out that Bronson’s character actually grew up with guns before his father died and he takes back to them quickly. The two men have a discourse in one scene that is worthy of an Oscar for both actors that liberal Hollyweird wasn’t going to award them.

So, go back and revisit “Death Wish.” It is worthy of your time, unlike the sequel which is not worth your time. Remember, it’s a streaming world, so you won’t have any trouble finding “Death Wish” … and then you’ll definitely say … “Hooray for Hollyweird!”

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