We're Down for a Remake of Death Wish

By Steve Evans

The original Death Wish (1974) with big Charlie Bronson is an exploitation classic -- and like Dirty Harry three years earlier -- a product of its high-crime time. Bronson plays a pacifist architect whose family is attacked in a home invasion. His wife is murdered. His daughter is left catatonic. Charlie follows the only sensible course of action: he acquires a gun and goes out every night killing muggers, would-be rapists and other miscreants who spark his wrath.

Audiences ate it up.

The movie spawned four sequels. Inevitable, then, that we would eventually get a re-do of this seminal film. The original made Bronson a star at 53 after 20 years of film work. Death Wish remains the role with which he is most closely associated. And the picture holds up nearly 45 years since its release. The film benefits especially from an older actor in the lead, as the notion of a deadly vigilante demands portrayal by an older man possessed of self-control, discipline and the resolve to not get caught. Remakes usually annoy the hell out of me, as does director Eli Roth, who may well be a certifiable lunatic but is at least consistent and dedicated in his thematic concerns. Chief among these is revenge (Tarantino works the same turf).  The trailer below is very slick and accomplishes a difficult trick: counteracting potential cries of racism and fascism (as were levied against the original) by remaking the hero as a kindly doctor who cares for people of all creeds and races. The trailer makes clear he's out for revenge and, eventually (inevitably?), he embraces the thrill of killing bad guys without mercy and in increasingly gruesome ways. But mostly it's about revenge.
Having invested some time pursuing this subject, I've discovered that the idea of revenge is far more satisfying than the actual getting of revenge, which carves out some of your soul and leaves you diminished. Because movies enable us to live vicariously, looks like I'll just have to pony up coin for a ticket to the remake of Death Wish. It looks tight. Great cast, too. Besides Bruce Willis, who is aging nicely in his role as senior statesman of action-film badassery, we have Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris (DEA agent Hank on Breaking Bad) and Mike Epps. I'm sure Willis is serviceable in the role, even if he's no Bronson. Big Charlie always looked so ferocious he probably didn't need a gun to take out the street trash. Charlie could insert the damn bullets manually if he wanted to. He could level a scowl and give villains a stink-eye and they would drop like shoo-flies on a hot summer day. He sweated testosterone sufficient to kill a dozen strong men. I tell you, Bronson was tuff. Still, Willis is always fun to watch, going back almost 30 years to his breakout role in Die Hard.

But there's another, subtle, reason this remake will fascinate. Experience and my cynical nature tell me this picture will play audiences like a grand piano -- pushing buttons, eliciting reactions, jerking with emotions. Hitchcock was a master at this; Roth considerably less so. But I'll take what I can get. As an amateur anthropologist, watching an audience watch Death Wish is almost as entertaining as checking out the film itself. There's nothing quite like the sight of a crowd responding to pure cinema. Originally set for a fall 2017 release, the film was pushed back without explanation to March 2, though I suspect the October mass shooting in Las Vegas may have precipitated the studio's decision. While neither bears any relation to the other, delicate sensibilities can set off an online firestorm -- and studios are all about keeping up appearances while protecting their investment. Word is, the remake is coming out with a hard-R rating typical of Roth and befitting the film's tone. This is not a date movie, but you guessed as much, didn't ya?

Cinema Uprising copyright © 2018 by Steve Evans. All rights reserved.