{"id":9253,"date":"2023-05-07T01:32:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T00:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9253"},"modified":"2024-08-22T10:27:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T09:27:34","slug":"film-music-deathwish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9253","title":{"rendered":"FiLM\/MUSiC: Deathwish, 1974"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Based on a 1972 novel of the same name, Michael Winner\u2019s 1974 movie met with a pretty high degree of disapproval on release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve long wanted to see it, very largely due to Herbie Hancock providing the musical soundtrack. But I\u2019ve never gotten around to it. Until now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the funny thing is, by the time I got around to watching Death Wish, I\u2019d actually forgotten<\/em> Herbie did the music. So I\u2019m watching it, and immediately I\u2019m thinking \u2018God damn it, this music\u2019s unusually good!\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather unbelievably, to my mind, I have to \u2018google it\u2019\u2026 Oh, yeah, it\u2019s the Herbmeister!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Personally I think it\u2019s actually a pretty well made movie. Obviously made much<\/em> better by the incredibly groovy music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea, plot wise, is as old as the hills. After he is wronged, a man takes the law into his own hands. From Westerns galore, through to Clint and Sly Stallone, even more arthouse stuff, like Ingmar Bergman\u2019s Virgin Spring<\/em>, it\u2019s a long established plot driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s possible to think that, without Herbie\u2019s music, this might just be a rather workmanlike entry in that long established tradition. But I\u2019m going to make a case for it being better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so it is<\/em> very \u201870s. But in good ways, I\u2019d argue; gritty, urban, grim, yes. But there\u2019s even an element of humour, with Bronson\u2019s Paul Kersey character referencing the Western tradition, which this movie is very definitely a somewhat twisted modern heir to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is most obvious when Kersey challenges an assailant to \u2018draw\u2019, and again, when he asks Inspector Frank Ochoa (the stand in for the sheriff, played by Vincent Gardenia) if he needs to be out of town \u2018by sundown\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A subway mugger makes a fatal misjudgment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charles Bronson is great as Kersey, the taciturn former CO (conscientious objector, as opposed to commanding officer) and Korean War medic, who snaps and turns vigilante, when his wife (played by Hope Lange) is murdered, and his daughter sexually assaulted, and left so traumatised she can\u2019t function, in a home invasion mugging turned violent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film takes its time, building to the protagonists\u2019 crossing the line. And Bronson\u2019s Kersey is physically sick after his first rather impulsive slaying. Ochoa, ill and overweight, is nonetheless a resolute legal beagle. So the Western tradition and it\u2019s heirs are somewhat subverted, in this grimmer modern urban \u2018Wild East\u2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Director Michael Winner and his star. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Personally I think this film is much more nuanced than its detractors, at the time of release, realised. Despite his brawny physique Bronson\/Kersey isn\u2019t typical leading man material, facially speaking. There\u2019s even a depth to him that makes his role here quite beguiling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as well as the self-deprecating awareness of the clich\u00e9s it draws upon, there\u2019s an interesting relationship with ideas that have become ever stronger with time, such as the media\u2019s role in such things, and the vigilante as modern urban hero. I like how this idea is somewhat undermined when Kersey passes out, during his final \u2018mission\u2019 to clean up the streets of NY, near the end of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somehow – maybe it\u2019s just chutzpah? – Death Wish<\/em> walks a tightrope between being grossly clich\u00e9d and grittily realistic, in its depiction of contemporary urban grimness. The plot, acting, direction, and music all contribute to making a rather familiar idea quite refreshingly compelling and entertaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The home-invasion villains. Noo Yoik scum!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most strikingly dated things (for some another might be the music; but I love<\/em> it!) are the hippy-bum-ne\u2019erdowells. These are not \u201860s love and peaceniks, but the amoral dregs of a more Last Exit To Brooklyn <\/em>type lineage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The home invasion scene, which sets up the rest of the movie, really is nasty. The villains are repulsively trashy and amoral. Jeff Goldblum\u2019s character in particular is an appalling avatar for the idea of modern urban youth as poisoned and toxic beyond redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A young Jeff Goldblum is strikingly nasty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The book was, I\u2019ve read, unequivocally anti-vigilante. The movie is, according to its detractors at the time, not just ambivalent, but unabashedly pro <\/em>vigilantism. This scenario caused the author of the book to write a sequel, Death Sentence<\/em>, clarifying <\/em>or reinforcing the anti-violence message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movies meanwhile, would spawn a further series of films – six in all (so far!) – all of which are more blatantly exploitative of the longstanding tradition of retributive violence, as meted out by the lone man pushed too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The book that inspired the movie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first three of these are all by Winner, and Bronson reprises his role as Kersey in all but the last, in which Bruce Willis stars (and Eli Roth directs). All of these remakes are, according to most critics, blatant \u2018revenge porn\u2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess such folk do have a case that even this original film version certainly leans that way. But as critic John DeFore noted, the later iterations make the original \u2018look philosophical by comparison\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, a very watchable and – I found – enjoyable movie. The cherry on top? Herbie\u2019s fabulous soundtrack. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on a 1972 novel of the same name, Michael Winner\u2019s 1974 movie met with a pretty high degree of disapproval on release. I\u2019ve long wanted to see it, very largely due to Herbie Hancock providing the musical soundtrack. But I\u2019ve never gotten around to it. Until now. And the funny thing is, by the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLM\/MUSiC: Deathwish, 1974”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2pf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9253"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21996,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions\/21996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}