Death Wish
Death Wish is a (1974) movie in which New York City architect Paul Kersey becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks and then he goes out and kills would-be muggers on the mean streets after dark.
Charles Bronson is one of my favorite actors. Back in 1990 my Favorite Son & I were living in Venice Beach. I was writing a screenplay for a TV pilot but the production company ran out of money. Anyway, I wanted to go for a five-mile run early one Sunday morning. Since I preferred a straight line over a out an back, my son agreed to drop me off five miles from home and that distance took us into the heart of Malibu.
It’s real early in the morning & we’re the only car on the Pacific Coast Highway. The traffic light up ahead turns red. We stop, of course, and while we’re waiting a Jag comes up from behind and pulls up right next to us and stops. We both look over and, lo & behold, we’re looking at Charles Bronson.
“How ya doin’, Charley,” I say with a smile and a wave, and he trades morning greetings with us. It was obviously a chance occurrence and one I’ll never forget. But I often wondered about how many times he told that story to his friends & family members.
Getting back to the movie, it’s a classic and gained instant popularity because crime was starting to rise in most urban areas & here was Charley going around and blowing away the bad guys like we all wished we could.
Hope Lang plays his murdered wife and Vincent Gardenia plays the bumbling police detective who puts more effort into apprehending the vigilante than he does into subduing the “real” criminals. You might remember him as Archie Bunker’s cantankerous neighbor Frank Lorenzo.
The movie was also a stepping stone for Jeff Goldblum and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. (There was a time when no one believed they were that important that they needed hyphenated names, but that’s another story for another day.) Jeff Goldblum, in his first acting role & way before the invention of cell phones, plays one of the rapist/murderers, and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs plays a mugger who Charley blows away in the park. It was his second acting credit & just a year before he became Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington in Welcome Back, Kotter.
Can’t remember how many times I watched Death Wish.
I’m America’s Best Crime Writer – Barry Bowe – & I approve this message.
My first book – Born to Be Wild – was published in 1992 & is still selling on Amazon & Kindle. It’s a true story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.
The story took 21 years to play out – many twists & turns – an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy & Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.
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