Death Wish 3 [VHS]

Death Wish 3 may well be Michael Winner's seminal work, finally breaking free of the chains of logic or narrative that had confined his earlier work to explode in an orgy of wildly improbable violence where he stages World War Three in a New York neighborhood besieged by gangs, with the combatants assorted street punks and elderly, mostly nice Jewish couples. Those kids never stood a chance...

For the first hour it's just a deceptively shonky vigilante movie, with Winner going through the motions as Ed Lauter's disillusioned cop, having first wrongly arrested Charles Bronson's vigilante for the murder of one of the few people in the film he doesn't kill, had him beaten up and thrown in the tank, then decides to set him loose on a problem neighborhood. Charlie fits right in with the assorted senior citizens and stereotypes who make up the put-upon locals, and it's not long before he's rigging booby traps in their houses to maim or disfigure would-be home invaders, shooting bag snatchers in the back or interrupting dinner with Mr and Mrs Kaprov to kill a couple of punks trying to steal his car stereo before returning to finish off the meal of delicious cabbage soup. None of which pleases Gavan O'Herlihy's local gang leader who sports an interesting anti-Mohican hairstyle and it's not long before far more locals are meeting horrible deaths than when the gangs had a free hand before Charlie moved in. With Bronson's character having run out of relatives to be killed off to inspire another rampage in the last movie and his old army buddy killed off early in the picture obviously deemed not enough motivation for him to unleash hell, Deborah Raffin's lawyer with the hots for Charlie draws the short straw and ends up in a crash in one of those extremely inflammable cars that only need the slightest fender bender to explode. So it's out with the Lewis machineguns and rocket launcher while O'Herlihy is on the phone to rentamob to get reinforcements (literally: he just picks up a phone and says "I need more guys. Yeah, thanks," and they arrive).

Filmed mostly in London for extra surrealism, all of Winner's trademarks are here: lazy plotting, abrupt editing, gratuitous rape scenes and clumsy acting even from old pros like Martin Balsam, not to mention the odd familiar face who probably doesn't put this one on their resume - in this case Bill and Ted's Alex Winter and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Marina Sirtis (or, more appropriately, this being a Michael Winner film, Marina Sirtis' breasts). There's also endlessly quotable direlogue ("I can't do anything, I'm a cop," "Mrs. Rodriguez has expired." "But you told me over the phone she only had a broken arm?" and the immortal "Chicken's good. I like chicken"). But it's that last half hour that elevates the film from mere crap to unbelievably delirious, insanely inspired not just unashamed but damn proud of it crap. The finale is a smorgasboard of just plain wrong that abandons any notion of credibility to rack up the largest possible body count: cops die by the score, buildings burn and Bronson's enthusiastic taking out the trash inspires the neighborhood to come together in a merciless killing spree of their own. At one point the old folks run a chain across the street to knock several heavies off their bikes, run up to them and repeatedly shoot them on the ground and then all the local children run in and START DANCING OVER THE DEAD BODIES!!!

Even though another two Death Wish movies followed, this was the end of Bronson and Winner's association. Bronson was ill throughout the shoot and hated the level of violence - apparently Winner felt the body count was too low and added more killings and carnage when Bronson was off the set. (Bronson wasn't the only one to be appalled - whereas Brian Garfield was so angry at the changes Winner made to his anti-vigilante novel that he wanted to sue him over the first film, this time round screenwriter Don Jakoby took his name off the picture - and this is a guy who has his name on Tobe Hooper's LifeForce and Invaders From Mars!). Perhaps it was just as well: even if they tried, it's inconceivable that director or star could ever equal the sheer unsane ambition on display here.

Death Wish 3 is a very different film to it's predecessors, whereas the first two movies were powerful urban drama's about how a man can be driven over the edge as a result of violence this installment goes all out as an action movie and disregards the social commentary for the most part. Don't get me wrong, the first two Death Wish movies are brilliant movies but in my opinion this insane second sequel blows them away.
The story in Death Wish 3 see's the notorious vigilante Paul Kersey return to Brooklyn New York, having run out family in the previous films, to visit an old buddy he served with in the army called Charlie. When Paul get's there he finds Charlie on the brink of death having just been violently attacked by a local gang of thugs. The police arrive shortly after and arrest Paul for Charlies's murder. This is just the set up for the bulk of the action as the police soon realise who they have arrested and decide to hire him and send him back into Charlie's neighbourhood to clean it up, cue lot's of big guns and an abundance of violence the likes of which has never been seen before. Literally, I think that the last half an hour of the film is just pure violence as the neighbourhood turns into an urban warzone.
Whereas in the previous film's Bronson was hunting down muggers and rapists and disposing of them with his pistol in Death Wish 3 he gets hold of a gattling gun and buys a magnum and a military issue rocket launcher and lays waste to the scum of society by the bulk load. It might not be as realistic but it's damn entertaining and is by far my favourite of the Death Wish sequels. This isn't to take anything away from the others as I think that they're brilliant movies and have a powerful message and deal with serious issues which are just as prominent today as they were in the 70's (i.e. rape and urban violence)but Death Wish 3 is just pure entertainment from beginning to end.
They don't make movie like this anymore. Rest in peace Charles Bronson.

Watch out for a young Alex Winter as a member of the gang, he went on to play Bill in the Bill and Ted movies.

This is an under-rated eighties action movie and a great vehicle for Charles Bronson. I mean, there are hardly any other actors in their sixties who can get away with sprinting about like a teenager, take on a gang of maurading yobs and being chased after by a woman nearly half this age!!!

The film tides along at a pace of increasing bigger setpieces kept in place by glorious one-liners delivered by a deadpan Bronson until an over the top riot with Bronson shooting from the hip with a MP60 heavy machine gun with a friend holding the ammo belt in a cardboard box.

This is an almost tounge-in-check parody of the first two Death Wish films yet it works as a solid action movies that delivers excitement and an oddly feel-good factor.

Another guaranteed movie for a night-in!!!