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The Stone Killer teams Charles Bronson with director Michael Winner again in this hard-hitting classic 1973 cop movie released on DVD for the first time ever. Detective Lou Torey (Bronson) is transferred to Los Angeles and uncovers a plot by Sicilian Mafioso Vescari (Martin Balsam) to use Vietnam veterans to murder all his enemies in a rerun of the "Sicilian Vespers" when the previous generation of Sicilian Mafioso were all killed on a single day. Torrey sets out to ruin Vescari's plans. Torrey and Vescari leave a trail of blood and bodies as they fight each other through the streets of LA and New York.
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From that curious period when 70s films still looked a bit like they were shot in the 60s and when some cops still wore hats, The Stone Killer is a pretty decent pre-Death Wish Michael Winner-Charles Bronson film that doesn't do anything new but does it well enough for an hour-and-a-half to make for an efficient enough Saturday Night Special. Bronson's the New York cop whose trigger-happy reputation gets him transferred to LA, where he stumbles across a big case when a prisoner he was escorting to his old stamping ground gets hit before spilling the beans about a hit he was going to be involved in himself. And not just any old hit - Martin Balsam's mobster is taking a leaf out of Lucky Luciano's book and recruiting `an army without faces,' Vietnam veterans with no connection to organised crime, to take his long-brewing revenge for the 1931 `Night of the Sicilian Vespers' murders that ended the Castellammarese gang war 42 years earlier (the film gets the date wrong, citing 10th April 1931 rather than 10th September 1931, but hey, it's a Michael Winner film, you expect fact-checking?).
It's a decent enough hook for a cop movie, and it moves fast enough to keep you from thinking too much about the odd plothole. Bronson's on good form while Winner's direction hadn't yet got as lazy as it would by the end of the decade, though the shadow of the boom mike does have a recurring cameo even in the widescreen version. (Winner also includes a nod to film critic Gordon Gow, who worked on Films and Filming when Winner was a fledgling film critic there, in a PA announcement in a hospital scene.) The odd interesting face pops up in the supporting cast - Stuart Margolin and Paul Koslo as mercenaries, The Waltons' Ralph Waite as a racist cop who's waiting for hats to come back in fashion, Norman Fell and a young John Ritter as cops a few years before they co-starred in Three's Company and regular character actors like Walter Burke and Charles Tyner - while Gerald Wilson's script gives most of them enough to do to make an impression even if no-one's on award-winning form here. Throw in a great car/motorbike chase, some decent action scenes, a funky Roy Budd score and the odd bit of obligatory post-Dirty Harry society's going to the dogs and the criminals are winning speachifying and the result is one of the better disposable cop movies of the 70s.
Sony's PAL DVD is completely extras-free, but does at least boast a good widescreen transfer.
It's a decent enough hook for a cop movie, and it moves fast enough to keep you from thinking too much about the odd plothole. Bronson's on good form while Winner's direction hadn't yet got as lazy as it would by the end of the decade, though the shadow of the boom mike does have a recurring cameo even in the widescreen version. (Winner also includes a nod to film critic Gordon Gow, who worked on Films and Filming when Winner was a fledgling film critic there, in a PA announcement in a hospital scene.) The odd interesting face pops up in the supporting cast - Stuart Margolin and Paul Koslo as mercenaries, The Waltons' Ralph Waite as a racist cop who's waiting for hats to come back in fashion, Norman Fell and a young John Ritter as cops a few years before they co-starred in Three's Company and regular character actors like Walter Burke and Charles Tyner - while Gerald Wilson's script gives most of them enough to do to make an impression even if no-one's on award-winning form here. Throw in a great car/motorbike chase, some decent action scenes, a funky Roy Budd score and the odd bit of obligatory post-Dirty Harry society's going to the dogs and the criminals are winning speachifying and the result is one of the better disposable cop movies of the 70s.
Sony's PAL DVD is completely extras-free, but does at least boast a good widescreen transfer.
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I bought this DVD for a friend and he is very pleased with it,as he has been with all the previous DVDs which I have purchased for him.
"the stone killer" is a good enough thriller, provided you don't expect too many surprises.
for my money, "death wish" and "the mechanic" are far superior "bronson/winner" collaborations as they strived to be a bit more original and are better for it.
this film, made in 1973, has still got plenty going for it: very good action scenes, a good cast and the direction is done with typical winner-style. the script isn't anything to boast about but that's nothing new with most thrillers.
the story about a mafia godfather settling an old grudge with some of the other families, tends to be a bit over-stretched at time and is rather hard to keep up with at times.
charles bronson is his usual self, as in minimal acting style(or just plain wooden?) in any event, bronson certainly shows that he had star quality and was a natural at displaying menace.
for my money, "death wish" and "the mechanic" are far superior "bronson/winner" collaborations as they strived to be a bit more original and are better for it.
this film, made in 1973, has still got plenty going for it: very good action scenes, a good cast and the direction is done with typical winner-style. the script isn't anything to boast about but that's nothing new with most thrillers.
the story about a mafia godfather settling an old grudge with some of the other families, tends to be a bit over-stretched at time and is rather hard to keep up with at times.
charles bronson is his usual self, as in minimal acting style(or just plain wooden?) in any event, bronson certainly shows that he had star quality and was a natural at displaying menace.
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