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Death Wish
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Death Wish (1974) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   8,789 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 20% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Michael Winner
Writers:
Brian Garfield (novel)
Wendell Mayes (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Death Wish on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
24 July 1974 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Crime more
Tagline:
Vigilante, city style -- Judge, Jury, and Executioner more
Plot:
A New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks in which he randomly goes out and kills would-be muggers on the mean streets after dark. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
Urban Battleground more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Charles Bronson ... Paul Kersey

Hope Lange ... Joanna Kersey
Vincent Gardenia ... Detective Frank Ochoa
Steven Keats ... Jack Toby
William Redfield ... Sam Kreutzer
Stuart Margolin ... Ames Jainchill
Stephen Elliott ... Police Commissioner
Kathleen Tolan ... Carol Toby
Jack Wallace ... Hank
Fred J. Scollay ... District Attorney
Chris Gampel ... Ives
Robert Kya-Hill ... Joe Charles
Edward Grover ... Lt. Briggs (as Ed Grover)

Jeff Goldblum ... Freak #1
Christopher Logan ... Freak #2
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Sidewalk Vigilante (USA) (working title)
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Runtime:
93 min
Country:
USA
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Finland:K-18 (2003) (uncut) | Finland:K-18 (1974) (cut) | Iceland:16 | UK:18 (re-rating) (2006) (uncut) | West Germany:18 (f) | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Brazil:14 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | France:-16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The role of Paul Kersey was originally intended for Steve McQueen, who turned it down. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Frank Ochoa is interviewing the mugging victim after Paul Kersey shoots dead the three thugs in the alley, the victim's hat appears and disappears between shots. more
Quotes:
Freak #1: We want money, mother, now get it! more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Guns for Hire: The Making of 'The Magnificent Seven' (2000) (TV) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
42 out of 56 people found the following comment useful:-
Urban Battleground, 28 October 2003
8/10
Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY

Charles Bronson was already a major movie star in 1974 in Europe and a top action actor in the USA but it was "Death Wish" released that year that made him the super star that he became. What's so unusual is that in the movie "Death Wish" he played a man who was a pacifist all of his life, he served in the Korean War as a conscientious objector, who then turned into the vigilante executioner! A role which Bronson has become known for and identified with more then any of the scores of actions roles that he made during his long film career.

Bronson as well as director Michael Winner and writer Brian Garfield touched a raw nerve in "Death Wish" with the American people in big cities under siege like no other movie ever did before and, now some 30 years later, after. Since "Death Wish" there must have been made over a hundred films with it's theme but none had the impact that "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson had.

A group of tugs get Joanna Kersey's, Hope Lange, address from a delivery slip of a local grocery store and acting as if their delivering her groceries break into Joanna's apartment and savagely attack her and beat and rape her daughter Carol, Kathleen Tolan. Paul Kersey, Charles Bronson, comes home to learn that his wife and daughter are in the hospital rushes over to see how they are. Kersey finds out that his wife is dead and his daughter is mentally destroyed and needs to be institutionalized for life.

The whole world around Paul Kersey falls apart like a house of cards and he's left alone with everything that he loved dead or as good as dead. Some time later going to Arizona to do his job as a land developer for his firm in NYC he's given a .32 handgun as a gift by the person that he worked for Ames Janichill, Stuart Margolis, for the great job that he did for him.

One night back home in New York City taking a stroll in the park with the gun on him Kersey is accosted by a local junkie who pulls a handgun on him but Kersey draws first and shoots and kills him. Sick at first over what he did, killed a human being, Kersey like a wild beast from the jungle tasting blood for the fist time begins to roam the streets of New York at night for prey. A vengeful Kersey goes out looking for criminals to put out of commission, like those who killed and raped his wife and daughter, as some kind of revenge and retribution against them. In the process Kersey puts the criminals of the city of New York into a state of absolute terror and panic. In his guerrilla-like actions Kersey knocks off some dozen of them sending the the city's crime rate falling as much as 70%! All this with the ineffective, in stopping crime, police being more interested in stopping "The Vigilante" then stopping the criminals!

The movie "Death Wish" hit a raw nerve with the public as well as the local politicians and police because it showed how, in the movie at least, one man with a gun and knowing how to use it can make a difference when it comes to stopping crime. The story is not that unlikely as those against it would want the public to believe. There's been many times when average people took to protecting themselves, with firearms, and did a much better job then the police; which is just what Paul Kersey did in the movie. That may have been one of the reasons that those in authority were so much against the film.

When Bernie Goetz in December 1984 gunned down four muggers, much like Charles Bronson did in the movie "Death Wish", who tried to attack him in the New York subway crime dropped a lot more then if one hundred policemen were put on the trains. Nobody can doubt now that Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" was not only a major milestone in films about urban crime but also a major milestone in what the public thinks about crime and what's best to do to stop it.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Death Wish (1974)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
What could they charge Paul Kersey for if caught? digital_groove
Stallone DEATH WISH remake in 2011. Tosh_Togo
Policeman in the Subway Scene chewy0123
Why did the rapists 'split'? jamieleefan1
How Kersey got the gun (for those who´ve read the book) hummer-w
What The World Needs Is More Paul Kerseys Ahutwotupidto
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