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Death Wish (film series)

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Death Wish
Directed by
Screenplay by
Based onDeath Wish
by Brian Garfield
Starring
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetTotal (6 films):
$61 million
Box officeTotal (6 films):
$87.2 million

Death Wish franchise is an American vigilante action-thriller film series based on the 1972 novel by Brian Garfield. The films follow the character Paul Kersey, portrayed by Charles Bronson in the original series, and Bruce Willis in the 2018 remake. While the first film received mixed reviews, the subsequent sequels, as well as the remake, were panned by critics. The series made $87 million against a combined production budget of $61 million.

Background

Paul Kersey

Kersey was born in East Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921. Kersey's father was an English-American who originated from Northern England and his mother comes from Provo, Utah. Kersey's Norman English ancestor, Pierre Whítmoré Keèrsye, anglicized his surname to Kersey. Paul was raised around guns and became a good shot as a child. After Paul's father was killed in a hunting accident, his mother prevented him from being around guns anymore.[1]

Kersey served in World War II in the Pacific theater as a combat medic from 1944 to 1945. In 1950 Paul graduated from Princeton University wth a degree in Civil Engineering. In 1953, he was a conscientious objector in the medical corps in the Korean War. In the late 1950s, he traveled to New York City to settle down.[2]

Novels

Death Wish (1972)

Main article: Death Wish (novel)

Death Sentence (1975)

Main article: Death Sentence (novel)

Films

Film U.S. release date Director(s) Screenwriter(s) Story by Producer(s)
Original series
Death Wish July 24, 1974 (1974-07-24) Michael Winner Wendell Mayes — Dino De Laurentiis, Hal Landers & Bobby Roberts
Death Wish II February 19, 1982 (1982-02-19) Michael Winner David Engelbach — Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus
Death Wish 3 November 1, 1985 (1985-11-01) Michael Winner Don Jakoby — Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus & Michael Winner
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown November 6, 1987 (1987-11-06) J. Lee Thompson Gail Morgan Hickman — Pancho Kohner
Death Wish V: The Face of Death January 14, 1994 (1994-01-14) Allan A. Goldstein Allan A. Goldstein — Damian Lee
Remake
Death Wish March 2, 2018 (2018-03-02) Eli Roth Joe Carnahan — Roger Birnbaum

Death Wish (1974)

Main article: Death Wish (1974 film)

Paul Kersey is an architect[3] who served in the Korean War in the medical corps, and he lives in New York City. One day, three street punks posing as grocery delivery boys break into his apartment while he is at work. They beat up Paul's wife, Joanna and rape his married daughter, Carol Toby, spray-painting both of them and the wall of their apartment "just for fun." Joanna later dies of her injuries, and Carol is left catatonic. Paul's life is ripped apart by this attack.

Paul's boss decides that Paul needs to get out of New York for a while, so he sends him to Tucson, Arizona to meet with a client. There, Paul witnesses a mock gunfight at Old Tucson Studios, a reconstructed Western frontier town that is often used as a movie set. Paul's client gets him interested in guns. It turns out that Paul grew up around guns and is a good shot himself. When Paul returns to New York, he discovers that his client has given him a .32 Colt Police Positive revolver as a gift. When the police are unable to find the rapists, Paul sets out to find them himself. Paul begins patrolling the streets, killing street criminals as he encounters them.

Death Wish II (1982)

Main article: Death Wish II

Kersey and his daughter Carol, who is still catatonic, now live in Los Angeles because Paul accepted a deal from the New York City Police Department to leave town so they would not tell anyone that he was the vigilante. Paul now has a new woman in his life, KABC news reporter, Geri Nichols. One day while he is out with Carol and Geri, he is mugged by a gang of five punks. Paul fights back, but they get away.

The muggers go to his house, gag, rape, and murder Kersey's housekeeper. They then wait for Paul to return home and knock him unconscious and kidnap and rape Carol. The assault brings her out of her coma and she tries to get away by jumping through the second story window, but she dies when she is impaled on an iron fence stake.

Beside himself with grief and rage, Paul dedicates his life to avenging Carol. He rents a ratty hotel room under another name, and starts looking for the rapists. When the Los Angeles Police Department deduces that they have a vigilante on their hands, they decide to consult with the New York City Police Department, who fear that Kersey is killing criminals again.

Death Wish 3 (1985)

Main article: Death Wish 3

After killing criminals in Los Angeles, Paul Kersey returns to New York City to visit his friend, Charley, who lives in one of the worst parts of New York City. When Paul arrives at Charley's apartment, he finds Charley dying after a vicious beating by a gang led by Manny Fraker. The police enter the apartment and find Paul standing over Charley's body.

Paul is arrested for the murder, but police chief Richard S. Shriker offers a deal: Paul can kill all the criminals he wants, if he keeps the cops informed about the death count. Though Kersey says that he stopped his mugger slayings, Shriker releases Paul to go after Fraker. Paul moves into Charley's apartment in a decaying building in the middle of a bombed out gang war zone.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

Main article: Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

Kersey had largely retired from slaying muggers shortly after Death Wish 3. In Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, Detective Phil Nozaki mentions mugger shootings downtown two years previous to the events of Death Wish 4, to which Detective Sid Reiner responds by saying that "the vigilante retired years ago". Kersey kept regular residence in Los Angeles, regardless of his breaking off his mugger slayings. Paul Kersey is back in Los Angeles, and is dating reporter, Karen Sheldon, who has a teenage daughter named Erica. While Erica is at an arcade with her boyfriend, Randy, she dies of a crack cocaine overdose, setting the scene for a departure from the series' focus on sexual assault by instead putting drug abuse as a center stage. Later, Randy goes back to the arcade with Kersey following him.

Randy confronts Jo-Jo Ross, the dealer that Erica got the crack from. Randy tells Jo-Jo that he is going to the police, but Jo-Jo kills him to keep him quiet. Kersey shows up and shoots Jo-Jo with a .380 Walther PPK pistol, and watches him land on the electrical roof of the bumper-car ride, where he is electrocuted. Next, Paul gets a note and a phone call from a publisher named Nathan White, who tells him that he knows about the death of Jo-Jo. Nathan explains to Kersey that his daughter had died of an overdose, so he wants to hire Kersey to wipe out the drug trade in L.A. – and in particular to target Ed Zacharias and The Romero Brothers Jack and Tony, rival drug kingpins who are the city's two main drug suppliers.

Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)

Main article: Death Wish V: The Face of Death

Kersey's secret identity as the vigilante was effectively blown in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, as Detective Sid Reiner of the Los Angeles Police Department, less sympathetic than Chief Richard Shriker or Detective Frank Ochoa, discovered it. Reiner stated he would arrest Kersey. Kersey retired and entered the Witness Protection Program and assumed the alias, Paul Stewart in New York City after meeting with the District Attorney of New York.

Seven years passed before Kersey's peace was again interrupted. New York City's garment district has turned into Dodge City when a mobster named Tommy O'Shea muscles in on the fashion trade of his ex-wife, Olivia Regent. Olivia is engaged to Paul Kersey, who provides a sense of security for her and her daughter, Chelsea. Olivia is not impressed when Tommy tortures her manager, Big Al, so Tommy hires an enforcer named Freddie Flakes, a master of disguise.

Freddie dons women's clothing to follow Olivia into a ladies' room, where he smashes her face into a mirror, causing permanent disfigurement. In the offices of District Attorney Brian Hoyle and his associate, Hector Vasquez, Paul and Olivia vow that Tommy should be prosecuted. Later, Freddie and two of his men disguise themselves as cops, infiltrate Olivia's apartment, and shoot her dead. This causes Kersey to go from his retirement to his vigilante ways again, as tries to get rid of Tommy's ruthless Irish mob organization by killing all of his gang members that were responsible for his fiancée's death.

Death Wish (2018)

Main article: Death Wish (2018 film)

Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis), a Chicago-area Emergency Room surgeon, lives with his wife, Lucy (Elisabeth Shue), and daughter, Jordan (Camila Morrone). When the family visits a restaurant with Paul's brother Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio), a valet named Miguel photographs their home address from their car's navigation software, after hearing about a night they plan to be away from home. However, Paul is called to work that night, and Jordan and Lucy are home when the three armed burglars break into their home. Moments later, one of the burglars is scarred from Lucy and Jordan's efforts to fight back in defense of their lives and home. The invading criminals shoot Lucy to death, and Jordan is seriously wounded and comatose from their attempted murder of her.

Paul becomes frustrated with the lack of police progress on the case, led by Detectives Kevin Raines (Dean Norris) and Leonore Jackson (Kimberly Elise). After seeing two men harassing a woman, Paul tries to intervene but is kicked and punched to the ground by the two assailants. He visits a gun store, but there is a long mandatory waiting period to legally purchase a firearm. When a gang member is brought to the hospital and his Glock 17 falls off the gurney, Paul takes it and practices shooting.

He uses the gun to stop a carjacking, a video of which goes viral. During the effort, he cuts his left hand due to improperly handling the pistol. Continuing his efforts as a vigilante, Paul decides to kill a drug dealer, calling himself "the Ice Cream Man", after a young boy comes to the hospital with a gunshot wound in his leg. Paul calmly walks up to the pistol-holding drug dealer, referring to himself as "his last customer," and shoots him. News, TV, and radio reports consistently demonstrate mixed feelings of support and condemnation of Paul's developing war against violent criminals.

Cast and crew

Cast

List indicator(s)
  • This table shows the principal characters and the actors who have portrayed them throughout the franchise.
  • A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's presence in the film has not yet been announced.
Character Original series Remake
Death Wish Death Wish II Death Wish 3 Death Wish
The Crackdown 		Death Wish
The Face of Death 		Death Wish
1974 1982 1985 1987 1994 2018
Paul Kersey
The Vigilante 		Charles Bronson Bruce Willis
Lt. Frank Ochoa Vincent Gardenia Mentioned Vincent D'Onofrio
Carol Kersey-Toby / Jordan Kersey Kathleen Tolan Robin Sherwood Camila Morrone
Joanna / Lucy Kersey Hope Lange Mentioned Elisabeth Shue
Jackson Reilly / Lenore Jackson Christopher Guest   Kimberly Elise
Freak #1 / Knox Jeff Goldblum   Beau Knapp
Samuel "Sam" Kreutzer William Redfield  
Jack Toby Steven Keats  
Ames Jainchill Stuart Margolin  
Police Commissioner Stephen Elliott  
Hank Jack Wallace  
Joe Charles Robert Kya-Hill  
PO Gemetti (Task Force Meeting) Olympia Dukakis  
Cop at Hospital Paul Dooley  
Subway Mugger Eric Laneuville  
Park Mugger Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs  
Grocery Clerk Sonia Manzano  
E.R. Doctor Tom Hayden  
Moving Man Ciro "Jerry" Palazzo  
Kersey's Secretary Marcia Jean Kurtz  
Security Guard in Lobby Al Lewis  
Mugger Robert Miano  
Slasher Mugger John Herzfeld  
Central Park Mugger Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs  
Supermarket Checkout Clerk Sonia Manzano  
Alma Lee Brown Helen Martin  
Receptionist Marcia Jean Kurtz  
Geri Nichols   Jill Ireland  
New York District Attorney   J.D. Cannon  
LA Police Commissioner   Anthony Franciosa  
Donald Kay   Charles Cyphers  
Inspector Lt. Mankiewicz   Ben Frank  
Senator Robert McLean   Paul Comi  
Elliot Cass   Michael Prince  
Charles Wilson
Nirvana 		  Thomas F. Duffy  
Cutter   Laurence Fishburne III  
Stomper   Kevyn Major Howard  
Jiver   Stuart K. Robinson  
Punkcut   E. Lamont Johnson  
Rosario   Silvana Gallardo  
Fred McKenzie   Robert F. Lyons  
Judge Lake   Frank Campanella  
Mike   Don Dubbins  
Charles Pearce   Buck Young  
Kathryn Davis   Deborah Raffin  
Police Chief Richard Shriker   Ed Lauter  
Bennett Cross   Martin Balsam  
Manny Fraker   Gavan O'Herlihy  
Hermosa   Alex Winter  
Maria Rodriguez   Marina Sirtis  
The Cuban   Ricco Ross  
Manny Fraker's Girlfriend   Barbie Wilde  
Captain Sterns   Manning Redwood  
Karen Sheldon   Kay Lenz  
Nathan White   John P. Ryan  
Ed Zacharias   Perry Lopez  
Reiner   George Dickerson  
Nozaki   Soon-Tek Oh  
Erica Sheldon   Dana Barron  
Art Sanella   Danny Trejo  
Jesse   Tim Russ  
Punk   Mark Pellegrino  
Olivia Regent   Lesley-Anne Down  
Tommy O'Shea   Michael Parks  
Freddie "Flakes" Garrity   Robert Joy  
Subway Mugger / D.A. Brian Hoyle Saul Rubinek Saul Rubinek
Lt. Mickey King   Kenneth Welsh  
Janice Omori   Lisa Inouye  
Lt. Hector Vasquez   Miguel Sandoval  
Chelsea   Erica Lancaster  
Sal Paconi   Chuck Shamata  
Chicki Paconi   Kevin Lund  
Runway Model   Melissa Illes  
Albert   Jefferson Mappin  
Maxine   Claire Rankin  
Detective Kevin Raines   Dean Norris
Sophie   Stephanie Janusauskas
The Fish   Jack Kesy
Joe   Ronnie Gene Blevins
Ben   Len Cariou
Bethany   Kirby Bliss Blanton
Dr. Jill Klavens   Wendy Crewson

Crew

Crew/detail Film
Death Wish Death Wish II Death Wish 3 Death Wish 4:
The Crackdown 		Death Wish V:
The Face of Death 		Death Wish
1974 1982 1985 1987 1994 2018
Director Michael Winner J. Lee Thompson Allan A. Goldstein Eli Roth
Producer(s) Dino De Laurentiis
Hal Landers
Bobby Roberts 		Menahem Golan
Yoram Globus 		Menahem Golan
Yoram Globus
Michael Winner 		Poncho Kohner Damian Lee Roger Birnbaum
Writer(s) Wendell Mayes David Engelbach Don Jakoby (as Michael Edmonds) Gail Morgan Hickman Michael Colleary
Allan A. Goldstein 		Joe Carnahan
Composer Herbie Hancock Jimmy Page Jimmy Page
Mike Moran 		John Bisharat
Paul MacCallum
Valentine MacCallum
Robert O. Ragland 		Terry Plumeri Ludwig Göransson
Editor(s) Bernard Gribble Michael Winner
Julian Semilian 		Arnold Crust Peter Lee-Thompson Patrick Rand Mark Goldblatt
Cinematographer Arthur J. Ornitz Thomas Del Ruth
Richard H. Kline 		John Stanier Gideon Porath Curtis Petersen Rogier Stoffers
Production Company Dino De Laurentiis Corporation The Cannon Group, Inc.
Golan-Globus Productions 		The Cannon Group, Inc. 21st Century Film Corporation
Death Wish 5 Productions 		Cave 76
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributor Paramount Pictures
Columbia Pictures 		Filmways Pictures
Columbia Pictures 		Cannon Film Distributors Trimark Pictures Annapurna Pictures
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time 94 minutes 88 minutes 92 minutes 99 minutes 95 minutes 108 minutes
Release date July 24, 1974 February 19, 1982 November 1, 1985 November 6, 1987 January 14, 1994 March 2, 2018

Reception

Box office performance

Film U.S. release date Budget Box office revenue
United States International Worldwide
Death Wish July 24, 1974 (1974-07-24) $3.7 million $20.3–$22 million $20.3–$22 million
Death Wish 2 February 19, 1982 (1982-02-19) $8 million $29 million $29 million
Death Wish 3 November 1, 1985 (1985-11-01) $9–10 million $16.1 million $16.1 million
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown November 6, 1987 (1987-11-06) $5 million $6.9 million $6.9 million
Death Wish V: The Face of Death January 14, 1994 (1994-01-14) $5 million $1.7 million $1.7 million
Death Wish March 2, 2018 (2018-03-02) $30 million $34 million $15.6 million $49.6 million
Total

Critical and public response

Film Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic
Death Wish 65% (26 reviews)[4] 51 (7 reviews)[5]
Death Wish II 33% (18 reviews)[6] 11 (7 reviews)[7]
Death Wish 3 6% (17 reviews)[8] 18 (9 reviews)[9]
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown 14% (7 reviews)[10] 46 (6 reviews)[11]
Death Wish V: The Face of Death 0% (5 reviews)[12] 25 (6 reviews)[13]
Death Wish 17% (136 reviews)[14] 31 (32 reviews)[15]

Analysis

In 2006, film historian Paul Talbot released Bronson's Loose!: The Making of the Death Wish Films, which covers the making of the five films and features interviews with author Brian Garfield, director Michael Winner, producers Bobby Roberts and Pancho Kohner, and more.[16]

In 2010, novelist Christopher Sorrentino published a book-length monograph, called Death Wish, on the original film. In the course of a deep analysis of the film's content, Sorrentino declares Death Wish to be mythic and apolitical, and using The New York Times's Vincent Canby as a prime example, holds it up as an instance when reviewers used a film's perceived political incorrectness as a pretext to savage it.[17]

Music

Soundtracks

Title U.S. release date Length Composer(s) Label
Death Wish: Original Soundtrack Recording October 11, 1974 40:28 Herbie Hancock Columbia
Death Wish II: The Original Soundtrack - Music by Jimmy Page February 15, 1982 37:11 Jimmy Page Swan Song
Death Wish 3: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Death Wish V: The Face of Death (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Death Wish: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Other media

Video game

The third film in the original series, was made into a video game of the same name by Gremlin Graphics for the ZX Spectrum,[18] Commodore 64, MSX and Amstrad CPC. In the game, the player controls Paul Kersey in the streets and buildings in a free-roaming, all-out gunfight with gangsters. It was one of the goriest games of its time, featuring multiple weapons with detailed, different damage patterns and the possibility to kill civilians.

Film based on novel's sequel

The 2007 film, Death Sentence was based loosely on the Death Wish novel's 1975 sequel of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who takes the law into his own hands when his son is murdered by a gang as an initiation ritual.

In 2020, the pseudonymous author "Paul Kersey", who had published numerous anti-black articles on white nationalist blogs and websites, was identified as Michael J. Thompson, a longtime employee at several mainstream conservative organizations. Thompson chose his pen name in reference to the films' protagonist.[19][20]

References

  1. ^ "Paul Kersey Quotes". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 29, 2006.
  2. ^ "Paul Kersey Quotes". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 29, 2006.
  3. ^ DVD jacket
  4. ^ "Death Wish". Rotten Tomatoes. January 1, 1974. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  5. ^ "Death Wish". Metacritic.
  6. ^ "Death Wish II". Rotten Tomatoes. January 1, 1982. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  7. ^ "Death Wish II". Metacritic.
  8. ^ "Death Wish 3". Rotten Tomatoes. January 1, 1985. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  9. ^ "Death Wish 3 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  10. ^ "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown". Rotten Tomatoes. January 1, 1987. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  11. ^ "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  12. ^ "Death Wish V: The Face of Death". Rotten Tomatoes. January 1, 1994. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  13. ^ "Death Wish V: The Face of Death Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  14. ^ "Death Wish (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  15. ^ "Death Wish Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  16. ^ Talbot, Paul. Bronson's Loose!: The Making of the Death Wish Films. iUniverse, Inc., 2006
  17. ^ Sorrentino, Christopher. Death Wish. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2010
  18. ^ ""Death Wish 3" at". Worldofspectrum.org. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  19. ^ "White nationalist has long worked at conservative outlets under real name". TheGuardian.com. February 3, 2020.
  20. ^ "Hiding in Plain Sight: The White Nationalist Who Toiled Inside a Right-Wing Media Powerhouse". February 3, 2020.
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