Charles Bronson is one of the great icons of late 20th Century cinema . Born Charles Buchinsky in 1921 he first started appearing in films in uncredited walk on roles in the early 1950s . By the late 1960s we became a well known face in supporting roles and as the 1970s dawned was a film star in his own right . Something strange happened during the cultural change in this period of American film making known as " The New Hollywood " . Actors no longer needed pretty boy good looks to be a star , audiences demanded a rugged machismo etched on an actors face and in no other decade except the 1970s would you have an unlikely actor like Bronson become a major star ? DEATH WISH saw him play Paul Kersey , a mild mannered family man who after his wife is murdered and his daughter raped turns in to a one man vigilante army . It was a highly influential film and it was the role of Kersey that cemented his legend . How fitting then that DEATH WISH V was his last theatrical cinema release
The downside is that DEATH WISH V isn't much of a thriller in its own right never mind as a sequel . No one with any sanity can claim DEATH WISH 3 is a good film or a credible thriller but as deranged entertainment whose prime function is to entertain its audience it does its job superbly . DEATH WISH V tries to be a sensible revenge thriller but the genie had long been let out of the bottle . By this I mean if you have a vigilante who is dating a middle aged woman young enough to be his daughter that alone is problematic . You perhaps speculate that the makers of this are trying change the formula by having a smaller body count whilst making the deaths of the villains have a bigger impact in their novelty value but this is a gimmick that doesn't work . Having a smaller body count also means it's a much slower paced film that is borderline boring in the first half . As it stands Bronson's last three movies were TV productions in the FAMILY OF COPS franchise and Bronson's career ended not with a well deserved bang but a whimper
The downside is that DEATH WISH V isn't much of a thriller in its own right never mind as a sequel . No one with any sanity can claim DEATH WISH 3 is a good film or a credible thriller but as deranged entertainment whose prime function is to entertain its audience it does its job superbly . DEATH WISH V tries to be a sensible revenge thriller but the genie had long been let out of the bottle . By this I mean if you have a vigilante who is dating a middle aged woman young enough to be his daughter that alone is problematic . You perhaps speculate that the makers of this are trying change the formula by having a smaller body count whilst making the deaths of the villains have a bigger impact in their novelty value but this is a gimmick that doesn't work . Having a smaller body count also means it's a much slower paced film that is borderline boring in the first half . As it stands Bronson's last three movies were TV productions in the FAMILY OF COPS franchise and Bronson's career ended not with a well deserved bang but a whimper