6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police detective to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.
Starring: Charles Bronson, Deborah Raffin, Ed Lauter, Martin Balsam, Gavan O'HerlihyCrime | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
French: Dolby Digital Mono @192 kbps
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A former coal-miner, B-29 gunner during WWII, and star of wacky Japanese
commercials—follow that link, you won't regret it—Charles Bronson is best known, of course, as an onscreen badass, a pistol-wielding action hero
who was making chumps quake in their shoes long before Schwarzenegger and Stallone and Willis. He was one of The Dirty Dozen. He played
a mean harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. And, with 1974's Death Wish, he attained pop culture icon status for his
portrayal of Paul Kersey, a mild-mannered New York architect who goes on a violent crime-fighting rampage after thugs rape his daughter and murder
his wife. The film addresses the rotten core of the Big Apple, which was experiencing a nascent crime wave at the time, and it became controversial for
seemingly advocating that citizens take the law into their own hands.
Along with a few alleged copycat acts of vigilantism, Death Wish launched a franchise that spanned four sequels of mostly diminishing quality,
with Kersey finding himself in ever more contrived revenge scenarios. Although they pale next to the original and have aged rather gracelessly—the
street-punk fashion, for instance, is an unintentional laugh riot—the sequels are solidly entertaining in an ironic, so-bad-it's-good, what-the-hell-were-
we-thinking-in-the-1980s kind of way. This week, MGM is releasing Death Wish 2, Death Wish 3, and Death Wish 4: The
Crackdown on Blu-ray, and I already know what you're going to ask: Where are the first and last films? Good question, and one with a ready
answer. Paramount holds the rights to Death Wish—they seem to be in no hurry to get a high definition edition out—and Death Wish
V is currently licensed by Lionsgate. This leaves the middle three films, which have been sitting for some time in MGM's back catalog but are now
loosed on the streets again, with new 1080p transfers this time, and presented in their intended aspect ratio.
Let's start by acknowledging that the Death Wish films have never and—unless there's some picture quality witchery I don't yet know about—
will never look particularly sharp or slick. Not by modern standards. These were fairly low-budget productions, shot non-anamorphically on fast
and heavily grainy 35mm stock, and short of slathering the picture with detail-smearing DNR—which would be a very bad thing indeed—there's not
much that can be done to separate the content of the image from it's noisy medium. MGM has wisely steered clear of unnecessary digital
tinkering, doing only what's needed to get the films in strong high definition shape. I'm not sure how much restoration/clean-up was required, but the
prints of all three Death Wish films are practically spotless, with few—if any—white specks, and no scratches, stains, or debris. And while the
movies have been placed on single-layer 25 GB discs, I didn't spot any overt compression issues. To my eye, these transfers look faithful to source.
Presented in its intended aspect ratio, with a 1080p/AVC encode, Death Watch 3 looks the best out of the three Bronson films released this
week, which makes some sense considering this particular production had the highest budget. There's still some softness to the image—owing to the
way the film was shot—but fine textures and lines seem slightly better resolved here than in Death Wish 2, and clarity gets a solid all-around
bump from MGM's now-ancient DVD. Color seems accurate and stable, with no obvious fading or fluctuations, and contrast is spot-on for a film of this
particular vintage. Even in darker scenes there's plenty of visible shadow detail. The film looks like what it is—a B-level exploitation pic—but that's not
such a bad thing, is it?
Cheaply shot and churned out, Cannon Films productions in general were rarely given much audio polish. Although stereo and even multi-channel mixes were already common when the movies were made, all three Death Wish films released this week by MGM are in mono, via lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 tracks. Considering all of the gunfire, explosions, and car crashes, you can easily imagine these films in 5.1, with immersive ambience and directional effects galore, but you can't dock MGM for being true-to-source. All three films have rather flat dynamics, with tempered bass, a soft high end, and much of the audio packed into the mids. Gunshots are typically wimpy, and most of the effects clearly sound canned, but there's some low- budget B-movie charm here in the rinky-dink presentation. Jimmie Page's score from Death Wish 2 was recycled almost in its entirety here— with the additional of some stock cues from Mike Moran—and the music is decently clear and potent, though limited by the mono output. Dialogue is always understandable, but if you need or want them, the disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles, along with a French Dolby Digital 1.0 dub.
The only bonus feature on the disc is a theatrical trailer, in high definition.
If you're going to watch only one Death Wish film besides the first one, make it Death Wish 3, a comically over-the-top shoot-em-up that pits fed-up geriatrics against armed to the teeth gutter-punks. It's awful, and hilarious, and well worth your time if you're in the mood for some violent, so-bad-it's-good nonsense. Expect a solid picture quality improvement from the full-framed DVD released years and years ago, but there are unfortunately no new extras here to sweeten the deal. Worth the upgrade? That's your call, but if you don't yet own the film, this is definitely the version to pick up.
1987
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1982
1994
1974
1984
Unrated Director`s Cut
1980
1980
Collector's Edition
1982
1988
Limited Edition to 3000
1973
2019
1977
1984
1981
1984
1985
1982
Retro VHS Collection
1985
Game of Survival
1985
1986