Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Death Wish Blu-ray Movie Review

Wishful Thinking

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 10, 2018

Would the remake of Death Wish have been better received if it hadn't been released less than three weeks after the Stoneman Douglas High School shootings, which reignited a national debate about gun violence? Maybe, but I doubt it. A reboot of the 1974 Charles Bronson vigilante thriller had been kicking around Hollywood for years, but as participants came and went—Sylvester Stallone, Liam Neeson, Benicio Del Toro—no one seems to have focused on the fact that the success of the original film was inseparable from its era. (The sequels built on that success, which made Charles Bronson a star.) Both Brian Garfield's 1972 novel and Michael Winner's 1974 film reflected an era of rising crime rates, as cities across America seemed to be disintegrating in a post-Sixties hangover. Today, when violent crime has fallen to historic lows (with a few notable standouts that make headlines), audiences no longer share the same sense of society teetering on the brink of a lawless abyss. They're much more likely to be worried about economic security and the cost of healthcare.

After a succession of prospective helmers, the director finally picked for the job was Eli Roth, who was only two years old when Bronson's Paul Kersey began his one-man crusade to bring justice to the streets. Roth's effort doesn't even try for the underlying sense of anxiety that gave the original film its power. The script is credited to Joe Carnahan (The Grey), but it went through multiple rewrites, including changes that Roth discusses in his commentary (where, it is worth noting, Carnahan's name doesn't come up). The film that emerged shares a title, character names and key plot elements with the Bronson original, but it's a wholly different animal—and, despite a much heavier gore quotient, a toothless one.

The remake's screenplay wisely relocates the action of Death Wish from New York to Chicago, since the latter is now one of the few major cities in America with a high murder rate—although, as the cop played by Dean Norris points out, most of the killings are gang-on-gang. In this version, Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a trauma surgeon rather than an architect, which means that he's used to bloody, mangled bodies and easily detaches himself from the effects of violence. What he lacks is weapons training, which he acquires on his own from the internet after his wife (Elisabeth Shue) is murdered and his daughter (Camila Morrone) is left in a coma by a home invasion. In the original film, Kersey's family were random targets of opportunity, but here they are selected by the parking attendant at an expensive restaurant, who collects the home addresses of likely robbery prospects from their GPS displays.

The remake does its best to track the original film's evolution of Kersey from a peace-loving man to a cold-blooded killer, with encouragement from sources ranging from his grieving father-in-law (a too-brief appearance by the great Len Cariou) to an enthusiastic gun shop proprietor played by Kirby Bliss Blanton (who's one of the best things in the film). And the script provides a pair of detectives assigned to Kersey's case (Norris and Kimberly Elise) who are neither dumb nor inattentive, just overwhelmed by the volume of cases, much like Vincent Gardenia's NYPD cop in 1974. But the very nature of Kersey's quest changes the emotional dynamics of the story. Here, he's after specific targets, and while he'll occasionally detour for a side mission (e.g., gunning down a drug dealer who shot a kid that Kersey treats in the ER), his private investigation to identify and wipe out his family's killers remains the central plot line. Bronson's Kersey attacked the city's entire criminal population in the hope of getting lucky, but Willis' version inhabits a world of smart phones and digital footprints, and his hospital position gives him an entree to the city's culture of violence that Bronson could create only by setting himself up as a potential victim.

Bruce Willis was the wrong choice to play Paul Kersey. It's not that his acting is bad; his talent has always been underappreciated, especially in quietly interior characters like his psychiatrist in The Sixth Sense or the reluctant hero in Unbreakable. But established stars bring baggage to their performances, and Willis has spent decades playing heroic cops and similar men of action. The minute you see Willis onscreen, you know where Kersey is headed, whereas Bronson's Death Wish was his breakthrough role, after years of playing a mix of heroes and villains and more than a few sidekicks. To the extent the new Death Wish manages to capture any sense of moral conflict, it isn't through Kersey so much as his concerned brother, Frank, a new character in this version, played with admirable restraint by Vincent D'Onofrio. A convicted felon who is initially suspected for his brother's crimes, it's Frank who ultimately becomes the conscience of the film.

As Death Wish proceeds, Roth surrenders to his worst instincts from his history in splatter cinema. It isn't enough for Kersey's victims to get shot. Necks have to be crunched at odd angles, brains have to explode from skulls, and one crook dies by an improbable Rube Goldberg method that recalls the Final Destination series. A prolonged interrogation sequence plays like a relic from the director's Hostel films, and when a vigilante tale descends into torture porn, its hero has abandoned any claim to the moral high ground. Roth should have remade The Exterminator and left Death Wish alone.

Death Wish Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Wish was shot digitally by Rogier Stoffers (on the Arri Alexa XT, if IMDb is to be believed), who had previously worked with producer Roger Birnbaum on The Vow and whose moody lighting is repeatedly praised by director Eli Roth in his commentary. Whatever the shortcomings of the film, MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray offers the kind of superior video presentation one expects from a contemporary project with digital origination and post-production. Sharpness and detail are excellent, blacks are solid and dark, and the image is free from noise, interference or other artifacts. Stoffers' lighting draws a stark contrast between the clean, well-lighted corridors and operating rooms of the hospital where Kersey works and the dim nighttime streets and shady garages, liquor stores and other grimy locales where the criminals lurk. (It says something about the doctor's downward slide that the basement where he plots his revenge ends up looking more like the crooks' hangouts than the elegantly upscale suburban home above it.) The film's palette and composition aren't exactly film noir, but the noir-ish influence is unmistakable. MGM has given the film a superior encode with a high average bitrate of 33.67 Mbps (the 35 Mbps figure on the back cover is wrong).

Death Wish Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Wish's 5.1 audio track, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, does the heavy lifting one expects from a modern soundtrack in scenes involving weapons fire and other forms of violence. The shots are louder and far more numerous than in the 1974 original, and the armament is more varied and heavy-duty. But the mix also does a nice job creating the ambiance of distinctive environments like Paul Kersey's hospital, with bustling activity all around and machines beeping alerts, frequently off-camera and in the rear speakers. The sounds of urban street life are equally immersive, and the dynamic range for scenes like Kersey's ride on the Chicago "El" is broader than anything of which a low-budget 1974 film was capable. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and the score by Ludwig Göransson (Creed and Black Panther) shifts fluidly between suspense beats and the emotional strains of Kersey's transformation from peaceful family man to angry avenger.

Death Wish Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Director Eli Roth and Producer Roger Birnbaum: Recorded on the day of the film's theatrical release, Roth does most of the talking, and he's an enthusiastic booster of the film and everyone involved in it. (Every scene seems to be his "favorite".) He points out details of performance and notes the various locations in Montreal that substituted for Chicago. He is effusive in his praise for the cast, for DP Rogier Stoffers and for the makeup FX team.



• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Eli Roth and Roger Birnbaum (1080p; 2.40:1; 6:10): The four scenes are not separately listed or selectable. The commentary explains why each one was cut.



• Mancow Morning Show Extended Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:39): The Mancow Morning Show is a real Chicago call-in radio program, and Roth explains in the commentary how he directed these segments. This is a longer version of what's used in the film.



• Sway in the Morning Extended Scene (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:51): A second popular radio show featured in the film.



• Vengeance and Vision: Directing Death Wish (1080p; 1.78:1; 11:44): As the title suggests, this is primarily an interview with Roth, with a few contributions by Bruce Willis and producer Roger Birnbaum.



• Grindhouse Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:02): This may be the best of the extras. Roth made one of the most memorable fake trailers included in the Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature, Grindhouse. Here he's created a trailer for Death Wish in the same style, complete with artfully distressed footage, lurid titles and a wickedly insinuating voiceover.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:25): The more conventional trailer that played in theaters.



• Sneak Peek
• Red Sparrow (also plays at startup)
• The Belko Experiment
• The Handmaid's Tale Season 1

Death Wish Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Death Wish is competently performed and put together, but it's emotionally tone-deaf and never connects dramatically. The film is Exhibit A for those who argue that remakes are a lazy way to capitalize on a familiar property. The disc is well-produced and, to its credit, contains more—and more substantial—extras than many recent releases, but it's worth a rental at best.