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Review: Death Wish III (1985)
Given the sensationalism surrounding New York subway vigilante Bernard Goetz, producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus no doubt thought the time was right for Paul Kersey to return home and lend a hand. Charles Bronson stars as Kersey in Michael Winner’s Death Wish III which is a bit better than the first sequel released in 1982 but nowhere near as good as the 1974 original. Though Bronson still looks tough enough to tackle anyone dumb enough to take him on, it is amusing to think that should the series continue, he will be old enough to qualify for social security.
Kersey comes back to visit an old buddy. Unbeknownst to the out-of-towner, his buddy is savaged by a motley crew of marauders who terrify the neighborhood. Kersey arrives at his friend’s place just in time to see him expire. He is soon arrested as the police think he is the killer.
Kersey is thrown into a holding cell teeming with a throng of thugs including Fraker (Gavan O’Herlihy), the leader of the punk posse responsible for a brutal crime wave. Fraker is freed before Kersey, amusingly. The top cop (Ed Lauter, who has appeared in a few Bronson films), knows who Kersey is and after doing his bad cop routine, he lets Kersey go. Provided Kersey helps him and the police clean up the streets.
Kersey returns to the home of his recently departed pal and is given an assessment of just how bad things are by a neighbors (Oscar-winner Martin Balsam who hopefully was well-paid to do this film) of the decedent. Kersey arms himself with a powerful pistol and improvises a few other ways of keeping the punks at bay.
Death Wish III is little more than a reworking of John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven (1960) where Bronson played a sensitive gunslinger who comes to the aid of a mexican town under siege by bad guys. Not a bad idea, particularly since Death Wish II was just a crude rehash of the original. Death Wish III, despite not having Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia)—who was permanently retired in the last film—pretty much replays the first film’s premise: Kersey’s loved ones are attacked/ killed and the police are bogged down by protocol thus prompting him to become an avenger and mete out lethal justice.
By now it looks like New York has become Beirut or strife-struck site in the Middle East in this film. New York might have some bad neighborhoods though nothing quite like this. But this writer hasn’t been all over the city and in all likelihood, the Israeli-born (well the territory was Palestine when they were born) Golan and Globus haven’t either.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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