Rating: 3.5/5
What about the old American social custom of self-defense? If the police don't defend us, maybe we ought to do it ourselves
Some “freaks” break into the Kersey household, beat Joanna (Hope Lange) to death, and rape Carol (Kathleen Tolan), Joanna’s daughter
Paul (Charles Bronson), Joanna’s husband, loses hope in the system when they cannot promise that they can catch the “freaks” — “they’re just statistics on a police blotter,” as his son-in-law says. So, he drinks a tall glass of milk, fills a sock with some quarters, and, bit by bit, goes apeshit
When work takes him to Tucson, Paul watches a Western park shootout — West West justice. His client invites him to a shooting range, and he recalls losing his father in a hunting accident and being a conscientious objector in Vietnam. The client encourages him to bring their country ethos with him back to the city
Charles Bronson isn’t a great actor — his stoic demeanor works best in Westerns — but this role works for him as someone who has done everything he can not to kill but has the capacity within him, similar to Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence, but in the opposite direction
Winner tries to go for something more mainstream and less exploitation than similar genre fare, motivating every step Paul takes towards vigilante justice. I won’t say he is successful in making a great film, but it is well-structured, well-filmed, and internally consistent
The movie’s strongest thematic point is that the police are useless and that they are far more interested in appearing successful in addressing crime than actually addressing it — in no small part because their means of solving crime doesn’t work
I think it is trying to land in an ambiguous place — there’s too much time hearing arguments against “frontier justice” to think otherwise — but the movie also cannot help but frame Bronson as a hero. From what I understand, future entries in the series are more unambiguously pro-Bronson
Solid Herbie Hancock soundtrack — the subtle energy keeps the movie moving forward in its slower parts
Overall, the movie is a well-constructed Conservative wet dream
Stray Thoughts
- This movie is the first time I’ve seen “director and co-producer” as a single credit
- Jeff Goldblum shows up as “Freak 1”, wearing a Jughead cap. He is going to end up in my most-watched actors this year for all the minor roles he keeps cropping up in. “Don’t jive, Mother; you know what I want.” Ugh, shut up
- Liver and spaghetti for dinner, that’s Paul’s biggest crime
- All these haggard men from the 70s were probably, what, 25 when this was filmed?