Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

Once Upon A Time In The West is, for me, the greatest Western of all time. It's better than anything else out there, including the masterful "Dollars" trilogy, also from Sergio Leone (as if you didn't know). It's not without problems, in terms of both pacing and attitudes towards certain characters, but the sheer scope of the film and grandiosity of it all is enough to keep me in love with this film forever.

The simple core of the story is about a Harmonica-playing man (Charles Bronson) who comes to a small town, intent on meeting up with a villain named Frank (Henry Fonda). He gets involved with a recently-widowed woman (Claudia Cardinale) who is of great interest to Frank, and the villainy and treachery of the plot also brings a charismatic criminal ('Cheyenne', played by Jason Robards) into the mix. There's more to it than that, however, and the script takes time to explore the progress of industry changing the types of crimes being committed, viewing the heroes and villains as archetypes on the very brink of extinction, something that can be viewed as good or bad, depending on how romanticised your view is.

Leone often makes me feel hypocritical. There are so many times when I view a movie and complain that a little editing wouldn't have gone amiss. I never think that with Leone movies, and this is the film to really test the patience of viewers who want fists and bullets flying throughout their Westerns. It's slow, to say the least. And I can understand people who find it interminably so. This is a film I urge everyone to see, yet it's not one I could recommend to anyone. Give it your time though, just once, and see how you feel. It's just under three hours in length, and feels longer to many people, but if you end up loving it as I do then you won't be bothered by the runtime at all.

Based on a story by Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, and Leone, the screenplay (co-written by Leone and Sergio Donati) is typically sparse. Which isn't to say that the dialogue is unimportant. Almost every line is essential, revealing something about the speaker, or allowing for some amusingly playful interactions, especially whenever Robards is onscreen. There's so much here to dig into that my small review won't begin to do it all justice.

The score by Ennio Morricone is as wonderful as any of his other works. Each main character has their own "theme", the harmonica tune becomes especially poignant when the backstory is revealed, and things really step up a notch just in time for the finale that viewers are waiting for.

As a side note, this was my first time seeing Once Upon A Time In The West on the big screen and I HIGHLY recommend the experience. Whether it was seeing a huge steam engine roll into shot or watching a massive side shot of Charles Bronson moving into the screen while the bombastic score signifies the beginning of the end, this was a viewing experience I'll never forget.

Everyone does well in their main roles. This was the film that finally showed me why so many people consider Bronson an iconic star, and he is. Claudia Cardinale is gorgeous and spirited, Robards steals almost every scene he is in, and Fonda is one of the great screen villains, an absolute bastard who viewers want to see get his just desserts from his very first scene. And there are some fun supporting turns from Gabriele Ferzetti, Lionel Stander, Paolo Stoppa, and Jack Elam and Woody Strode.

I can see why people have problems with this film. I can see why some will never like it. But cinema is a medium for the moving image and, by god, did Leone say more with visuals alone than almost any other non-silent director I can think of. If I was more academically-minded then this review would be the first in a series of essays exploring all of the choices made. But I am not. I am just a big fan who still gets goosebumps when I bask in the glow of a film that is THIS good.

10/10

I have, and love, this disc.
Americans can buy it here.

Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989)

Charles Bronson is a tough guy, once again, in this piece of sleazy nastiness from director J. Lee Thompson. Of course, Bronson was always a tough guy in pretty much everything he did so, don't worry, I'll give you a bit more about his situation this time around.

Bronson is a cop who can't seem to pin anything on horrible uber-pimp Duke (Juan Fernandez). Duke specializes in little girls for his clients, which leads to Bronson specializing in making Duke's life as difficult as possible. It's not all by the book. In fact, it's about as far from the book as you can get. The clock starts to tick faster when a Japanese businessman (James Pax) turns to the police when his young daughter is kidnapped. The distraught father also has a few peccadilloes of his own, and Bronson may not be too happy about helping him if he finds out just what he's been up to since arriving in America.

Written by Harold Nebenzal, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is, in many ways, standard Bronson fare, yet it's also a bit different. His character is forced, albeit momentarily, to question how his mind works when he's not on the job, to consider the damage done and the huge difference between his own view of the world and the view that others can take. There are times when this creeps into territory covered by the likes of Tightrope and The Offence. And then there are times when Bronson forces someone to eat a watch.

Director J. Lee Thompson is well known for a filmography that's pretty loaded with testosterone, and he worked with Bronson on a number of movies before this one (this was their last film together), so viewers shouldn't have been TOO surprised by the end result this time around. It may have some extra unpleasantness, but it's still all about Bronson doing a good job where the system falls down.

Bronson is fine in the lead role, whether he's aggressively scaring pimps and crooks or going off on a bizarre racist rant aimed at numerous Japanese people he views as pesky interlopers, at one point. Fernandez is suitably loathsome as Duke, and Pax is, arguably, one of the more interesting characters to be placed in a movie like this. It's made clear that he's not the nicest guy ever, especially in the way that he treats his wife, but he's also not demonised for his actions, despite the one main sequence that sees him sliding from relatively harmless thoughts of his fantasties to grossly inappropriate real actions. Peggy Lipton and Amy Hathaway are just fine as the women in Bronson's life, Perry Lopez does well enough as Eddie Rios, Sy Richardson is a bad man who works with Duke, and fans of Nicole Eggert will be pleased to see her in a relatively early role.

It might leave you wanting to take a shower as the end credits roll, but this is another fine piece of Bronson-led machismo for those who like such fare. And I count myself among that demographic nowadays.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/10-Midnight-Kinjite-Charles-Bronson/dp/B008FYZIZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1405919498&sr=1-1&keywords=kinjite

Guns Of Diablo (1965)

The kind of movie that used to crop up regularly on British television on a Sunday afternoon back when you only had access to four terrestrial channels and you spent half of your weekend either snoozing after a hearty lunch or creeping around those who were snoozing after a hearty lunch, Guns Of Diablo is an enjoyable enough time-waster that doesn't ever really do enough to earn itself a reprieve from the obscure status it now finds itself in.

Charles Bronson (aka THE Hollywood Cowboy) stars as Linc Murdock, a man who leaves his group temporarily to get supplies and sort out some affairs in a nearby town. He takes along a very young Kurt Russell (playing Jamie McPheeters) and the movie feels like a nice, pleasant family romp. Not for long though. Things take a turn for the worse when Linc spots the beautiful Maria Macklin (played by Susan Oliver) and we're then treated to a lengthy flashback sequence that explains their past. A past that's about to cause a lot of trouble for them in the present. Some think that Linc has debts to pay and they mean to collect.

Based on a novel by Robert Lewis Taylor, Guns Of Diablo is a mix of standard childish adventure and more serious adult gunslinger fare and the mix ends up detracting from the final creation. It's not energetic and innocent enough throughout to make the childish parts as enjoyable as they could be while the adult fare isn't quite grim and serious enough for fans of the Western genre who have already seen 101 movies using this familiar material to much better effect.

Director Boris Sagal and screenwriter Berne Giler don't add anything to the ingredients to help transform them but they're lucky to have Charles Bronson in the lead role and a very chirpy and likeable young Kurt Russell by his side. Susan Oliver is watchable enough, as are Jan Merlin, John Fiedler and Douglas Fowley, and the overall casting of the film provides the best reason for wanting to give it a watch.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Diablo-Charles-Bronson/dp/B0015RTB3Y

Death Wish V: The Face Of Death (1994)

The last film in the original franchise, it's a shame that Death Wish 5 is such a damp squib ending the series.

Written and directed by Allan A. Goldstein, this sequel sees Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson in his final film role) returning and getting close to some people who you just assume are going to be hurt in some way. Right enough, the inevitable happens and Kersey goes into full-on gunhappy mode.

With a cast that includes Lesley-Anne Down, Michael Parks, Saul Rubinek and Robert Joy, this movie may have a familiarity factor that the others slightly lacked but it's offset by the fact that it's slightly below average from start to finish. The film even loses the vibe of borderline exploitation nastiness that the preceding four movies had, making it nothing more than a standard revenge action movie that fails to stand up alongside many better films from the the time (ruled, essentially, by the likes of Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger defining modern machismo).

Charles Bronson is still highly watchable, and Michael Parks makes for a decent villain, but there's so little effort put in to the other aspects of the movie that it just feels lazy, tiresome and tired out. The violence isn't shocking enough compared to the previous films and the premise starts to become a bit of a joke, in many ways. Viewers most certainly considered the awful truth by the second or third movie in the series - being close to Paul Kersey is a very dangerous place to be - but it was often hidden behind the escalating violence and the quest for revenge that the central character would embark on. Sadly, there's just not enough going on this time around to detract you from thinking "actually, maybe Paul Kersey just shouldn't get into relationships".

The end of an era in many ways, and the last film role for Bronson, Death Wish 5 is just one disappointment after another. But it's not unwatchable and it doesn't take anything away from the many other great movies that gave us Bronson at his bad-ass best.

4/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Wish-DVD-2012-Release/dp/B0073DOJWM/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1329081969&sr=1-4

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

I must say that as the Death Wish movies evolved and moved away from the interesting and serious first movie it wasn't exactly the worst thing that could happen. While the sequels became more outlandish and implausible, the entertainment factor seemed to settle at a reasonable level and Charles Bronson always managed to hold your attention as vigilante Paul Kersey.

The rapists and muggers might have started to hide away but a new breed of criminal overshadows even their nefarious deeds. The drug dealer. After witnessing the effects that drugs are having on the kids of today, Paul Kersey decides to once again take the law into his own hands and start killing those who he feels most deserve it. The police close in, Paul finds his services being hired by someone with a vested interest and everything unfolds predictably enough for those who have enjoyed the previous movies.

J. Lee Thompson was the man who took over the directorial duties from Michael Winner and he does a perfectly reasonable job. Some of the continuity and editing feels rushed and clumsy but these movies are all about Bronson believable kicking ass and, once again, he does just that.

The script, this time by Gail Morgan Hickman, is quite basic but also utilises some plot points not all that dissimilar to Yojimbo, which at least makes this more than just a rehash of a rehash of a sequel to the original.

Bronson is excellent, as ever, in the main role and the other actors all do just fine with what they're given. Kay Lenz is the love interest this time, Dana Barron has a brief turn as the daughter of Lenz's character, Danny Trejo and Mitch Pileggi have what must amount to two minutes of screentime between them (but they're always great folk to see in films) and George Dickerson and Soon-Tek Oh play two very different police officers.

If you enjoyed the previous three movies then I can't think of any reasons that you would have to hate this one.

6/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Wish-DVD-2012-Release/dp/B0073DOJUE/ref=sr_1_10?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1329000829&sr=1-10

Death Wish 3 (1985)

Try as I might, I just can't fully shake the feeling that I haven't actually watched Death Wish 3. As the credits rolled I had almost convinced myself that what had gone before my eyes couldn't have been anything else but a fevered dream full of crazy gunplay and heroic vigilante behaviour. My mind had somehow blended together Home Alone, *Batteries Not Included and Behind Enemy Lines. With a bit of Rambo thrown in there for good measure. Amazingly, it wasn't a dream. None of it. It was all real. Surreal yet real, all the same.

Charles Bronson returns to play, arguably, the role that defined him throughout the 1980s. He's Paul Kersey, a man pushed so far over the edge that he can no longer see where he used to hang on to any semblance of normality. Worries about going too far have been banished from his mind, he has returned to New York and is now a killing machine, secretly endorsed by police and dropped into an urban warzone like some OAP prototype of the T-101.

It's Michael Winner directing once again and Don Jakoby takes care of the writing duties (which probably just consisted of writing "punks kill people and upset Charles Bronson, who goes on a killing spree with increasingly-heavy artillery at his disposal). The essence of the movie remains similiar to that classic original film but, in oh so many ways, they are also both very, very different. America is not a country with a major crime problem that causes some upset this time, it's just one big gang-controlled area not unlike something normally seen only in the wilder movies from Troma. Old folks are hassled and hurt and even killed while eagerly awaiting a chance to draw blood and fight back. And thugs can actually call in other gangs of thugs whenever they need backup. In fact, I was quite surprised that this WASN'T a Troma movie. It certainly had the heightened lunacy throughout.

Bronson is, of course, very good in the lead role once again. Martin Balsam gets a decent bit of screentime, as does Ed Lauter. Deborah Raffin is shoehorned in there, her character almost laughable and completely unnecessary for most of her screentime. But that is more than made up for by Gavan O'Herlihy and his superb turn as the lead villain. Other folks get their chance to play scumbags but viewers of my age (mid-30s) will probably have the most fun watching another rare film outing for Alex Winter (aka the one who wasn't Keanu Reeves in the Bill & Ted movies).

For Jimmy Page fans, there is the extra enjoyment gained from the fact that he has returned to create the score after his work on the second movie.

I can't deny that I was entertained from beginning to end with this movie. I'm just not sure how much of that entertainment factor stemmed from the ridiculousness of the whole thing and the feeling of incredulity it filled me with.

6/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Wish-3-UK-DVD/dp/B0067LGHUS/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1328915534&sr=1-1

Death Wish II (1982)

Charles Bronson returns as Paul Kersey (architect by day, vigilante by night) in this popular sequel.

It may be a new city but the evil scumbags are the same all over and it's not too long before Kersey finds his life ripped asunder once more. Basically, he's not really a guy that you want to be close to. Bad things tend to happen to people that he cares about. This time, instead of just a random killing spree, specific targets are in mind. A bunch of criminal lowlife types who will rue the day that they ever decided to have some fun at the expense of Paul Kersey.

With everything raised up a notch (the death scenes, the bodycount, the implausibility), this feels almost like an entry in a slasher movie franchise with Bronson playing the baddie that audiences end up rooting for. He's the main draw and, despite the way in which this sequel feels more exploitative and generally grubbier than the first movie, makes for good company in a world full of squalor and injustice.

Michael Winner is back to direct, working from a script by David Engelbach, and does very well with the strange mix of entertainment and harsh violence. Of course, the subject matter may turn many people off but the film actually does well in walking a fine line between glorifying the violence shown and reminding people of pain and loss (one scene featuring someone jumping from a window was particularly wince-inducing). It's certainly a less complex movie than the first outing but we see Kersey affected by his own actions, even if he seems just fine with his personal choices.

Bronson is great in the role, just as he was the first time around, and Vincent Gardenia also does well when his character gets to return for a small amount of screentime. Jill Ireland (possibly best known for being the wife of Charles Bronson) does okay but I've never been her biggest fan - scenes focusing on her character always remind me of the sad moments when Paul Daniels would start to interrupt his many wonderful magic tricks to showcase an illusion performed by "the lovely Debbie McGee". The punks and scumbags are all punky and scumbaggish, and one of them is played by a certain Laurence Fishburne III, and it's fun to see them get their expected comeuppance.

Music fans will enjoy the soundtrack by one Mr. Jimmy Page, Charles Bronson fans will enjoy Charles Bronson and Michael Winner fans will enjoy remembering why they used to think he was a director with some talent years before he started selling insurance on TV and generally getting on the nerves of the nation.

7/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Wish-2-UK-DVD/dp/B0067LGH7G/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1328739941&sr=1-2

Death Wish (1974)

Everyone already knows the concept of Death Wish. Sort of. It's a Dirty Harry film with one big difference, the lead character isn't a policeman. In fact, he's an architect. But he's played by the legendary Charles Bronson so believing that he can hold and shoot a gun is very easy.

Bronson plays Paul Kersey, a man driven to dark thoughts of revenge after his world is torn apart by a trio of vicious thugs. Kersey begins to consider the state of society and what can be done when the law doesn't seem to be doing enough. Ironically, considering that Bronson has the main role, he starts to see how much better the world could be if things were still done "the cowboy way". And so he becomes a vigilante. And a damn fine one.

Directed by Michael Winner, and written by Wendell Mayes (adapting the novel by Brian Garfield), it's surprising how thought-provoking and effective Death Wish remains to this day. The issue at the core of the movie is one that pops up in almost every pub conversation you could listen in on ever. People want to feel safe, they want criminals to be too afraid to commit crimes, and they often verbally admit to the temptation of vigilante justice. Some have even, sadly, followed up their words with misguided actions.

The whole thing is lifted way above average by a sterling central performance from Charles Bronson (an actor I once stupidly failed to see the superstar status in . . . . . . I have since given myself a severe talking to). As Paul Kersey, Bronson's performance enhances the material no end and his transformation from happy architect to brooding vigilante, who still keeps his day job in the world of architecture, is shown in a fairly believable series of steps.

The rest of the cast consist of little more than people giving opinions on the mystery vigilante or scumbags waiting to be shot. Vincent Gardenia is the other standout, the cop who ends up in a very peculiar situation. And it's certainly worth watching the movie if you're a Jeff Goldblum fan, just to see his very first screen role even if it only adds up to a few minutes of screentime.

The film certainly makes a case for some of the "justice" administered onscreen but I have to say that it also, admirably, also shows Kersey as a damaged man, someone dealing with pain in a very bad way and who then finds himself in a spiral of almost addictive behaviour. If you've never seen Death Wish and only heard of it as some sensationalistic, violent, pro-gun advert then do yourself a favour and watch it for yourself before dismissing it as some others have done.

8/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Wish-DVD/dp/B000HWXQZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328483560&sr=8-1