No Surrender Cinema: Death Wish (2018)
Bruce Willis has been revered as one of the biggest badasses in cinematic history since the day Die Hard hit theaters over 30 years ago, and in this month’s edition of No Surrender Cinema we watch as Mr. Willis steps into a role defined by an action legend. Can Bruce measure up to Charles Bronson’s iconic portrayal of vigilante Paul Kersey, or is this another ill-fated Hollywood cash in on an established brand? Let’s lock and load as we follow one of our favorite characters on his path of vengeance in the modern retelling of the beloved Bulletproof Action favorite, Death Wish!
If you’ve read this site for any length of time, you know that everyone from myself to Chris The Brain to Chad Cruise can’t get enough of the original Death Wish. The first film in the series is a bonafide masterpiece, one that grew to be revered by fans and critics alike as the years went on. The first film was not your ordinary action film. It was less about Bronson blowing the bad guys away and more about a character study, watching what happens when a man who has everything is faced with crisis and sees no way out other than to take matters into his own hands. Bronson’s portrayal of architect Paul Kersey, a devoted husband and father who was living the good life until the day his wife was murdered and daughter was raped and left for dead, was absolutely magnificent. The audience could buy him as the soft spoken architect, but they were sucked in for the ride as his personality took a dramatic turn. This was not any old action movie where vengeance is immediately sought after. This was a man who, even after becoming a vigilante, got sick over the fact that he had just shot a man. Bronson is as big of a badass as they get, and yet he wanted the audience to know that his Paul Kersey (at least in the first film) was not some type of strapped superhero. He was an ordinary man fighting back against the evil in the world when every other option had failed him. Granted, the ensuing sequels did paint Paul Kersey as some type of super soldier (you can read all about the additional four Death Wish films here on this site), but that original film, and this update, are about what happens when your world is shattered and you’re pushed too far.
Willis’ Paul Kersey is no pushover. He’s not afraid to get in some asshole’s face during his daughter’s soccer game, but cooler heads (and calmer wives) prevail before he has to do anything. He’s got a strong bond with his college bound daughter, Jordan. He’s a successful surgeon at a Chicago hospital, where he’s faced with reminders daily that the world outside can be a pretty shitty place. He’s had everyone from cops to criminals on his operating table, and like it or not, it’s his job to save them all. He’s also got a deadbeat brother, which I took as an immediate red flag, because usually shitty family members in this types of movies wind up being a part of the problem. In fact, while Frank is hitting Paul up for money outside of a restaurant, the valet Miguel overhears the family making plans for Paul’s birthday dinner, and decides that he could put that information to good use. Of course, nothing goes as planned for anyone, because Paul gets called into work the night of the proposed dinner, leaving Lucy and Jordan home alone…where several robbers are already well into cleaning them out. Lucy figures out pretty fast that something is going on, but she and Jordan are soon held captive by a man named Knox and his crew. The female Kersey’s don’t go down without a fight, but their resilience is short lived, as they are gunned down in their own home. Much like the Bronson version, Paul’s wife is the one who doesn’t make it, while Jordan is hospitalized and barely hanging on.
Paul is naturally beside himself, and when Detective Raines all but tells him that this crime may never be solved (despite the evidence left at the scene when the Kersey girls battled their attackers), feels hopeless. The next few weeks are not easy for Paul. He can’t sleep, which leads to him heading out at all hours of the night. When he tries to help a young woman from two gangbangers, Paul winds up feeling their wrath and is beaten in the street. This incident doesn’t deter Dr. Kersey though, because during his next rounds he comes across a gangbanger who still has his weapon on him. Paul manages to swipe the gun without anyone knowing, and starts training himself in how to use it. With limited knowledge on guns and vengeance on his mind, Paul hits the streets again, this time successfully stopping a carjacking by filling two thugs full of bullets. The incident doesn’t go smoothly; Paul’s hand is cut by the recoil of the pistol, and a local resident captures the whole thing on film. Paul’s identity is not revealed, but he soon becomes the urban legend “Grim Reaper”, who goes about gunning down any criminals he comes across. The police are not happy about a vigilante loose in their city, and reactions on various forms of media are mixed. Honestly, if I were Paul Kersey in today’s modern society, I’d probably think that vigilante justice was an easier hobby than navigating the treacherous terrain of social media.
Despite his unrelenting attitude about cleaning up the streets, Paul’s main mission is to seek out those that attacked his family. As fate would have it, one of the next unlucky guests in his operating room is Miguel the valet, who put the wheels in motion that led to Lucy’s demise and Jordan’s assault. Miguel doesn’t make it, but Paul manages to swipe his phone and starts to piece together the who’s and why’s of the whole situation. Paul is still in over his head, and fortunately has luck on his side in several instances, as he picks off the crew that destroyed his family one by one.
It’s hard to not want to compare each aspect of this movie to the original Death Wish. As you can tell by my reviews, I’m not one to “fall in line” with opinions, and when the world goes ballistic over reboots and remakes, I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon (usually). Death Wish 2018 is not a bad film by any means, but aside from having Bruce Willis being called Paul Kersey, this could have been any other revenge film. I like Willis, and he’s still an awesome asskicker in his old age, but Bruce Willis is no Charles Bronson, nor is this Paul Kersey anything close to the original. The original version of Kersey was completely shattered by what happened to his family, as was the audience, because we got that grim, going on too long scene where the gang was assaulting his wife and daughter at home. In the new version, there is a bit of lechery from one of the henchman towards Jordan, but nothing as graphic as before. In fact, the killings themselves happen off screen. We see the flash of the gun through the Kersey’s window, then cut to the next scene. The brutality is saved for Paul’s encounters, but I think that there should have been something more for the audience to witness to truly “get” what was happening in Paul’s head. Eli Roth was behind the horrid Hostel movies, but couldn’t be bothered to show a murder that would be the basis of our hero’s origin story? Maybe ol’ Eli has gone soft on us. I’ll accept that if it spares us from another entry in the Hostel series anytime soon.
My other issue is that Paul, clearly an educated man, is played with a little bit of buffoonery as he becomes a vigilante. With Bronson, he was a war veteran who still got sick over the first time he killed a man. Paul doesn’t appear to have an issue with remorse (he finishes off his first two victims rather coldly), and even gives us a few “ha ha” moments as he figures out how to use his weaponry. There’s also one scene where, rather than pick off one of the main baddies with his pistol, Paul puts his surgeon skills to use and tortures the guy in an auto shop before causing a car to fall on him. Visually it get a reaction, but this is a scene that looks like it’s straight out of a SAW movie, and doesn’t feel like it had a place here. It’s also through sheer luck that Paul is able to piece together everything and figure out just who to target, which was another aspect that differs from the original. The first Paul Kersey never caught up with his wife’s killers. The incident made him a new man, but he never, in any of the five Death Wish films, came across those thugs. In this one, Paul confronts everyone that was responsible, tying everything up with a bow for a typical Hollywood happy ending.
