Bullet Points: Messenger of Death
Charles Bronson and Cannon Films had a pretty nice run together, nice enough that Bulletproofaction.com ranked the Charles Bronson Cannon years. Of course, when things get ranked there has to be something that comes in last. Enter Messenger of Death from 1988. Messenger of Death might be the least Cannony Bronson Cannon film which accounts for its place on the list, but give me the eight best Bronson Cannon film over pretty much any other film out there. That is why we now have some Messenger of Death Bullet Points.
- The Book of Mormon Murder – Messenger of Death opens with a Mormon family getting murdered. And when I mean family, I mean three sister wives and a whole slew of children getting mowed down via shotgun. You want an easy way to have your audience hate the bad guy? Have them kill children in the first five minutes. Messenger of Death may be famous for the character Charles Bronson plays not killing anyone, but honestly, dead children is more than enough deaths for one movie.
- Investigative Reporter – Charles Bronson stars as Garrret Smith (or Gar as one of his friends calls him), a reporter for a major Denver newspaper. Charles Bronson, a man famous for playing characters who are men of few words as a famous reporter is rich. Even better, twice Bronson is sitting in front of a late 1980s computer, but never seen using one. We all know Charles Bronson probably had no clue how to use a computer, but that makes Messenger of Death even better. Did I mention that he doesn’t kill anyone?
- Something Is Rotten in Colorado – Smith writes a story about the murder, and even though the story was finished, something was eating away at him. Smith goes to see Orville Beecham, the survivor of the murder and is shocked to find he doesn’t want the cops to find the murderer. Beecham is the son of Willis Beecham, a prophet for a fundamentalist sect of Mormons who has a blood feud with his brother Zenas Beecham. I don’t think Messenger of Death does a good job explaining the history of the feud so that is why I assume it has to deal with who has the better name, Willis or Zenas.
- Tag Team – The Beechams and rest of the Mormons don’t want anything to do with Smith, so he teams up with the owner of the local newspaper, Jastra Watson (another strong name). Even though Jastra is a cousin of Zenas (polygamist Mormons have lots of relatives) she agrees to help Smith because journalists are going to journal. Smith gets way more involved with the Morman family feud than any reporter has any right to be, but his heart is in the right place.
- It’s That Damn Artisanal Water – Smith soon realizes that there is a big bad behind the feud which is not surprising. What is surprising is that the reason is land that has an aquifer filled with artisanal water. These poor Mormans had to die because of highfalutin water?!?! There are several suspects that we are introduced to during Messenger of Death and the movie does a good job to make you suspect all of them at different times and we don’t find out the answer until the very end.
- The F’ing Colorado Water Company – The signature action set piece in Messenger of Death is when Garret and Jastra are run off the road by three semi’s from the Colorado Water Company. There are three things that make this scene really stand out. One is the epic topography of Colorado and semi’s barreling down steep roads. Second, the Autocar semi-trucks were the same ones used to film Over the Top. Smart business sense, Cannon! And third, the action in Messenger of Death is very light until Bronson beats the same guy two different times near the end so the truck scene really sticks out.
- Keep Your Pants On – It is about this time you may be asking yourself that you were told Gene Davis was in Messenger of Death. Well don’t worry, it only took about 55 minutes but Gene Davis shows up to reunite with his 10 to Midnight co-star. I do have to point out that he stays clothed the entire time, but he does die at a urinal so he gets partial credit.
Messenger of Death is not like the other Bronson films from his Cannon years, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. There is still plenty of action, but the mystery is well done and it is not hard to root for Smith to help track down the bad guys. Children were murdered for artisanal water?!?! I still can’t get over it. Maybe some Messenger of Death Bonus Bullet Points will help calm me down?
- Book It – Messenger of Death was based on the book The Avenging Angel by Rex Burns. The term Avenging Angel gets mentioned a ton in the movie, but the name probably had to be changed so as to not confuse it with the prostitute vigilante movie Avenging Angel.
- Eight Out of Nine – Messenger of Death was the eighth film pairing of director J. Lee Thompson and Charles Bronson with only Kinjte: Forbidden Subjects to come next.
- Familiar Faces – Some of the suspects that may be the bad guy or just red herrings were faces I recognized. Daniel Benzali is the chief of police but will always be the San Francisco city employee that gets killed in A View to A Kill. Laurence Luckinbill plays rich business man Homer Foxx, but does anyone else remember him as Spock’s half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?
