Death Wish V: The Face of Death

Dir: Allan A. Goldstein

1994

****

I’m not sure anyone expected that there would be a fifth Death Wish film but somehow, seven years later, there was. The three previous films in the Death Wish series were produced by Cannon Films but in 1989 Cannon faced bankruptcy and its financial records came under investigation. Co-owners Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus also had an infamous personal falling out during the collapse of their company. Golan soon launched his own company, 21st Century Film Corporation whereby each film tended to have small budgets and performed poorly at the box office, much like Cannon. Meanwhile, the Death Wish films continued to enjoy popularity in the video and television market. Golan came up with the idea of a fifth Death Wish film to serve as a much-needed hit for the company. It was a box-office disaster. People didn’t go to the cinema to watch Death Wish films, they rented them on VHS, after all those years Golan still didn’t grasp this. Financing to start the film production was secured through a loan from the Lewis Horwitz Organization. Golan still owned an unused screenplay for a Death Wish film, submitted in the late 1980s by J. Lee Thompson and Gail Morgan Hickman but he decided against using it, since it would be too costly to produce. Instead, he hired Michael Colleary to write a new script. Colleary would go on to write Face/Off and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Golan initially reserved directorial duties for himself but his preoccupation with directing Crime and Punishment reportedly prevented him from doing so. Michael Winner was available to direct, but was never asked to do so. According to Winner, his lack of interest in directing Death Wish 4: The Crackdown may have led Golan to count him out. Golan then hired Steve Carver for the job, an experienced director in the action film genre. Carver recalled discussing with Bronson over the depiction of Paul Kersey. Bronson wanted the character to become more sympathetic and less violent. Carver and screenwriter Stephen Peters started co-operating in revising the script. Carver worked on pre-production for two months before Golan decided to replace him. His replacement was Allan A. Goldstein, who himself was surprised at the offer, since he specialized in drama films. Death Wish V was his first action film, he hadn’t seen the previous films, and when revising the script he decided that what the series needed was more humor and black comedy elements. Bronson and Golan were not on speaking terms during the filming, only communicating by using Goldstein as an intermediary. Goldstein has since said he was uncertain of the reasons behind this adversarial relationship but then Golan wasn’t around during filming, so escaped the drama that the crew of the first four films had to endure. To be absolutely clear, it’s a terrible film, but it does have certain points that I really enjoyed. Firstly, there aren’t any gratuitous rape scenes. A strange thing to say when talking about any other film outside of the Death Wish franchise. Secondly, it has a really great villain thanks to the great Michael Parks. Paul Kersey (Bronson) returns to New York City, having assumed the name Paul Stewart under the witness protection program. He is invited by girlfriend and designer Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down) to a particularly 80s fashion show (in the mid-90s). Backstage, mobster Tommy O'Shea (Parks) and his goons muscle in. Tommy threatens Olivia, who is his ex-wife and mother to their daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster), over money he has invested in her business. Olivia later informs Paul of her ex-husband's behavior after he finds bruises on her hand. Paul confronts him, but Tommy's henchman Chicki Paconi (Kevin Lund) pulls out a revolver at Paul. The confrontation ends with the arrival of Chelsea. D.A. Brian Hoyle (Saul Rubinek – who played a thug in the first Death Wish movie) and his associate detective Lt. Hector Vasquez (Miguel Sandoval) visit Paul's home. He informs them about Tommy O'Shea. Hoyle says they have been trying to nab Tommy for years, and he wants Olivia to testify. That night at a restaurant, Paul proposes to Olivia, who accepts. Olivia excuses herself to the bathroom and is attacked by Tommy's associate, Freddie "Flakes" Garrity (Robert Joy), a supposed brilliant assassin, who is dressed as the most unconvincing women you have ever seen. He bashes her head on a mirror, supposedly disfiguring her face to the point she can’t look at herself and the doctors had to ‘fight to save her life’, even though she clearly only had a scratch above her eye. Freddie escapes but Paul gets a look at him and cleverly sees through his drag outfit. At the hospital, Paul is told that even if Olivia will get reconstructive surgery, her face will never be the same. While there, he meets Lt. Mickey King (Kenneth Welsh) and his partner Janice Omori (Lisa Inouye), who are working on the O'Shea's case. During a failed bugging mission on the mob, Janice is killed after getting struck by Freddie's car. Then at the hospital, Lt. King warns Kersey not to go back to his old ways, before saying that he has been working on the case for 16 years. Kersey remarks that is a long time to be failing. Freddie and his henchmen, pretending to be the cops sent to protect Olivia, attack Paul and Olivia. Freddie shoots Olivia in the back, killing her as the couple tries to escape. Paul jumps from the roof of his apartment, where he lands in a pile of trash bags, and is retrieved by the police. It’s rather odd that the front of their house is a house and the back of their house is a huge warehouse, but these are minor details. Tommy is cleared of involvement in Olivia's death and seeks custody of their daughter. The vigilante is back. This time he is assisted by Hoyle, who learns his department has been corrupted by Tommy. Paul poisons Chicki with cyanide in his cannoli. He then kills Freddie in the most hilariously convoluted manner by blowing him up with a remote-controlled soccer ball. Tommy finds out from an informant that Paul is the vigilante and will be going after him for killing Olivia. The informant, revealed to be Vasquez, tries to kill Paul himself, but Paul gets the upper hand and kills him. Hoyle arrives and finds out Tommy wants both him and Paul dead. Hoyle tells Paul he must never see him again, and Paul agrees. Tommy hires three hoodlums (the same criminals responsible for murdering Paul's wife and mugging his daughter twenty years earlier) to go after Paul at the dress factory, using Chelsea as bait, although she manages to escape. Paul first faces the killers and then Sal, another one of Tommy's men, by shooting him into an industrial sewing machine. Paul picks up an empty bottle, smashes it, and cuts Tommy's face in retaliation for what he did to Olivia. Lt. King then arrives, but is wounded by Tommy. Armed with a shotgun, he corners Tommy and knocks him into an acid pool, where he disintegrates. I do love it when the bad guy disintegrates at the end of a movie. Like I say, it’s utter garbage but Parks is a great villain and its got that certain magic that bad 90s action films had that make me go all nostalgic. Awful, but thoroughly entertaining.

Bumblebee

Dir: Travis Knight

2018

***

While I would agree that Bumblebee is the most authentic Transformers film so far, I would still argue that it’s not the amazing film that many suggested to me. I think because the previous films are so devoid of heart, that suddenly, a film that wears a blatant cloak of 80s movie nostalgia is always going to look a hundred times better than it really is. The first Transformers film really did kick me in the nostalgics. Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle dammit and the fact Michael Bay turned him into a Chevrolet Camaro told you everything you needed to know about the adaption and in what regard the original fans would be held. Watching a spoiled brat berate his father because he couldn’t see the beauty in a classic Camaro he’d just bought him made me feel old and in the wrong universe. When it was updated to a modern Camaro, like it was some kind of improvement, was a step too far. It was like watching a Fast and Furious film but with robots, Fast and Furious 3 with characters even less lifeless than Vin Deisel’s eyes. It took them just over a decade to correct all of the obvious mistakes but for me it is a little too little too late. Setting the film in the 80s and making it look as if it is a lost classic from the era is a little cheap. Making Bumblebee a Volkswagen Beetle again was an easy fix also but I’m not sure they managed to steer clear enough from the Herbie films. The film begins on Cybertron as we see the Autobot resistance, led by Optimus Prime, on the verge of losing the civil war against the Decepticons. A Decepticon force, led by Soundwave, Starscream and Shockwave, intercepts them during their evacuation from the planet and Optimus sends Autobot scout Bumblebee (known as B-127) to Earth on an escape pod in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup. B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California and disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7, a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Colonel Jack Burns (John Cena) presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader and pursues him. B-127 scans a Willys MB jeep and flees to a mine, where Blitzwing, a Decepticon Seeker, ambushes him. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus's whereabouts, Blitzwing tears out his voice box and damages his memory core; despite this, B-127 stabs and destroys Blitzwing with one of his own missiles. B-127 flees from the soldiers, scans a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and collapses from his injuries. It’s not clear when this all occurs but we are then taken to 1987, which is in the future, by around ten years I would guess. There, we follow teenager Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) who remains traumatized by the death of her father, and resentful of her mother Sally for moving on too quickly with a new boyfriend named Ron. Charlie finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle (which is actually B-127) in a scrapyard belonging to Hank, who gives it to her as an 18th birthday present. When trying to start it, Charlie unknowingly activates a homing signal that is detected by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick as they interrogate and execute the Autobot Cliffjumper on one of Saturn's moons. The pair heads to Earth, where they adapt Earth vehicle forms and pretend to be peacekeepers, persuading Dr. Powell (John Ortiz) and the rest of Sector 7, despite Burns's disagreement, to help them find and capture B-127, whom they claim is a fugitive and a traitor. While Charlie attempts to fix the Beetle, it transforms into B-127, whom she befriends and nicknames "Bumblebee". She then unknowingly unlocks a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth in their absence, which restores some of his memories. Bumblebee begins to speak using songs, as he does in the later films. He is discovered by Charlie's neighbor Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), who agrees to protect their secret due to his feelings for Charlie. Left alone, Bumblebee accidentally destroys Charlie’s home and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7’s attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the destruction, Charlie finally expresses her pain over her father’s death and angrily leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only to be intercepted by Sector 7 and the Decepticons. Bumblebee is captured while Charlie and Memo are returned home. Charlie convinces her brother Otis to cover for her and Memo as they follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. Shatter and Dropkick torture Bumblebee and activate the message from Optimus Prime discovering that the Autobots are coming to Earth. They leave him for dead after revealing their plan to bring the Decepticons to Earth. After alerting Burns to the truth about the Decepticons, Dr. Powell is killed by Dropkick. Charlie electroshocks Bumblebee back to life, restoring his memories. After fighting past Burns' obstruction and attempt to re-secure Bumblebee with the help of Memo, Sally, Ron, and Otis, Charlie and Bumblebee set out to prevent Shatter and Dropkick from contacting the Decepticons using a radio tower at a nearby harbor. Burns also intervenes and defends Charlie. His helicopter is shot down by Shatter, but Burns is saved by Bumblebee. While Bumblebee fights Dropkick, he binds him with a chain, entangling his systems when he transforms, and Bumblebee rips him apart. Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, causing an enraged Shatter to pursue her. Bumblebee destroys a dam wall, triggering a flood that causes a cargo ship to crush Shatter into the docks, killing her. Burns, having a change of heart and grateful towards Bumblebee, gives him and Charlie time to escape before the army arrives, having yet to convince them that Bumblebee is not the enemy. Charlie and Bumblebee arrive on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose on Earth, says goodbye. Bumblebee scans a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, transforms into a yellow version of it, and drives away, presumable towards Transformers 2007. There is a ridiculous diving sub-plot that goes with the film, which is almost as pointless and annoying as the whole dead dad storyline but in many respects that captures the mood of many a silly/classic 80s movie perfectly. The Film starts off as Star Wars, goes into Commando territory before switching to a mix of Herbie and ET: The Extra Terrestrial. It’s Transformers from there on in but without so much of the terrible attempts at humour seen in the previous films. It’s not without its charm but it is completely devoid of all originality. They’ve basically given us what we said we wanted in the first film but it turns out we didn’t want it at all. Well I didn’t anyway. I probably sound harsh, but although it is a far superior film to the other Transformer films, it’s still nothing special and it relies far too heavily on nostalgia – nostalgia created by other film. It’s barely a Transformers film in my opinion. It’s also quite frustrating that, although they got Bumblebee right with regards to him being a VW Beetle, they totally got Soundwave wrong. Okay, so you may ask how, in 2018, could they feature a character who was originally a cassette player? My answer is that the film is set in 1987, with some moderately creative writing it should have been easy. I feel we’re back to square one. Nice try Transformers, I see through your game, even though I didn’t hate your film.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

Dir: J. Lee Thompson

1987

****

Death Wish 3 was a ridiculous film, but it made money, and if there was one thing the Cannon group was good at, it was flogging a dead horse with huge sums of money. Cannon Films announced Death Wish 4 in 1986, estimating that it would be ready for release by spring 1987, even though the film company was by this point facing huge financial problems. Its greatest box office hit was still 1984’s Missing in Action with $38 million domestic gross and Cannon had lost money through huge box office flops. We might look back at the films they made now with nostalgic whimsy but their films sucked at the time. So by the time Death Wish 4 came along they tightened the budgets of all their upcoming films to under $5 million per movie. They reached an agreement with independent producer Pancho Kohner, son of Paul Kohner - Paul Kohner being the agent of Charles Bronson. Pancho himself had produced seven previous Bronson films, so the men trusted each other and decided to take the franchise down a route of their choosing. Michael Winner did not return to direct, with the excuse at the time being that he was working on another project at the time but the truth is he was never asked. Bronson was displeased with their previous collaboration and decided to work with J. Lee Thompson, who he had worked with in several previous films, and had also had a good working relationship with the producers of Cannon Films. Writing duties were ultimately assigned to Gail Morgan Hickman, who had previously contributed rejected scripts for Death Wish 3. Hickman's first script, which had Paul Kersey struggling with a crisis of conscience was rejected. The second script, which had Kersey going after an international terrorist, was rejected due to its premise having similarities to 1987’s Wanted: Dead or Alive. Disheartened, probably, Hickman decided to just copy Akira Kurasowa’s Yojimbo, although he might have been copying Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, it is unclear, but it’s the same story. He later said in an interview that Cannon producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus wanted a mindless movie with nonstop action, so he came up with "cartoonish" action scenes especially for them. Hickman also admitted that he wrote the film as they filmed it, being called by Bronson himself to re-write scenes on a daily basis. In this fourth instalment, Kersey has a crackdown. Erica Sheldon (Dana Barron), the teenage daughter of Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz – who was only 12 years older than her screen daughter), Paul Kersey's current girlfriend, goes with boyfriend Randy Viscovich (Jesse Dabson) to an arcade to meet up with a man named JoJo Ross (Héctor Mercado) and another buddy, Jesse Winters (Tim Russ). JoJo offers her crack cocaine behind her boyfriend’s back, and she later dies from an overdose. Having seen Erica smoke a joint with Randy while in his car the previous night, Paul suspects Randy was involved with Erica's death, so he follows him to the arcade. Randy confronts JoJo and threatens to go to the police. JoJo murders Randy to prevent this. Paul then promptly shoots JoJo, who falls onto the roof of the bumper-car ride and is electrocuted. At home, Paul receives a package indicating the sender knows he's "the vigilante," and a phone call threatening to go to the police if Paul won't meet. Paul is taken to the mansion of the secretive tabloid publisher Nathan White (John P. Ryan). Nathan says that his daughter became addicted to drugs and eventually died of an overdose, so he wants to hire Paul to wipe out the drug trade in LA. There are two major gangs competing for the local drug supply: one led by Ed Zacharias (Perry Lopez), the other by brothers Jack (Mike Moroff) and Tony Romero (Dan Ferro). Kersey accepts and Nathan supplies him with weapons and information. Meanwhile, LA detectives Sid Reiner (George Dickerson) and Phil Nozaki (Soon-Tek Oh) investigate the arcade deaths. Paul infiltrates Zacharias's manor as a party bartender. After bugging a phone, he witnesses Zacharias murder a colleague who has stolen a big deal of cocaine from the cartel's South American connection. Zacharias discovers Paul but doesn't realize why he's there. He then orders Paul to help carry out the dead body, motioning to his henchman, Al Arroyo, to kill Paul when they're done. After Paul helps put the corpse in the trunk of a car, he kills Arroyo with the car's trunk cover and escapes. Paul proceeds to kill three of Ed Zacharias's favoured hitmen at a restaurant with a bomb concealed in a wine bottle. He kills drug dealer Max Green (Tom Everett), leader of Romeros' street dealers, disguised as a sex video trader. He confronts the Romeros's top hitman Frank Bauggs (David Wolos-Fonteno) in order to find out more about their cartel, but a fight ensues and Bauggs falls off his apartment to his death. A few days later, Nathan instructs Paul to go to San Pedro, Los Angeles, where a local fisherman wharf acts as a front for Zacharias's drug operations. Breaking in, Paul kills eight more criminals and blows up the drug processing room with a bomb. Detective Nozaki reveals himself to be a corrupt cop working for Zacharias, and demands that Paul tell him who he works for. Paul refuses and kills him. He lures Zacharias and the Romero brothers into a trap, leading to a shootout in an oil field in which both cartels are completely destroyed. Paul personally kills Zacharias with a high-powered rifle. Nathan congratulates Paul, but sets him up with a car bomb. Enraged, Paul returns to the White Manor only to find a stranger who claims to be the real Nathan White; the impersonator who hired Paul was actually a third drug lord who used him to dispose of the rival cartels. Paul is approached by two cops, who arrest him, but he recognizes them as fakes, causes their car to flip over, and escapes. To get rid of Paul, the Nathan White impersonator kidnaps and uses Karen as a bait. Detective Reiner waits inside Paul's apartment to kill him out of vengeance for Nozaki's murder, but Paul knocks him out. He arms himself with a M16 with a M203 grenade launcher and goes to the meeting place designated by the drug lord, the parking lot of White's commercial building. The car rolls forward and the drug dealers spray it with bullets before realizing that Paul's not in it. Paul fires a grenade, destroying a van full of bandits, then fires another to kill Jesse as he betrays his crew and tries to drive away. Paul follows White into a roller rink and decimates the rest of his drug gang, but the drug lord escapes through a back door, still holding Karen hostage. Karen attempts to escape, but the drug lord shoots from behind and kills her. Distraught over Karen's death and realizing that White has run out of bullets, Paul fires a last grenade that finishes him off. Reiner arrives and orders him to surrender, threatening to shoot as Paul walks away. Paul replies, "Do whatever you have to", and Reiner lets him go. The story is rubbish and is a cheap knock-off but the cartoonish action sequences are brilliant. The scene where a badly sculpted mannequin of Danny Trejo is blown up is one of my favourite scenes of all time. I’ve watched it on repeat many times over and is worth watching the film for. It’s classic Cannon, Cannon at its most desperate. It lost money and was as bad as everyone expected, but it’s so incredibly bad, that it’s also extremely watchable.

Death Wish 3

Dir: Michael Winner

1985

*/*****

Death Wish 3 is so bad it’s amazing. Legend has it that the original working title Death Wish III was changed to Death Wish 3 because the Cannon Group conducted a survey and found that nearly half of the U.S. population could not read Roman numerals. This film was made for those people. Death Wish 3 is a Cannon classic and pretty much everyone associated with the first film disowned it. Financially, Cannon’s most reliable products were formulaic action films starring Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris and other stars of the genre. Bronson haggled with Cannon over his fee so they offered the role to Chuck Norris who turned it down claiming that the violence in the movie was "too negative". In the end Bronson was paid $1.5 million out of the $10 million budget. It was Bill & Ted star Alex Winter’s first film and he has since said that Bronson had a jaguar that would drive him from his dressing room to the set, which was about three feet away. He noted that it was "more like watching a man play golf than act". Once again, director Michael Winner was recruited for the film project and once again he accepted due to his last two films being box office flops. He was in need of a surefire hit and at this point the Death Wish name alone would guarantee ticket sales. He decided against retaining the grim tone of the previous two Death Wish films, in favour of going gung-ho for the third film. The concept of Paul Kersey facing a street gang which terrorizes elderly citizens was developed by screenwriter Don Jakoby. His screenplay reportedly turned Kersey into an urban version of John Rambo, displeasing Bronson in the process. The producers then tasked Gail Morgan Hickman to write other potential versions of the script. Hickman came up with three different script samples and submitted them for approval. He learned weeks later that they were all rejected in favor of keeping Jakoby's version. However, Jakoby objected to extensive rewrites of his script and asked for his name to be removed from the credits. The film used the pseudonym "Michael Edmonds" to credit its screenwriter. Bronson too disliked the script and the violence, saying "there are men on motorbikes, an element that's threatening - throwing bottles and that sort of thing - and I machine gun them. That to me is excessive violence and is unnecessary.” Still, if the money is right. There is no excusing the violence and brutality this time round, it’s gratuitous because that’s what Michael Winner wanted. The film includes a scene involving punks attempting to rape a topless woman. The role was played by Sandy Grizzle, the then-lover of Winner. She would subsequently report of this relationship in the tabloids where she claimed that Winner whipped her and used her as a sex slave. In the amazing documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, Alex Winter described Winner as "a pathologically brutal, strange, sadistic, insecure, egotistical character". He also recalled how Winner would walk around onset smoking a big cigar while an assistant walked behind him with a cigar box. If the assistant went over a certain line, he was fired. Winner had a new assistant every day. In this third chapter we find Paul Kersey as he returns to New York City after years of being banned for his vigilante past. He’s in town to visit his Korean War buddy Charley, who is attacked by a gang in his East New York apartment just before Hersey gets there. The neighbors hear the commotion and call the police. Paul arrives and Charley collapses dead in his arms. The police mistake Paul for the murderer and arrest him. At the police station, Inspector Richard Shriker recognises Paul as "Mr. Vigilante" as he has become known. Shriker lays down the law before Paul is taken to a holding cell. In the same cell is Manny Fraker (Gavan O'Herlihy), leader of the gang who killed Charley. After a fight between him and Paul, Manny is released. The police receive daily reports about the increased rate of crime. Shriker offers a deal to Paul: he can kill all the punks he wants, as long as he informs Shriker of any gang activity he hears about so the police can get a bust and make news. Paul moves into Charley's apartment in a gang-turf war zone. The building is populated by elderly tenants terrified of Manny's gang. They include Bennett Cross, a World War II veteran and Charley's buddy; Mr. and Mrs. Kaprov, an elderly Jewish couple; and a young Hispanic couple, Rodriguez (Joseph Gonzalez) and his wife Maria (Star Trek’s Marina Sirtis). After a few violent muggings, Paul buys a used car as bait. When two gang members try to break into the car, Paul shoots them dead. Paul twice protects Maria from the gang, but is unable to save her a third time. She is assaulted and raped, later dying in hospital from her injuries. Kersey orders a new gun, a Wildey hunting pistol. He spends the afternoon with Bennett handloading ammunition for it. He then tests the gun when The Giggler (Kirk Taylor) steals his camera. Paul is applauded by the neighborhood as Shriker and the police take the credit. Kersey also throws a gang member off a roof. Public defender Kathryn Davis becomes suspicious of Kersey so he decides to take her to dinner – even though he’s like, fifty years older than her. While waiting in his car, Kathryn is knocked unconscious by Manny and the car is pushed downhill into oncoming traffic. It runs into another car, not particularly hard, but explodes on contact anyway, killing Kathryn. Shriker places Kersey under protective custody, fearing he is in too deep. After Bennett's taxi shop is blown up, he tries to get even but his machine gun jams. The gang cripples Bennett but he survives. Kersey is taken by Shriker to the hospital, where he escapes after Bennett tells him where to find a second machine gun. Kersey and Rodriguez collect weapons. They proceed to mow down many of the criminals before running out of ammo. Other neighbors begin fighting back as Manny sends in reinforcements. The action sequence is ridiculous, over the top and goes on for hours. Shriker decides to help and he and Kersey take down much of the gang together. Kersey goes back to the apartment to collect more ammo, but Manny finds him there. Shriker arrives and shoots Manny, but not before getting wounded in the arm. As Kersey calls for an ambulance, Manny (who was secretly wearing a bulletproof vest) rises and turns his gun on the two men. As Shriker distracts him, Kersey uses a mail-ordered rocket launcher to obliterate Manny. The remainder of the gang rush to the scene and see Manny's smoldering remains. Surrounded by the angry crowds of neighbors, the gang realizes they've lost and flee the scene. As the neighbors cheer in celebration and with police sirens in the distance, Shriker gives Kersey a head start. While some of the film was shot in New York, Winner took the production to London to keep the costs low. Alex Winter suggested that he only got hired because he had a British passport. The cut from New York to London is glaringly obvious, it wouldn’t have been any less of a contrast if they had decided to film the second half under water. It’s hilarious. Bronson was 64 years old and they wanted him to run around like an urban Rambo. He rarely granted interviews, or commented on his own films but Bronson hated the film and said so, stating that he was especially angered when he discovered that Winner filmed extremely gory shots with extras when he was off-set. An infamously wicked director, a film studio that didn’t know what they were doing and an ageing star with prima donna-like tendencies. It’s a recipe for disaster but of all five of the original Death Wish films, this is the cult favourite. The video game on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 was amazing at the time and certainly an influence on the Grand Theft Auto games that came years later.

The Midnight Meat Train

Dir: Ryuhei Kitamura

2008

**

I wasn’t sure what convinced me to watch The Midnight Meat Train. While I will give any film a try, it wasn’t something that I immediately thought I’d enjoy but there was something about it that intrigued me. Of course fifteen minutes in I realised the connection – it was based on one of Cliver barker’s Books of Blood stories, a collection of horror shorts I adored reading in the late 1980s and had almost forgotten about. It all came flooding back and I remember at the time (I believe it was 1989, on a Spanish beach on the Costa Brava) that a film adaptation of the stories would be amazing. Twenty years later (actually, thirty years later, as it has taken me ten years to get round to watching it), I feel somewhat cheated. I remember liking Pig Blood Blues and In the Hills, the Cities far more than The Midnight Meat Train but it still had one hell of an ending. It was a moment in my adolescence where I discovered great horror and horror story telling. Why on earth the makers of Ryuhei Kitamura’s adaptation thought that casting Vinnie Jones as Mahogany was a good move is anyone’s guess, surely that was a late 90s mistake film makers made? Gone in 60 Seconds should have been the last of Jones’ Hollywood affair and if that wasn’t enough, then X-Men: The Last Stand should have underlined as much. X-Men: The Last Stand was released two years before The Midnight Meat Train, so maybe contracts were already signed, but any credibility the film had of being even the slightest bit scary, was pissed up the wall when Jones was cast as the story’s villain. The role didn’t need a hard man, it needed a terrifying one. The story follows a man called Leon (a relatively fresh-faced Bradley Cooper), a photographer who wants to capture unique, gritty shots of the city and the people who live in it. He is crushed when, instead of giving him his big break, gallery owner Susan (Brooke Shields) instead criticizes him for not taking enough risks. Emboldened, he heads into the city's subway system at night, where he takes pictures of an impending sexual assault before eventually saving the woman. The next day, he discovers that the woman he saved has gone missing. Intrigued by the mystery, he investigates reports of similar disappearances. His investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), who he suspects has been killing subway passengers for the past three years. Leon presents his photos to the police, but Detective Hadley (Barbara Eve Harris) disbelieves him and, instead, casts suspicion on his motives. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, upsetting his waitress girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb), who is as disbelieving of his story as the police. After stalking Mahogany and barely escaping, Leon follows Mahogany onto the last subway train of the night, only to witness a bloodbath. The butcher kills several passengers and hangs their bodies on meat hooks. After a brief scuffle with Mahogany, Leon passes out on the train's floor. He awakes the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest. A concerned Maya and her friend Jurgis (Roger Bart) examine Leon's photos of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. After breaking into the butcher's home, Jurgis is captured, though Maya escapes with timetables that record over 100 years of murders on the subway. Maya goes to the police but finds Hadley as skeptical of her story as Leon's. When Hadley presses Maya to return the timetables, Maya demands answers. At gunpoint, Hadley directs Maya to take the midnight train to find Jurgis. Leon, unaware of Maya's involvement, heads to a hidden subway entrance in the slaughterhouse, arming himself with several slaughterhouse knives and wearing a butcher's apron. Leon boards the train as Mahogany has completed his nightly massacre and has cornered Maya. Leon attacks the murderer with a knife, and the two fight in between the swinging human flesh. Human body parts are ripped, thrown, and used as weapons. Jurgis, hung from a meat hook, dies when he is gutted. Finally, Leon throws Mahogany out of the train. The train reaches its final stop, a cavernous abandoned station filled with skulls and decomposing bodies. The conductor steps into the car, advising Leon and Maya to "please step away from the meat." The true purpose of the abandoned station is revealed, as reptilian creatures enter the car and consume the bodies of the murdered passengers. Leon and Maya flee into the cavern. Mahogany, battered and bleeding, returns and fights to the death with Leon. After Leon stabs a broken femur through Mahogany's throat, Mahogany grins in his dying throes, saying only, "Welcome" The conductor appears and tells Leon the creatures have lived beneath the city since long before the subway was constructed, and the butcher's job is to feed them each night to keep them from attacking subway riders during the day. He picks up Leon, and with the same supernatural strength as the deceased butcher, rips out Leon's tongue, throwing him to the ground and eating it. The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones. The conductor forces Leon to watch as he cuts Maya's chest open to remove her heart. When he is done, he tells Leon that, having killed the butcher, Leon must take his place. Finally, Detective Hadley hands the train schedule to the new butcher, who wears a ring with the symbol of the group that feeds the creatures. The killer walks onto the midnight train and turns his head to reveal himself as Leon. It is far scarier and clever-sounding in the book than it is in the film. Vinnie Jones is ridiculously miscast, Bradley Cooper and Leslie Bibb are both pretty good but it was only Ted Raimi’s small role that actually excited me. I do wonder what Patrick Tatopoulos’ version would have looked like had he not left the project, I would have chosen Ryuhei Kitamura if I had the choice of the two but this is by far his weakest film. I feel the horror and mystery were overshadowed by the splatter – which was far too prevalent. Sure, this was a story from the Book of Blood but it was always the suspense and thrill that made it a page turner, not the graphic description of each killing. Clive Barker is a master of horror with a huge fan following, so I find it strange how no one seems to be able to adapt his work appropriately, when I would bet there were hundreds of good directors who would jump at the chance – the author himself being one of them.

Death Wish II

Dir: Michael Winner

1982

**

Death Wish wasn’t quite the film it was originally intended as but it had something about it that resonated with its audience. However, Brian Garfield, author of the original Death Wish novel, was so unhappy with the film version that he wrote his own sequel, Death Sentence. "They'd made a hero out of him," he would later say, "I thought I'd shown that he'd become a very sick man." Violent crime was so high at the time that people enjoyed the spectacle of payback. Burt Lancaster, George C. Scott and Frank Sinatra, who were all offered the role of Paul Kersey in the original, all at one point or another, spoke about how relieved they were that they passed on the project. The idea to produce a sequel to Death Wish originated with producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the infamous owners of Cannon Films. They reportedly announced their plans to do so prior to actually securing the rights to the franchise. Dino De Laurentiis co-producer of the original film, threatened them with a lawsuit unless they properly purchased the rights. He negotiated payments for himself, co-producers Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts, and original author Brian Garfield. The agreement included future payments for each prospective sequel. Cannon did not want to use Garfield's book, preferring an original story by David Engelbach, Golan and Hal Landers. "We think our story is a better film story," said Golan. "You cannot call a film exploitative just because it touches on disturbing issues," said Globus. "Both Death Wish films are a valid comment on American society... the theme of street violence getting out of control is sadly more of a fact of life than it was seven years ago."  The moral that Garfield had tried to touch upon in his original novel was now well and truly lost. Bronson was offered $1.5 million to reprise the role. Jill Ireland was cast in the film because Bronson, her husband, insisted on it. She serves as both the love interest to Kersey and the voice of opposition to the death penalty. Cannon initially tasked Golan with directing the film, but Bronson insisted Michael Winner, the director of the original, should return. Winner had suffered a downturn in his career since the mid-1970s, with no box office hit since Death Wish. He agreed to return to the franchise and also took the initiative in revising the script. Winner recalled that De Laurentiis was having second thoughts about letting someone else produce the sequel, and offered to hire him to do the film for his own production company. Winner refused and De Laurentiis did not renege on his deal with Cannon. The producer did, however, start work on a clone of the film. The final result was 1982’s ‘Fighting Back’. In this follow up film, Paul Kersey has managed to recover from his shattered life and moved on, and is now dating L.A. radio reporter Geri Nichols and has moved himself and his daughter to LA, his daughter residing in a local mental hospital. One afternoon Paul's wallet is stolen by a gang at a fairground. The gang split up when Paul chases them, he corners one of them in an alley, but lets him go when he finds that he doesn’t have his wallet. The gang find Paul's home address in his wallet and later breaks into his house, where they gang rape the housekeeper, Rosario. When Paul arrives home with his daughter, he is beaten unconscious. Rosario tries to call the police, but one of the gang kills her with his crowbar. They kidnap Carol, take her to their hideout, where one of the gang members rapes her. Carol attempts to flee by running through a plate glass window, and falls onto an iron fence and is impaled. When the police arrive, Lieutenant Mankewicz asks for help identifying the muggers, but Paul refuses. After Carol's funeral, he takes a handgun to a low-rent inner city hotel as a base of operations. The next evening, he observes and follows one of the gang into an abandoned building as a drug deal is about to be made. Paul kills one of the dealers, then orders the others out, before proceeding to shoot the gang member dead. The following night, he hears screams from a couple being assaulted by four muggers, which includes another gang member, in a parking garage. Paul kills two hoodlums and wounds his mark. He follows the gang member's blood trail to an abandoned warehouse and shoots him dead. The LAPD and NYPD hear about the murders. When Kersey falls under suspicion, NYPD Detective Frank Ochoa is called in to investigate the case. Ochoa fears that Kersey, when caught, will reveal that he was released without charge eight years ago instead of being prosecuted for killing ten muggers. Ochoa meets with Mankewicz, who suspects Ochoa is giving false information to him. Ochoa intrudes into Geri's apartment and tells her about Paul's previous vigilante killing spree back in New York City. After Paul returns to his house, Geri confronts her lover about Ochoa's revelation, but he denies it. Ochoa follows Kersey to a local square where Kersey is tailing the three remaining gang members. He follows them to an abandoned park, where a major arms and drug deal is underway. A sniper scouts Kersey and attempts to kill him, but Ochoa warns Paul and shoots the sniper dead. Ochoa is mortally wounded by a gang member, while Paul kills two more. The arms dealer tries to get away but Paul shoots him, causing the criminal to drive off a cliff, while the last gang member escapes. Ochoa tells Paul to avenge him before he dies. Paul escapes while another gang member dies from his injuries after giving information about the gang to the police. Paul learns from one of Geri's colleagues that the police are preparing a tactical unit to capture the gang leader. He obtains a police scanner, and by monitoring police radio traffic, finds out when and where the arrest is going to take place. He drives to the location to kill him, but under the influence of PCP, the gang leader slashes his arm and stabs a few officers while trying to escape. Tried and found criminally insane, he is sent to a mental institution. Geri and Paul visit him, requesting an interview, but are turned down by corrupt medics. While there, Paul steals a doctor's ID card. The next night, Paul uses it to enter the asylum and confronts him. Despite being stabbed repeatedly with a scalpel, Paul manages to kill him by electrocution. A sympathetic attendant gives Paul three minutes to escape before hitting the alarm. Geri goes to Paul's house, where she finds out how he made his fake ID. Upon hearing a news report of the gang leader’s death on the radio, she realizes that Paul really is the vigilante Ochoa claimed him to be. She takes off her engagement ring and leaves him, with Paul arriving moments later. A few months later, Paul is speaking about a new architectural design. He is invited by his employer to a party, and when Paul is asked if he is able to attend, he answers: "What else would I be doing?" His shadowy figure walks in the night, followed by three gunshots. It’s a watered down version of the original in many respects but it is also far more brutal and gratuitous. Winner said the film was "the same, but different," to the original. "That's what sequels are – Rocky II, Rocky III – you don't see Sylvester Stallone move to the Congo and become a nurse. Here the look of LA is what's different. Besides – rape doesn't date!" Screenwriter David Engelbach argued the film raised "serious issues – namely, the deteriorating state of our criminal justice system. The actions of the Bronson character are dictated by the inability of the police to prevent crime, the preoccupation of the courts with technical rather than real justice, and the cancerous climate of fear in which we find ourselves today. Paul Kersey is no hero. In his pursuit of vengeance he loses the only emotional relationship of his life and by story's end has become as much a victim of crime as the thugs he leaves dead in his wake." I personally think these are excuses in order to justify a rather blood-thirsty and sensationalist neo-conservative tea-party. “Rape doesn’t date” is a quote you don’t hear very often from a director/producer and it pretty much tells you all you need to know about the film and the people who made it. David Engelbach admitted that he was "somewhat appalled" by the final film and how it differed from his original script. He felt that the rape scenes were added so that Michael Winner could "get his rocks off". Nasty stuff. To think that Natalie Wood nearly became involved in the casting. I do like the music though. Isaac Hayes was recommended by the producers of the film to compose the score but Michael Winner chose former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page who was his next door neighbor at the time. Still, you can’t have Death Wish 3 without Death Wish 2 and from here on the series got terribly good.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Dir: Desiree Akhavan

2018

*****

Despite its positive reception and victory at the Sundance Film Festival, Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a film about gay conversion therapy, struggled for months to get picked up by a distributor. According to star Chloë Grace Moretz, the film was the first Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner in over twenty-five years to not receive immediate distribution. It was eventually purchased by FilmRise however it received a very limited theatrical run in only 85 theaters in North America. Unsurprisingly, it failed to recoup its $900,000 budget, grossing just $904,703 at the box office. Something is rotten in Denmark. The story takes place in 1993, where we find teenager Cameron Post as she is sent to a religiously run gay conversion therapy centre deep in the remote countryside. It is revealed through flashbacks that she was secretly involved in a romantic relationship with her female friend, Coley. On homecoming night, Cameron’s boyfriend walked in on them having sex in Coley’s car, outing them both in a fit of hurt. Cameron's aunt Ruth, a devout Christian, sends Cameron to God's Promise, the conversion therapy centre run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, the Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), who claims that his sister’s methods cured him of his own homosexuality after two members of his church rescued him from a gay bar – although the students suspect that the two church members were actually visiting the gay bar for themselves and used Rick as an excuse for being caught themselves. On arrival, Cameron's roommate, Erin, represses her homosexuality and earnestly believes in the camp's program. Cameron soon befriends two of her fellow disciples, Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane), who was raised in a hippie commune, and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck), a Lakota two-spirit whose father has converted to Christianity, become high up in politics, and sees a gay son as a possible career issue. The three teenagers bond over their mutual rebelliousness and skepticism of the camp's purpose. During a group session, Cameron admits that she thinks Coley is perfect and is told by Dr. Marsh that her homosexuality stems from a misplaced urge to be like Coley. She covertly phones Coley and apologizes for how things turned out. Coley says she sent Cameron a letter, but the call is interrupted. After disrupting a kitchen chore session, Cameron has her mail privileges unexpectedly granted by Dr. Marsh. She reads Coley's letter, only to find that Coley blames her for "seducing" her into sin. Jane reads the letter with Cameron and then destroys it, calling Coley weak-willed and treacherous. Crying, Cameron calls her aunt and asks to be brought home but is refused. Cameron tries to adapt better to life at God's Promise, exercising with Erin to Christian work-out tapes. One night, while Cameron is having a sexual dream, Erin wakes her up and they have sex, which Erin is immediately ashamed of and begs Cameron not to tell anyone about. Another disciple, Mark, who has been expecting to return home shortly, is informed by letter that he must remain at the camp because his father still considers him effeminate. In a group session, Mark breaks down and begins behaving erratically until he is forcibly restrained by Dr. Marsh. That night, Cameron finds large quantities of blood in one of the bathrooms. The next morning, Dr. Marsh and Reverend Rick call a meeting, announcing that Mark was badly injured during the night and is stable in hospital, but do not explain what happened. Two of the disciples disrupt the meeting, and a series of one-to-one meetings is held instead. During their one-to-one, Rick explains to Cameron that Mark mutilated his own genitals and nearly died before Adam found him. Cameron asks why the staff wasn’t monitoring Mark more closely and asks Rick if he and Dr. Marsh have any idea what they are doing. Rick cannot answer her questions and bursts into tears. A government inquiry is launched into Mark's self-mutilation, but the investigator is unwilling to accept Cameron's argument that God's Promise is inherently emotionally abusive. Disillusioned, Cameron, Jane and Adam decide to run away from the camp under the pretense of an early morning hike. They hike to a nearby road and hitchhike away from the camp as the film ends. I love the film on several levels. Firstly, I love how innocent the kids are. They are innocent, it can be a confusing time when adolescents become aware of their own sexuality, especially when it is different from what has been told to them to be normal. I want to say this has got better since 1993 but I’m really not sure that is true. Chloë Grace Moretz’s Cameron is a rabbit in the headlights, she doesn’t feel what she has done is wrong but she’s still not sure. You can see her silent confusion throughout the film and it’s very subtle but very effective. This made the story extremely believable, which it should be, as this sort of thing has been happening for a long time and is happening somewhere this very minute. The scene in which Cameron asks Rick whether he has any idea what he is doing is extremely powerful. Again, it’s very subtle but it addresses that moment in late childhood and adolescence that everyone goes through, the realisation that sometimes the grown-ups, those that are looking out for your best intentions, sometimes don’t have a clue about what they’re actually doing. The film doesn’t end with a moment of retaliation, there isn’t a big speech or an act of revenge, the kids simple leave the centre. It’s a wonderfully simple rejection of all that is wrong with this way of thinking – It’s our lives, we’re out of here. There is a sadness that the kids have been forced out and on their own but there is a positivity that they will find a way and that they will no be conflicted about whether or not they are different or wrong. It’s bold and simple, as it should be and how it is in the real world. There is nothing smug about the story, it’s well balanced and all views are listened to and explored. The hypocrisy is clear, as are the ethical issues with the subject. I believe in fighting for one’s rights but I also think there comes a time when you just have to walk away. I think this is such a positive film, without pretension, but with a huge generosity of spirit. A gem that should have been celebrated far more than it was.

Death Wish

Dir: Michael Winner

1974

****

Much like Rambo: First Blood, Death Wish is a classic that has now become somewhat overshadowed by its disappointing sequels. Actually, they’re not that disappointing, they’re brilliantly nuts, but the original is a bonafide classic. I think I appreciate it more than I love it however, I admire its guts and its provocative nature. I just don’t like the subject matter. It’s a neo-conservative sensationalist exploitation film in many respects, vigilante films were nothing new but there had never been one quite like this before. Usually with vigilante films the protagonist is either a bad guy, deranged or has snapped. Here, our vigilante is a successful middle age architect, he wears a suit and is respectable, yet he kills in the same cold manner as the killers who murdered his wife did. I’m not sure it intended to raise all of the questions it does but it raises them all the same. It’s only loosely based on Brian Garfield’s novel released two years before but Garfield helped unofficially with development of the script. Garfield was inspired to use the theme of vigilantism following incidents in his personal life. In one incident, his wife's purse was stolen; in another, his car was vandalised. His initial thought each time was that he could kill "the son of a bitch" responsible. He later considered that these were primitive thoughts, contemplated in an unguarded moment. He then thought of writing a novel about a man who entered this way of thinking in a moment of rage and then never emerged from it. Garfield sold screen rights to both Death Wish and another novel called Relentless to the only film producers who approached him, Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts. He was offered the chance to write a screenplay adapting one of the two novels, and chose Relentless. He simply considered it the easier of the two to turn into a film. The film follows Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson), an architect living in Manhattan with his wife Joanna and grown daughter Carol. One day, Joanna and Carol are followed home by three thugs who invade their apartment, posing as deliverymen. Upon finding that Carol and Joanna only have $7 on them, the thugs proceed to rape Carol and brutally beat Joanna before fleeing. Upon arriving at the hospital, Paul is devastated to learn that Joanna has died from her injuries. After his wife's funeral, Paul has an encounter with a mugger in a darkened street. Paul fights back with a sock stuffed with rolls of coins in it, causing the mugger to run away. Paul is shaken but energised by the encounter. A few days later Paul is invited to dinner by a friend at his gun club. His friend is impressed with Paul's accuracy at the target range. Paul reveals that he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War when he served as a combat medic. He had been taught to handle firearms by his father, a hunter, but after he was killed in a hunting accident Paul's mother made him swear never to use guns again. Meanwhile his daughter is severely depressed from the trauma of the assault and is now catatonic, and is eventually committed to a mental hospital. Paul’s friend gifts him a revolver. Paul decides to take it with him on a late night walk where he is mugged at gunpoint. Paul shoots the mugger, and in a state of shock, he runs home and vomits. The next night Paul walks through the city looking for violent criminals. Over the next few weeks, Paul kills several people, some of whom he provokes into attacking him, and others when he sees them attacking others. NYPD Lt. Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) is put in charge of investigating the vigilante killings. His department narrows it down to a list of men who have had a family member recently killed by muggers and who are war veterans. Ochoa soon suspects Paul and is about to make an arrest when the District Attorney intervenes and tells Ochoa to "let him loose" in another city instead. The D.A. and the Police Commissioner do not want the fact to get out that street crime in New York City has dropped dramatically since Paul became a vigilante, and they fear that if he is not stopped, the whole city will descend into chaos. But they don't want him to be arrested, because they don't want a martyr. Ochoa does not like the idea, but relents. One night, Paul shoots two more muggers before being wounded in the leg by a third mugger with a pistol, whom he pursues to a warehouse. When Paul corners him, he challenges him to a fast draw, only to faint, with the mugger escaping. His gun is discovered by a young patrolman who hands it to Ochoa and is told to forget he ever saw it. The press are informed that Paul is just another mugging victim. Hospitalized, Paul is told by Ochoa to have his company transfer him to another city and, in exchange, Ochoa will dispose of Paul's revolver. In addition, Paul is ordered by Ochoa to leave New York permanently. Paul arrives in Chicago Union Station by train. Being greeted by a company representative, he notices a group of hoodlums harassing a young woman. He excuses himself and helps the woman. The hoodlums continue to make obscene gestures and Paul makes a finger gun at them and smiles. It’s a great ending. Wendell Mayes was hired to write the screenplay. He preserved the basic structure of the novel and much of the philosophical dialogue. It was his idea to turn police detective Frank Ochoa into a major character of the film. His early drafts for the screenplay had different endings than the final one. In one, he followed an idea from Garfield that the vigilante confronts the three thugs who attacked his family and ends up dead at their hands. Ochoa discovers the dead man's weapon and considers following in his footsteps. In another, the vigilante is wounded and rushed to a hospital. His fate is left ambiguous. Meanwhile, Ochoa has found the weapon and struggles with the decision to use it. His decision is left unclear. I liked each idea but I love the cold mystery they ended up going with. The film was originally rejected by studios because of its controversial subject matter, and the perceived difficulty of casting someone in the vigilante role. Michael Winner attempted to recruit Bronson but had difficulty getting it past his agent, not ony because of the controversial subject matter but also due to the original screenplay having the vigilante as a meek accountant - hardly a suitable role for Bronson. Bronson admitted later that he felt he was miscast, "It was more a theme that would have been better for Dustin Hoffman or somebody who could play a weaker kind of man. I told them that at the time." However, it is now impossible to see anyone else in the role. That said, I can’t help but think what the original would have looked like, had the original plan of having Sidney Lumet direct, with Jack Lemmon as Paul and Henry Fonda as Ochoa. Thankfully Lumet bowed out of the project to direct Serpico. Several directors were considered, including Peter Medak, but United Artists eventually chose Michael Winner, due to his track record of gritty, violent action films. The film project was dropped by United Artists after budget constraints forced producers Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts to liquidate their rights. The original producers were replaced by Italian film mogul Dino De Laurentiis. De Laurentiis convinced Charles Bluhdorn to bring the project to Paramount Pictures. Paramount purchased the distribution rights of the film in the United States market, while Columbia Pictures licensed the distribution rights for international markets. With funding secured, screenwriter Gerald Wilson was hired to revise the script. His first task was changing the identity of the vigilante to make the role more suitable for Bronson. "Paul Benjamin" was renamed to "Paul Kersey". His job was changed from accountant to architect. His background changed from a World War II veteran to a Korean War veteran. The reason for him not seeing combat duty changed from serving as an army accountant to being a conscientious objector. I’m not sure Death Wish is the classic it could have been but I still think it’s pretty great. I like it as a stand-alone piece and I also like it for beginning one of the most awful but enjoyable series’ to being.

Maidan

Dir: Sergei Loznitsa

2014

*****

There are many types of documentary and these days we are spoiled for choice in terms of style and content. Sergei Loznitsa’s Maiden is that rare sort of film that passes no comment and simply captures events as they happen. Focusing on the Euromaidan movement of 2013 and 2014 in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Ukraine's capital Kiev, Maiden is a document of history. It was filmed during the protests and depicts different aspects of the revolution, from the peaceful rallies to bloody clashes between police and civilians. It’s a slow but effective film and I can understand why it is somewhat of a challenge for most viewers but I think it is important to appreciate what it is that Loznitsa has achieved. This is a film without comment or editing, it is purely a recording. History happens in real time and as much as possible, even the details, needs to be shown otherwise it is a pointless exercise. It means that the film is long but it also ensures that it is pure and authentic. It’s a film where the viewer is allowed to make its own judgement and it’s a pretty bold move. You could describe the film as minimal but then the scope is vast. The title Euromaiden was coined through a twitter hashtag that was attached to a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on the night of 21 November 2013 with public protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti ("Independence Square") in Kiev. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The scope of the protests soon widened, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. The protests were fueled by the perception of widespread government corruption, abuse of power and violation of human rights in Ukraine. Transparency International named President Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The situation escalated after the violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November, leading to many more protesters joining. The protests led to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. During the Euromaidan, there were protests and clashes with police throughout Ukraine, especially at the Maidan central square in Kiev, which was occupied and barricaded by protesters, along with some administrative buildings, including Kiev City State Administration. On 8 December the crowd toppled a Lenin statue nearby. Protests and clashes increased in January, after the Ukrainian parliament passed a group of anti-protest laws. Protesters occupied government buildings in many regions of Ukraine but Loznitsa pointed the camera on Maidan central square only. The protests climaxed in mid-February. Riot police advanced towards Maidan and clashed with protesters but did not fully occupy it. Police and activists fired live and rubber ammunition at multiple locations in Kiev. There was fierce fighting in Kiev on 18–20 February and as a result of these events, the Agreement on settlement of political crisis in Ukraine was signed on 21 February 2014 by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of the parliamentary opposition under the mediation of the European Union and the Russian Federation. The signing was witnessed by the Foreign Ministers of Germany and Poland and the Director of the Continental Europe Department of the French Foreign Ministry, Eric Fournier. Vladimir Lukin, representing Russia, refused to sign the agreement. Shortly after the agreement was signed, Yanukovych and other high government officials fled the country. Protesters gained control of the presidential administration and Yanukovych's private estate. Afterwards, the parliament removed Yanukovych from office, replaced the government with Oleksandr Turchynov and ordered that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko be released from prison. Events in Kiev were soon followed by the Crimean crisis and pro-Russian unrest in Eastern Ukraine. Despite the ousting of Yanukovych, the installation of a new government, and the adoption of the Ukraine - European Union Association Agreement's political provisions, the protests have sustained pressure on the government to reject Russian influence in Ukraine. It is clear that the film is of great importance but as this chapter of history is not yet over, we don’t fully understand yet just how important it is (making it very important already). As well as the crowds, mood and conversations, Loznitsa’s film also captured the controversy and the deaths. The first of major casualties occurred on the Day of Unity of Ukraine, 22 January 2014. Four people were permanently blinded and one man died by falling from a colonnade. The circumstances of his death are unclear. At least five more people were confirmed dead during the clashes on 22 January with four people killed from gunshot wounds. There are photos of Berkut (special police unit officers) utilising shotguns such as the RPC Fort, and reporters verified the presence of shotgun casings littering the ground. Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office confirmed pursuing several lines of inquiry into these murders, including that they may have been committed by Berkut officers. On 31 January it was discovered that 26 unidentified, unclaimed bodies remained in the Kiev central morgue; 14 of which were from January alone. Journalists revealed that a mass burial was planned on 4 February 2014. On 18 and 19 February, at least 26 people were killed in clashes with police and Journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy was murdered by pro-government Titushky and shot in the chest when they attacked his taxi. It was announced that an additional 40–50 people died in the fire that engulfed the Trade Union building after police attempted to seize it the night before. On 20 February, gunfire killed 60 people, according to an opposition medical service. In total, more than 100 people were killed and 2,500 injured in clashes with security forces. The death toll included at least 13 police officers, according to Ukrainian authorities. Loznitsa captures the attacks on journalists as well as some of the crowds and the funeral processions that follow. The acts of unlawful violence from the Berkut is clear as day, another reason why this film is necessary and so vital. It’s a hard sell to many and I doubt there is much money in it but if only there was a Sergei Loznitsa in every country then maybe so many of our political mistakes would not be repeated. It’s such a privilege to have history in the making recorded in this manner that should never be taken for granted.

The Salt of the Earth

Dir: Wim Wenders

2014

****

The Salt of the Earth is a stunning document on the life and career of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado that explores his passion and the importance of what he has achieved. Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado initially trained as an economist, earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of São Paulo. He began work as an economist for the International Coffee Organization, often traveling to Africa on missions for the World Bank, when he first started seriously taking photographs. He chose to abandon a career as an economist and switched to photography in 1973 after his wife bought him a camera as a gift, working initially on news assignments before veering more towards documentary-type work. Salgado's work typically explores natural environments and the humans who inhabit them and he is particularly noted for his social documentary photography of workers in less developed nations. His black and white photographs illuminate how the environment and humans are exploited to maximize profit for the global economic market. Following the timeline of his life, the documentary uses his own photos and videos to illustrate Salgado's life and work beginning with his exile from Brazil and his subsequent transition from economist to artist and explorer. The documentary follows him as he travels around South America, including the countries neighboring his native Brazil, spending time among and photographing native tribes, living lives not much touched by the modern world. Co-directed by Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the film contains recollections from childhood of a father who was absent much of the time and the times he accompanied his father on trips to discover who Salgado was beyond his childhood conception. Next, Salgado traveled to the Sehel region of Africa, shown in unflinching and heartbreaking video and photographs. Salgado referred to the famine in Ethiopia as a problem with sharing, not just a natural disaster. He documented the largest ever refugee camps and the innumerable deaths that occurred there, from hunger, cholera, and cold. His work covering famine in Africa brought worldwide attention to the region and the underlying causes. The film follows forty years of Salgado's work from South America, to Africa, Europe, the Arctic, and back home to Brazil focusing on international conflicts, starvation and exodus, and natural landscapes in decline. One of his more famous collections of photos came as he happened to be the first photographer on the scene of the Kuwaiti oil fires back in 1991. Among these different projects, the film also touches on the work Lélia and Sebastião have done since the 1990s on the restoration of a small part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998, they succeeded in turning this land into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra. The institute is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education. The transformation is incredible. The film is like a glossy Werner Herzog documentary without the philosophical narration – like many of Wim Wenders’ films are. While I felt it lacked the flare of Wender’s previous documentary (2011’s Pina – a biopic of the work of dancer and choriographer Pina Bausch), this was a very different picture. In many respects, Sebastião Salgado directed the film, as it is his images that we see constantly throughout. It also must be said that Juliano Salgado's co-direction jolts the film somewhat and makes it a little too personal to him. It’s a great film but its not a 100% Wim Wenders film – which is how it should be – even though I think I would have preferred it if it had been. Again, the images are awesome and everything is covered, I just think that sometimes it’s not always in the interest of a document to be told by the person it is documenting. Sometimes the picture needs to be looked at by someone else. It’s just a slight niggle I have and I wouldn’t even have it, had the film not have been made by the great Wim Wenders. The title of the film is a biblical reference, Matthew 5:13: 'You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.' It has since been known as a description of a good person who performs good deeds but not for selfish reasons or personal gain. It’s a fair description. Sure Salgado has become successful but his is a life that has been essentially sacrificed for a greater cause. This documentary captures the selflessness, the passion and the great achievements made but without self congratulation. Salgado takes part in the film not to pat himself on the back, but to highlight each cause he has worked on and to help spread the message that his photographs capture. The images are stunning and they speak for themselves.