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'Death Wish' Review: A Surprising Hollywood Remake
Trigger warning: This film is not "woke."
When it was announced that director Eli Roth would be helming a remake of the Charles Bronson vehicle "Death Wish," I was a little hesitant. However, Bruce Willis’s casting as the leading man seemed interesting enough for me to give it a try.
Willis stars as Dr. Paul Kersey, a married physician who is just an average American. He is a doctor living in Chicago with his wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) and college-bound daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone).
Their lives seem good until one night, Paul gets called to the hospital for an emergency. While away, three criminals break into his family’s home, murdering his wife and leaving his daughter in a coma. The police are doing their best to investigate, but they are overwhelmed with cases.
After burying his wife in her home state of Texas, he speaks with his father-in-law (Len Cariou), who frequently scares poachers off his land with his rifle. He tells our hero that a man sometimes has to look out for himself. This conversation has a profound effect on Paul and leads him down a path to become a vigilante. After arming himself, he begins killing criminals on the mean streets.
Roth departs from his usual work in the horror genre ("Hostel," "The Green Inferno"), and focuses on an urban vigilante who wants to exact vengeance not just on the people who hurt his family, but on a system bogged down in bureaucracy. It is unoriginal, as most Hollywood remakes are, but it still carries a tremendous amount of entertainment value.
It is not necessarily a new part for Willis. While he does have range as a actor, this film brings him back to his roots as an action star. He plays the part well, though the hurried pace of the film rushes the transition from loving family man to cold vigilante.
Roth wisely crafts the narrative around Willis, which the seasoned action star easily handles, bringing the brutal, gritty reality to a genre that is often saturated in spycraft, superpowers, or simple platitudes. It is not perfect, as Roth’s signature love of all things gruesome does come out, especially in the last act, but it rarely slows it down.
Like most modern movies, "Death Wish" does include Leftist slants, such as its criticism of faith, but there is at least one reason for conservatives to see it: It has angered many on the Left, who have panned the film because it not only resists being "woke," it slaps it in the face.
This is one of the first modern mainstream Hollywood films that features a story with a strong father figure, portrays gun ownership in a positive light, has a message of independence and self-reliance, and even smacks elite media figures as smug. The movie’s message is overt: You cannot trust the authorities to get there on time. You have to protect your family. It is your responsibility.
Though the action genre market is rather flooded, "Death Wish" stands out as both culturally relevant and, while not perfect, entertaining, thoughtful, and worth seeing -- even if just to anger social justice warriors.
Watch the trailer below:
'Death Wish' Review: A Surprising Hollywood Remake
Trigger warning: This film is not "woke."
When it was announced that director Eli Roth would be helming a remake of the Charles Bronson vehicle "Death Wish," I was a little hesitant. However, Bruce Willis’s casting as the leading man seemed interesting enough for me to give it a try.
Willis stars as Dr. Paul Kersey, a married physician who is just an average American. He is a doctor living in Chicago with his wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) and college-bound daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone).
Their lives seem good until one night, Paul gets called to the hospital for an emergency. While away, three criminals break into his family’s home, murdering his wife and leaving his daughter in a coma. The police are doing their best to investigate, but they are overwhelmed with cases.
After burying his wife in her home state of Texas, he speaks with his father-in-law (Len Cariou), who frequently scares poachers off his land with his rifle. He tells our hero that a man sometimes has to look out for himself. This conversation has a profound effect on Paul and leads him down a path to become a vigilante. After arming himself, he begins killing criminals on the mean streets.
Roth departs from his usual work in the horror genre ("Hostel," "The Green Inferno"), and focuses on an urban vigilante who wants to exact vengeance not just on the people who hurt his family, but on a system bogged down in bureaucracy. It is unoriginal, as most Hollywood remakes are, but it still carries a tremendous amount of entertainment value.
It is not necessarily a new part for Willis. While he does have range as a actor, this film brings him back to his roots as an action star. He plays the part well, though the hurried pace of the film rushes the transition from loving family man to cold vigilante.
Roth wisely crafts the narrative around Willis, which the seasoned action star easily handles, bringing the brutal, gritty reality to a genre that is often saturated in spycraft, superpowers, or simple platitudes. It is not perfect, as Roth’s signature love of all things gruesome does come out, especially in the last act, but it rarely slows it down.
Like most modern movies, "Death Wish" does include Leftist slants, such as its criticism of faith, but there is at least one reason for conservatives to see it: It has angered many on the Left, who have panned the film because it not only resists being "woke," it slaps it in the face.
This is one of the first modern mainstream Hollywood films that features a story with a strong father figure, portrays gun ownership in a positive light, has a message of independence and self-reliance, and even smacks elite media figures as smug. The movie’s message is overt: You cannot trust the authorities to get there on time. You have to protect your family. It is your responsibility.
Though the action genre market is rather flooded, "Death Wish" stands out as both culturally relevant and, while not perfect, entertaining, thoughtful, and worth seeing -- even if just to anger social justice warriors.
Watch the trailer below:
