The Death Wish Franchise Realized Its Potential With ‘Death Wish 3’ – Armessa Movie News

The first Death Wish might be the best film in the franchise, but none of these movies kick as much ass as Death Wish 3. This 1985 sequel follows Charles Bronson in the shoes of Paul Kersey once again, this time defending a neighborhood of elderly people from a bloodthirsty, savage gang. With this entry, the franchise has gone full-on into action schlock territory. Armies of men are killed, Kersey is almost twice the age of the woman he ends up with, and the police let him kill anyone that he pleases — so long as he reports back to them. Not one aspect of it is believable, not the hero’s skill set, his love story, or the backup in the law that he has. But none of that matters, because we’re not here for a believable movie. We’re here for the action! More than any other movie in this series, Death Wish 3 delivers on that tenfold with its campiest bits.

The Death Wish franchise began purely with a grounded, street-level vigilante film. When the first entry came out, there was a whole slew of gritty crime movies hitting theaters regularly. Think of movies like The French Connection and Dirty Harry, two films with lead characters who had a lawful duty to bring justice to the streets, but eventually took matters into their own hands (to a certain degree). Well, Death Wish took this trend to its darkest corner yet, telling the tale of a man, Paul Kersey, whose wife and daughter are brutally attacked by gang members (one played by Jeff Goldblum), an act of violence that ultimately kills his wife and puts his daughter in a coma. We see Kersey spiral into a deep desperation to avenge them, so he slowly gathers his resources and comes to the conclusion that he has to take the law into his own hands. This isn’t an action movie. Kersey only starts taking guys down toward the latter end of the movie. In reality, it’s a character study that shows what happens when a man loses everything and seeks to “right the wrongs” that were committed against him, even to the most extreme degree.

How ‘Death Wish 3’ Abandons Story for Action

If Death Wish is the First Blood of this franchise, then Death Wish II is the Rambo: First Blood Part 2 of the series. That’s also not to say that Death Wish is as good as First Blood, it just means that both series started with a grounded and serious drama that also happened to have some action scenes thrown in, only to have a sequel that’s way more interested in shooting folks up. The thing is, First Blood Part 2 rocks… and Death Wish II is just okay. It faces a bit of an identity crisis in not knowing if it purely wants to be a shoot ’em up extravaganza, or if it wants to continue focusing on story and atmosphere like the first film. First Blood Part 2, on the other hand, shamelessly abandons the incredible screenwriting and storytelling of the first and goes all in on the action instead.

This is where Death Wish 3 knocks down the door, says “Forget the story,” and busts out all of its guns. Seriously, it’s as if Charles Bronson’s character doesn’t care anymore about what happened to his wife and daughter. Instead, he just shrugs it all off at this point. The story can wait, we just have to get on to the next shootout. Speaking of events from Death Wish, if we’re talking about atmosphere, this movie sets the table quite close to the first entry. There might not be as much grit to the film grain, but that’s about the only noticeable difference. Paul Kersey is back in New York City after spending the second film in Los Angeles, so we’re even back to the location that we started in. The streets are disgusting, trash is everywhere, and almost everyone lives in a dump. There’s even an insane funk score from Jimmy Page, of all people, that’s blasting as soon as the film kicks off! Straight out the gate, this movie looks and sounds exactly how the Death Wish movies should — nasty and funky. We’re already off to a good start.

But one thing that is apparent as soon as you read the title is that they change from Death Wish II to Death Wish 3. They did away with Roman numerals in this series’ film titles! Well, according to Paul Talbot’s book Bronson’s Loose, the production company behind 3, The Cannon Group, Inc., changed this feature because they conducted a survey and gathered that half of the U.S. population cannot read Roman numerals. That’s right — this shift from Roman numerals should tell you everything that you need to know. Death Wish 3 abandons all brain power. We don’t have time to think about what “III” might mean because there are too many bad guys to kill!

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The Action Never Stops With ‘Death Wish 3’

And that’s exactly the direction that this movie goes. In its 90-minute runtime, Death Wish 3 probably spends over half of that depicting various acts of ridiculously entertaining violence. We’re talking about prison cell brawls, people being thrown off of the hoods of cars, and of course, endless shootouts. There are two scenes of sexual assault that cut from the fun of the film and just leave you wishing that they were over, but at the very least, they make you hate the villainous gang members even more and want Paul Kersey to take them down as soon as possible. And that, he does.

The gang members that Kersey goes up to this time around are just the most evil band of street thugs that you could ever imagine. They’re led but the cartoonish Manny Fraker (Gavan O’Herlihy), a devilish, lanky bastard with the worst haircut you’ve ever seen. Never before, and never again, would Paul Kersey ever face someone so despicable. Early on in the film, while the two of them are in the same crowded jail cell, Fraker just has it out for our hero. Charles Bronson’s character quickly realizes that this man’s men are those who killed his friend, Charley (Francis Drake), so after both of them are released, he moves into his friend’s old apartment and vows to take down the entire gang. He even has the approval of the police to kill everyone in the gang, so long as he reports back! It’s just an amazing and hilarious set of circumstances, but you buy into it because of how goofy Death Wish 3 is. Not for one minute does this movie take itself seriously. Just look at the police chief, Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter), who refers to Kersey as “dude” multiple times — and they aren’t even friends! This movie is fully self-aware.

‘Death Wish 3’ Includes Dramatic Moments… That End in Action

Kersey moves into Charley’s apartment, and from there, it’s an all-out war. Sure, there are moments when the action takes a back seat, so our hero can grab dinner with some neighbors, or so he can start dating a woman like Kathryn Davis (Deborah Raffin), who’s way too young for him. But these typically end in some sort of action scene as well. Without spoiling too much, there’s a car crash that results in the two cars exploding that likely wasn’t intended to be funny (it was probably meant to be devastating), but it is one of the funniest and most over-the-top flourishes in the entire movie. So if you’re watching Death Wish 3 and you feel like it’s been a little while since there’s been any action (in this movie, three minutes without a bullet or explosion is an eternity), just hold on a little longer. Believe me, it’s coming.

What Death Wish 3 culminates towards is one of the greatest action movie set pieces of all time — genuinely. The last 20 minutes of this movie are just a gargantuan shootout between the elderly people who live in the neighborhood being terrorized, and Fraker’s army of goons. Seriously, this neighborhood’s inhabitants start busting out anything and everything that might constitute a weapon and use it against the gang. There’s even a particular character who breaks out a Browning machine gun from a safe in his apartment. As for the goons, many of them operate on motorcycles and decked-out cars, functioning like a street-level Mad Max troupe. Most of them fight back with chains, knives, and guns though, so the neighborhood folks aren’t too overpowered. It’s a fantastic third act, one of the most fun that you’ll find in any action movie.

Death Wish 3 is undoubtedly schlock, but it wears that title like a badge of honor. The series would continue falling into dumb action trappings, but would never again be as entertaining as its third outing. If you’re looking for a fun, quick, violent, street-level shoot ’em up, you truly cannot do better than Death Wish 3. The first film might have the better story, but 3 fully realized the series’ potential.