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DEATH WISH
*
Dir: Eli Roth
Starring: Bruce Willis, Elisabeth Shue
(18, 1hr 47 mins)
Another phoned-in performance from Bruce Willis adds little to this repugnant remake of the 1974 vigilante thriller that starred Charles Bronson and was directed by Michael Winner. That original slice of queasy B-movie fascism seems a masterpiece compared to Eli Roth’s blunt, banal retread.
Roth has made a career out of headline-baiting horror, from the torture porn of Hostel to the cannibalism of The Green Inferno, he has a smug, self-aware directorial style that can ratchet up tension but does little for humanity. In the current political climate in the US, Death Wish seems a very perverse statement, glorifying in gun culture while doing little to critique it.
Willis plays a surgeon whose house is burgled while his family make him a birthday cake, leaving his wife dead, (a thankless part for Elisabeth Shue) and his daughter in a coma. He wants vengeance, so he buys himself a gun and learns how to use it. Some obvious miscasting here; Willis is not believable as a man unable to use a gun thanks to his action-film history and he’s too lazy to even try and show any more depth here. As an actor Willis can be excellent but too often of late, he seems blatantly disenchanted with the very concept of being in a film, and he certainly has a right to feel that way about this one.
Writer Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of John Garfield’s novel could have had something very relevant to say about gun culture. At least the 1974 iteration saw a conflicted Charles Bronson cowardly shooting random muggers, raging against the world in a petty, self-destructive way. Unfortunately that film bred more gun-ho sequels that got more and more ludicrous and tasteless. This version has Willis take to killing far more easily and has him being specific with his vengeance, getting the guys who attacked his family, becoming a black hoodie-wearing Grim Reaper.
Appropriating a Black Lives Matter symbol for a privileged white male character exacting bloody barbarism seems of little importance. The cops applaud his actions in keeping the streets safe and there’s no clear idea about what killing other people might cost someone’s soul. This could have been very timely, a shocking satire, instead it’s tasteless, wanting to have its cake and eat it – hmm, vigilantism is wrong, but hey, look at this shoot out! A rightwing Trumpian fantasy that cannot entertain, only enrage.
words Keiron Self
Out now in cinemas