{"id":6769,"date":"2014-02-07T23:19:24","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T07:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=6769"},"modified":"2021-12-30T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T00:42:10","slug":"review-deathwish-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/02\/review-deathwish-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Wish Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Death Wish<\/i><\/b> is quintessential 1970s crime and grit and with the performance of Charles Bronson makes it a classic in its own right. It\u2019s a fairly thought-provoking flick as well about vigilante justice and its effect on society though even on that front, its skin deep.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nDeath Wish (1974)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/b>Crime, Drama
\nWarner Home Video | R \u2013 93 min. \u2013 $19.98 | February 4, 2014
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Michael Winner
\nWriter(s): <\/b>Brian Garfield (novel); Wendell Mayes (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/b>Charles Bronson, Vincent Gardenia, William Redfield, Hope Lange<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/b>July 24, 1974<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Theatrical Trailer
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/b>English (DTS-HD MA 2.0), French (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 1.78
\nSubtitles: <\/b>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/b>20.3 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/b>A, B, C<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Plot Outline: <\/b>Paul Kersey (CHARLES BRONSON) is a \u201cbleeding-heart liberal\u201d who has a change of opinion after his wife and daughter are violently attacked by a gang of thugs \u2013 one of whom played by Jeff Goldblum in his feature film debut \u2013 in their apartment; the wife ultimately succumbing to her injuries and leaving the daughter in a catatonic state. Kersey then turns vigilante as he stalks the mean streets of New York on the prowl for muggers, hoodlums and the like.<\/p>\n

Quick Hit Review: <\/b>Controversial for its time, heck probably even today, Death Wish<\/i><\/b> is a brutal film early on before turning into a revenge flick where the vengeance is on general scumbags as the original attackers don\u2019t get their comeuppance, something unheard of today as most producers and studio heads would demand the hero, or anti-hero, take out his or her original target in the final scene.<\/p>\n

Charles Bronson is near pitch perfect in a role Steve McQueen and many others turned down for the obvious reasons. Bronson is so good, and the film did well enough at the box office ($98 million* adjusted for ticket inflation) to warrant no less than FOUR sequels, each more ridiculous over the next before ending with a thud. But aside from needless and unnecessary sequels (what else is new?), Death Wish<\/i><\/b> is a well made flick held together more by Bronson than the story or even supporting players.<\/p>\n

* Box Office Mojo<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 0.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The only feature is the Theatrical Trailer (2:26; SD)<\/span><\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Prowling the streets, Warner robs Paramount to finally release Death Wish<\/i><\/b> after three of its sequels already received the HD treatment via MGM\/Fox. The transfer here looks nearly fantastic with excellent and sharp detail levels, well balanced colors moving more towards darker tones and shows no obvious signs of artifacts, pixilation or dust marks. It\u2019s a remarkable job done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AUDIO \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, which has matching audio in the left and right channels, might not be as impressive but it\u2019s decent enough for sure with Herbie Hancock\u2019s gritty music making the most out of this lossless track while dialogue levels are clear enough throughout. Any action elements, like gunfire, are of course flat but all things considered, it\u2019s an adequate track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Death Wish<\/i><\/b> is quintessential 1970s crime and grit and with the performance of Charles Bronson makes it a classic in its own right. It\u2019s a fairly thought-provoking flick as well about vigilante justice and its effect on society though even on that front, its skin deep. The Blu-ray released by Warner Brothers is near empty on bonus material while the audio\/video transfers are well done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Published: <\/b>02\/07\/2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death Wish is quintessential 1970s crime and grit and with the performance of Charles Bronson makes it a classic in its own right. It\u2019s a fairly thought-provoking flick as well about vigilante justice and its effect on society though even on that front, its skin deep.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,970],"tags":[1636,1635],"class_list":["post-6769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews","tag-charles-bronson","tag-death-wish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27581,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769\/revisions\/27581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}