Eli RothsDeath Wishisnt a bad movie as far as super-violent exploitation flicks go.
But itisa deeply problematic one.
And that problem boils down to this: Its the absolute wrong movie at the absolute wrong time.
Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
But whatever the case, the louder and more irresponsible voices in the room seem to have won out.
They were notorious even for their time.
So for find some sense of justice, he goes on a ruthless bender of bloody payback.
Those films werent what anyone would ever call subtle.
The movies just expressed that fear writ large on the big screen.
And Bronsons vigilante hero was the mad-as-hell avenger who law-abiding citizens couldnt allow themselves to be.
TheDeath Wishfilms were bloody cartoons with an undercurrent of depraved, sicko wish-fulfillment.
The good old days, these were not.
surgeon who can barely keep up with the constant flow of gunshot victims rushed into his O.R.
Its Murder City on the shores of Lake Michigan.
His wife is murdered, and his daughter is left in a coma.
He doesnt have to look far.
Not only does he save the victim, he gets away with the killings.
Its all so easy too easy.
And he likes it too much.
But this is isnt Gotham City in some DC universe.
Like Quentin Tarantino, Roth is an aficionado of ultraviolent grindhouse flicks.
Unlike Tarantino, however, Roth rarely has anything new to add to his retreads.
Hes just serving up reheated leftovers, waiting to be admired for his exquisite bad taste.
But too often in hisDeath Wish, he wants to have his cake and eat it too.
But hes never displayed any real track record of being a satirist in the past.
The thing is, despite (or perhaps because of) all of this, the film works.
I suspect that Roth accomplished exactly what he set out to do withDeath Wish.
But the marketing of the film is another matter entirely.
It has an unmistakable stink of rah-rah Make America Great Again-ness to it.
Its patriotic red meat thrown to the NRA crowd.
I know some of you will say, Relax, its just a movie.
But movies dont exist in a vacuum.
