Death Wish
Death Wish is a 1974 film from the USA, directed by Michael Winner, running 97 minutes. reelscum files it under vigilante.
- Year
- 1974 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Director
- Michael Winner
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (10/100)
- Also known as
- Death Wish I
Defined in the glossary: Vigilante
Bronson as a liberal architect who buys a gun. A phenomenon, and reactionary.
The film that launched a thousand imitators and a genuine cultural argument. Charles Bronson plays a mild architect who, after his family is attacked, starts walking New York at night hoping to be mugged so he can shoot the mugger. The city, in 1974, was ready to cheer.
Michael Winner directs it as provocation and knows exactly what he is selling. It is reactionary, effective, and honest about its own appetite in a way the four increasingly stupid sequels were not.
Watch it aware of what it is doing, which is more than it can say for itself.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Written about
- The Exorcist was banned on video in Britain by one censor
The Exorcist passed uncut for British cinemas in 1974, then had no legal UK video release from 1988 to 1999 because one censor would not certify the tape.
Filed alongside
The Warriors
Barely exploitation, entirely brilliant. A subway ride as Greek epic.
Assault on Precinct 13
Carpenter remaking Rio Bravo for $100,000. The ice cream scene is still shocking.
I Saw the Devil
Revenge as a chew toy. Nobody in Korean cinema has been crueller for longer.
Death Wish 3
Abandons realism entirely. Bronson defends a housing block with a machine gun.
Dirty Harry
The vigilante with a badge. Pauline Kael called it fascist and was not wrong.
Maniac Cop
A dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.
Taxi Driver
The same story told by people who knew the protagonist was unwell.
Class of 1984
Death Wish enrols at high school and the faculty loses.
The Exterminator
A flamethrower and a meat grinder. Death Wish with the restraint removed.
Walking Tall
One sheriff, one hickory club, and the blueprint for every Southern vigilante picture after it.
Ms. 45
Ferrara's best. Zoë Lund is extraordinary and the ending is a genuine image.
Coffy
Pam Grier's arrival. Jack Hill knows exactly what he has.