You Know Why Else Death Wish is Great?

I've got to admit that I've got my own love for the film.

Now, I'm a relatively recent convert to the Death Wish fan club. I happened to catch the entire series in the span of a few days on cable awhile back. But from the first one, I was hooked.





First off, Paul Kersey travels to Tucson, Arizona after the tragic events in the beginning of the movie.

That's my hometown! I've seen the same gunfights that inspired him to shoulder his responsibility, take up arms, take the law into his own hands and flex his itchy trigger finger.

(Man, I so wish there was some sort of figure of speech incorporating the fingernail that I could have used in that last sentence.)

And sure, while the stars of the film are NYC, vigilante justice and Charles Bronson, it's the bit players really shined the brightest for me. "Angel Martin" from The Rockford Files shows up in Tucson and does a masterful job.

Jeff Goldblum is spectacular as one of the hooligans who terrorizes the Kersey family and indeed sets the whole film in motion. Never has Goldblum's creepy visage fit a character more, not even in The Fly.

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs also plays a criminal. You might know him better as "Cochise" from Cooley High, or as "Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington" from Welcome Back Kotter.

Or possibly as "Ike Turner" or "Joe Jackson" from various TV movies about the tragic abusive force behind musical genius. But to me, he'll always be that guy who flashed me a genuine ass peace sign at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm talking palm out, straight up.

But the bit players aren't limited to just criminals. Both comic genius Christopher Guest and Oscar Winner Olympia Dukakis show up as cops. And "Maria" from Sesame Street and "Pearl" from 227 appear as people in the neighborhood.

I mean I think that when it comes down to it, the question isn't "what makes Death Wish so great" but rather "why is this film not universally praised as a cinematic masterpiece?"