Death Wish (2018) Review - Director Series
Between the three years after Knock Knock and this film Roth produced an almost shot-for-shot remake of his first film Cabin Fever in 2016. Roth got attached to the Death Wish remake in 2016 after the script bounced around Hollywood for nearly 10 years.
Originally Sylvester Stallone wanted to star in the remake in 2006. From there it changed several hands before finally falling into Eli Roth’s lap. Maybe it was his recent string of 70s exploitation remakes because this felt like the first outlier in his filmography.
Not really a horror film. As stated before, it is another ‘70s remake, so maybe MGM thought of Roth because of that fact. By the time Roth signed on Willis was already onboard as Dr. Paul Kersey, not long after Vincent D’Onofrio signed on as well.
Filming began in September 2016 and was slated for release in November 2017. However, in October 2017, MGM announced the release was pushed to March 2018.
Many speculated it was delayed because of the Las Vegas Mass Shooting. However, just 16 days before the second planned release the mass shooting in Parkland Florida occurred.
This gets to the main issue with the film, there was never a good time for this film to be released in America. Its message of Pro Gun solve all your problems with a gun is the worst message to send to a country who deals with mass shootings all too often.
This was the most common critique of the film when it was originally released and with six years of distance it still has not aged well, it never aged well.
Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a trauma surgeon in Chicago. While he is called back into work his house is robbed, his wife is murdered and his Daughter is hospitalized. Feeling helpless Paul buys a gun and walks the streets at night carrying out vigilante justice, and killing criminals.
Eli Roth always denied that this film is pro-gun. However, Paul starts killing criminals who have nothing to do with his wife’s murder. The first people he kills aren’t even murderers they are stealing someone’s car.
Yes, this is a crime, but they don’t start shooting at him until Paul opens fire first and kills the driver. In this instance, Paul is a cold-blooded murderer.
Having Paul kill these people instead of immediately going after who killed his wife makes it hard to get on Paul’s side. He is an upstanding citizen when we meet him, so we don’t buy or like the fact he just starts murdering people.
If you wanted to make this film and Paul more interesting, he should be a Travis Bickle type. However, then this would just feel like a Taxi Driver rip-off. Yet, this is why Taxi Driver has remained as one of the greatest films ever made and the other is a schlocky 70s exploitation film.
The way this film is structured champions the “good guy with a gun” theory that the right-wing loves to peddle.
There are a few good things about the film, but nothing to fully redeem the message. Elizabeth Shue is good in her undercooked role. Camilla Morrone proved she’s a young talent who’s gonna stick around. Roth gives a few moments of true horror to this film. Ludwig Goransson provides the score, years before was a brilliant Oppenheimer score.
However none of it ever fully redeems the film.
Death Wish feels like a true-for-hire job. It doesn’t feel like a true part of Eli’s filmography. Bruce is completely checked out. And the overall message is so misguided I cannot believe it didn’t come from some weird right-wing production company starring Tucker Carlson.
2/5 Stars
