Movie Review: Death Wish

Death Wish gets a lot of things wrong, but its biggest offense is being incredibly tone-deaf. The film was pushed back from its originally scheduled November 2017 release date to March 2018 (rumors were that MGM wanted some space from the Las Vegas shooting). That was the right thing to do, but the studio should have pushed it back again after the recent events in Parkland, Florida. This movie simply is not entertainment, and unfortunately is not any sort of escapism either. Movies are supposed to be places where we go to escape from our everyday lives. It is okay for a movie to borrow ideas from the headlines, but when it is done in this way about such a controversial topic, that’s when you should reevaluate its release date—again. Some people might be able to separate the real world from this movie, and even though I personally was unable to do so, I would still argue that this is a terrible movie. There is nothing here that is redeemable from a writing, acting, or (especially) directing standpoint. If this movie had a point to any of the gun violence it portrays or a subtler approach, maybe it could have been slightly better, but director Eli Roth shows that he is unable, or unwilling, to do any of those things.

Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis), a successful surgeon in Chicago, has it all—the perfect family, a great job, and a lovely home. That all changes when his family is violently attacked one night and detectives have next to no leads on who could have committed the crime. That’s when Kersey decides to take matters into his own hands and seek justice for his family. Well not at least for the first hour of the film anyway. Kersey, instead of going after his family’s attackers right away, spends time being a hoodie-wearing vigilante and shoots down bad guys whenever he sees fit to do so. Kersey doesn’t really have a moral compass—he’s just mad about what happened to him personally—understandably so—but, he basically walks around aimlessly, taking guys out. The film tries to present both arguments of vigilantism through the lazy plot mechanics of radio blurbs, but that doesn’t really show the negative effects of Kersey’s actions. The best hero stories show the protagonist going through a moral struggle and suffering personal consequences, and while I understand Death Wish is not a superhero movie, director Roth and writer Joe Carnahan basically position Kersey as a superhero enacting out his own idea of justice in the least subtle way possible. The movie has nothing to say about its very serious subject matters (gun violence, gun control, vigilantism, etc.) and tries to hide that in its appalling violence.

Kersey does eventually get around to exacting revenge on his family’s attackers, which is what the movie should have focused on throughout. Roth and company dropped the ball on the revenge thriller aspect as well. There is next to nothing thrilling about anything that Kersey does in the movie. He just kind of stumbles into clues and situations, and aside from a few scars, doesn’t really suffer any consequences. Kersey never fired a gun before the incident, but after a montage set to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” he’s ready to go up against Chicago’s toughest gangsters. The story behind the attackers is so bland and just ultimately anticlimactic. There is no cathartic chase sequence or entertaining action scene, just a bunch of violence meant to serve as entertainment. Roth is primarily a horror director, and this film shows why he never really dipped into the action genre. He only knows how to shock viewers, and while there are a few shocks in Death Wish, they’re just not the good kind.

Bruce Willis in “Death Wish.”

I’ve spent most of this review bashing Roth’s direction and Carnahan’s screenplay. While they deserve most of the blame, much can be put on Willis’s shoulders as well. Willis, one of the more well-known action heroes of all-time, has been struggling as of late. His last big action film was A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), which was a train wreck of a movie. He just doesn’t seem to be interested anymore and is simply collecting a paycheck. Willis looks like he is sleepwalking through most of Death Wish and does not seem to be affected by any of what is going on, which makes it hard for an audience to be on board with his plight.

The failure of Death Wish is more than just bad timing, it’s an offensive movie with no moral compass. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem to take its subject matter seriously, and in the current climate of society, there is no place for a movie like this. It’s sad to think that there is never a good time to release a movie like this, but that is unfortunately true. The original Death Wish is credited as a fun, trashy B-level action flick. But what might have felt like escapism in the 1970s, unfortunately feels all too real today. Eli Roth was not the right choice to handle a movie like this. He focuses on B-level horror movies that are only meant to shock and scare. That just doesn’t work for an action movie in 2018 featuring so much gun violence. Roth doesn’t do subtle, which is what this movie needed. Audiences now need escapism more than ever, and Death Wish is the furthest thing from that.

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Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.

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