The controversial vigilante classic starring Charles Bronson as a New York City architect who goes out at night with a gun and blows away scumbags. It all starts when thugs beat his wife to death and rape his daughter—and then get away with it. After the funeral, Bronson goes off to Tucson on a business trip with hopes that it’ll be therapeutic for him, but the wide open Arizona desert just reminds him of the Old West, which gives him the idea to patrol the city streets every night and gun down muggers. So that’s what he does and New York City soon gets vigilante fever, with Bronson’s mysterious avenger a huge media sensation. The citizens like him because the crime rate plummets, but the police look to stop him.
This entertaining film, full of sleazy 70s New York City atmosphere and a hopping jazz-funk score by Herbie Hancock, is about 1/3 action movie, 1/3 suspense film and 1/3 political piece. The film spells out, underlines, and highlights the fact that Bronson’s Paul Kersey, before losing his wife, is a true blue liberal and pacifist. His friends tease for him for being a “bleeding heart”. He was a conscientious objector to the Korean War. He’s about the LAST guy you’d expect to see deliberately ride lonely subway cars at night hoping to attract muggers just so he can shoot them (Chuck always shoots ’em twice, actually). But that’s what happens and director Michael Winner clearly portrays this turnabout as sympathetic, which REALLY stuck in the craw of several critics who attacked the film for being irresponsible. Audiences, however, loved it. The film became a hit and it turned veteran character-actor Charles Bronson, age 53, into Hollywood’s newest action star. Four sequels would follow over the next twenty years.