Anger Becomes the Point

Read Time:5 Minute, 45 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The Death Wish Collection (Blu-ray)
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Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime, Drama
Year Released: 1974 / 1982 / 1985 / 1987 / 1994
Runtime: 1h 33m / 1h 30m / 1h 32m / 1h 29m / 1h 35m
Director(s): Michael Winner / Michael Winner / Michael Winner / J. Lee Thompson / Allan A. Goldstein
Writer(s): Wendell Mayes / David Engelbach / Don Jakoby / Gail Morgan Hickman / Michael Colleary
Cast: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Jill Ireland, Deborah Raffin, Kay Lenz
Where to Watch: available now, here: www.kinolorber.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: THE DEATH WISH COLLECTION occupies a strange, often uncomfortable corner of American genre history. It’s a franchise born out of cultural anxiety, one that slowly mutates into something far less reflective and far more reactionary as it goes. Watching all five films together isn’t just a matter of tracking Paul Kersey’s escalating body count; it’s watching the moral center erode in real time, film by film, until vengeance becomes its own self-justifying logic.

The original DEATH WISH remains the most defensible entry, not because it’s subtle, but because it still understands restraint. Michael Winner frames Paul Kersey’s transformation as a tragedy first and foremost, a moral rupture rather than a power fantasy. Charles Bronson’s performance is crucial here. He isn’t charismatic in a traditional sense; he’s closed off, rigid, and emotionally distant. That makes the violence feel unsettling rather than triumphant. The film asks viewers to sit with the consequences of vigilantism, even as it clearly taps into the anger of its era.

By DEATH WISH II, the franchise has already shifted its footing. The grief that once felt specific becomes repetitive, and the narrative increasingly treats trauma as a trigger rather than a lived experience. Bronson still carries authority, but the scripts begin to rely more heavily on outrage than introspection. The move to Los Angeles doesn’t expand the world so much as flatten it, turning the city into a generalized backdrop for brutality. It’s here that the series starts confusing escalation with evolution.

DEATH WISH 3 is where the franchise fully crosses into excess. The film barely pretends to be grounded, leaning hard into cartoonish violence and siege-movie theatrics. Kersey is no longer a reluctant participant; he’s an enforcer, armed to absurd extremes. The tonal shift is jarring, but also strangely honest. This is the moment the series stops interrogating vigilantism and instead sells it wholesale. It’s reprehensible, ridiculous, and undeniably memorable — the kind of film that reveals exactly how exploitation cinema feeds on outrage while pretending to solve it.

DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN attempts a partial course correction by framing its target as organized crime rather than street-level desperation. J. Lee Thompson brings a slightly steadier hand, but the damage is already done. Kersey’s moral authority is no longer questioned, and the film treats his actions as a necessary purge. Bronson, older now, plays the role with weary inevitability, but the narrative refuses to slow down enough to examine what that weariness means.

DEATH WISH V: THE FACE OF DEATH closes the series with a quieter, almost perfunctory entry. There’s less energy, less shock value, and a sense that the franchise has simply run out of places to go. Kersey’s return to New York feels symbolic rather than meaningful, as if the series is circling its own origin without understanding it. It’s not the worst entry, but it’s the emptiest — a conclusion by exhaustion rather than resolution.

What makes THE DEATH WISH COLLECTION compelling isn’t consistency or craftsmanship; it’s context. These films chart a cultural descent from fear to fury, from grief to entitlement. Watching them together exposes how easily anger can be weaponized and normalized. Bronson’s persona becomes part of the text, transforming Kersey into an avatar rather than a character. The films stop asking whether violence works and start assuming it must.

Kino Lorber’s presentation gives the collection the seriousness it deserves, even when the films themselves don’t. The commentaries and essays frame the franchise within its historical moment, acknowledging both its influence and its toxicity. That context is essential, especially for viewers encountering the later films without nostalgia. These aren’t movies to admire so much as confront.

THE DEATH WISH COLLECTION is messy, provocative, and deeply revealing. It contains one genuinely unsettling classic, two increasingly troubling sequels, one outright escalation into absurdity, and a final chapter that fades rather than concludes. It’s not a series that grows wiser with age, but it does become more honest about what it is. And that honesty, however uncomfortable, makes the collection worth engaging with rather than dismissing outright.

Product Extras:
DISC 1 (DEATH WISH):
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot
Interview with Actor John Herzfeld
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English Subtitles

DISC 2 (DEATH WISH II):
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot | Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English Subtitles

DISC 3 (DEATH WISH 3):
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot
Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
Alternate Ending
Interview with Actor Kirk Taylor
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English Subtitles
Michael Winner’s THREE DEATH WISHES: Booklet Essay by Paul Talbot

DISC 4 (DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN):
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English Subtitles

DISC 5 (DEATH WISH V: THE FACE OF DEATH):
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English Subtitles
Bronson’s Last Wishes: DEATH WISH 4 AND 5: Booklet Essay by Paul Talbot

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