Death Wish (1978) - The original (and best!)

Okay, so there have probably been other 'revenge' films made before 1974's 'Death Wish,' but this is the film that really set the genre alight and possibly brought it more into the mainstream.  Maybe because the story is so simple?  A man loses his family to a gang of street thugs and decides to deal out his own brand of 'justice.' Also, Charles Bronson had been around for a while in Hollywood, normally playing a tough dependable character (soldier or cowboy I believe), but, again, this is the film that cemented him into true popular culture as the film's protagonist, the reluctant vigilante, Paul Kersey. 

Perhaps the best thing about 'Death Wish' is that it's a story where the main character has an 'arc' for his journey.  He doesn't start off an outright 'bada$$' and he's not a particularly physically intimidating specimen of a man (in the way the eighties action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger might be considered).  He's an easy-going guy who despises violence and is only pushed into his new role through a series of tragic circumstances.  It's certainly Charles Bronson's defining film and he carries it all the way.

Although many of us will shed no tears as the muggers and assorted criminals start dropping like flies, the film never really glamourises violence and does as good a job as possible to present the other side of the argument that two wrongs don't make a right and that we should be leaving the handling of criminals to the proper authorities, i.e. the police.

This whole 'revenge' formula has been used to varying degrees of success throughout the years, but 'Death Wish' will always stand the test of time as the original, most gritty (and realistic for the time - how Kersey would get on today with the culture of camera phones and CCTV is best left addressed by the - questionable - 2018 remake of the same name) and definitely best.  It's a slow burner and don't expect too much in the way of action scenes (it's not really an outright action movie - that honour would probably be bestowed on 'Part III'), but it definitely still holds up today in terms of cinema history.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather