Death Wish

Love it or loathe it, the first Death Wish was a stylish, genre-defining movie. A bleeding-heart liberal architect turns vigilante when a client renews his long-festering interest in guns, and his wife and daughter are sexually assaulted and killed. The film turned Charles Bronson from a character actor into a major star; his fans believe this is Bronson's best solo turn, before the later movies in the franchise concentrated on the violence, rather than on the ambiguities of a deranged New Yorker taking the law into his own hands. Nevertheless, there is violence a-plenty. This is the movie Sly Stallone wants to remake for today: watch out. (Or at least enjoy the brilliant Oscar-nominated score by Herbie Hancock)

Thanks to Paramount