‘Death Wish’ on target for the NRA
Two weeks after 17 were shot to death at a high school in Parkland, Fla., Bruce Willis and Death Wish present Hollywood’s best case for guns.
Hitting screens as a passionate national debate rages around the easy availability of assault-style weapons, director Eli Roth’s controversial revenge drama lays out an empathetic fantasy response tailor-made for the NRA.
The wretched timing is slightly tempered by the fact that studio MGM already had delayed the film’s release last fall (citing scheduling reasons) after a gunman opened fire at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest music festival, killing 58.
It’s getting harder to find an appropriate time for a slick gun-love story like Death Wish, a remake of the 1974 vigilante film starring Charles Bronson (who kept the bullets flying for five installments).
Willis plays Paul Kersey, an emergen- cy-room surgeon whose beloved wife (Elisabeth Shue) is killed and daughter (Camila Morrone) is left in a coma when they’re attacked in a home robbery.
Though initially resistant, Kersey learns to embrace his weapons as he sets out on a quest for solo justice. He gets a taste for vigilante crime-fighting when he breaks up a random mugging with bullets.
The killings that follow, executed with Willis’ trademark half-smirk and one-liners, ultimately amount to a kind of pro-gun daydream.
Judging from the cheers that erupted after each Kersey take-out during a prerelease screening for radio contest winners in Los Angeles, there’s an audience eager to embrace this message.
Ironically, Kersey’s initial foray into weapons at the movie’s campy Jolly Rogers firearms emporium satirizes the shocking speed with which guns can be purchased in this country.
“There must be a lot of paperwork,” Kersey asks the camo-clad, comely attendant (Kirby Bliss Blanton), who laughs and explains how easy assault weapons are to purchase.
Kersey leaves without buying anything. But later, he kicks a gang member’s Glock under the operating-room table and dramatically shoves it into the pants of his scrubs.
AC/DC’s Back in Black blasts as the soundtrack to Kersey’s YouTube-led training montage for the pilfered Glock, ratcheting up the righteous revenge adrenaline. No spoiler alert needed: Kersey soon gets over his misgivings and upgrades to semi-automatic rifles.
Set in violence-plagued Chicago — with black and white pundits serving as a never-too-damning societal chorus — Kersey goes Internet viral as the hooded Grim Reaper vigilante after he’s filmed in action.
Roth tries to diffuse racial questions by portraying the worst baddies Kersey hunts down as a mixed gang of primarily white men, including the ultimate evildoer Knox (Beau Knapp).
But Death Wish makes no bones about its need-for-firepower message.
As Kersey travels from his wife’s funeral, his grieving stepfather, Ben (Len Cariou), unexpectedly pulls his GMC pickup over and fires a rifle at fleeing poachers.
“If a man wants to protect what’s his, he has to do it for himself,” Ben says, slinging the rifle over his shoulder.
The pivotal scene romanticizing the need for guns directly after a senseless gun death is even more jarring with the memory of Florida’s tragedy.
With Willis pulling the trigger, Death Wish pounds out the clear, unfortunate message that more guns are the answer.
It’s getting harder to find an appropriate time for a slick gun-love story like ‘Death Wish.’