It’s both fascinating and uncomfortable, as a story like this should be. Not everything clicks, especially in the final act. But it’s still a well-made thriller that’s worth more than a mere surface level reading.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 15, 2023

Although it’s about as complex as any random episode of My Mother the Car, it’s nevertheless effective agitprop.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 5, 2023

Although we may find the views expressed in Death Wish unacceptable on any level, still, the basic story line, despite its idiotic perspective, might have made an interesting film, had it been handled properly.

| Dec 13, 2021

Director Michael Winner, an Englishman, has created a simplistic urban Western of good guys and bad guys that will conform to every paranoid's crime fantasies.

| Nov 2, 2021

One of the finest revenge flicks ever made.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 29, 2020

Oddly enough, the film is the first in quite a while to give Bronson a chance to actually act and he is very up to the task.

| Dec 12, 2019

Sexual violence, cursing in strongly pro-vigilante drama.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 28, 2018

Death Wish is a remarkable social artefact, a valuable record of the day before yesterday - 1974 - when New York and many other American cities seemed in large part ungovernable.

| Feb 2, 2018

Stylish exploitation vigilante thriller.

| Original Score: C | Feb 7, 2011

A morbid little revenge thriller...

| Jun 24, 2010

Nixonite gorge-riser

| Sep 6, 2009

There's an undeniable thrill when Bronson blows away some sleazy mugger.

| Mar 27, 2009

We know Bronson can be a tough guy, but not so much the mild-mannered guy; he seems to be trying to split the difference the whole time

| Jul 10, 2008

The violence is excessive and the plot predictable, although there is some style to director Winner's approach.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 30, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2008

Poisonous incitement to do-it-yourself law enforcement is the vulgar exploitation hook on which Death Wish is awkwardly hung.

| Mar 1, 2007

A compulsively watchable bit of '70s nostalgia, a curious counterpart to Dirty Harry and an icon of New York-brand justice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 25, 2006

Winner's recourse to caricature when dealing with police and thugs, and his virtually overt sympathies with the confused, violent Bronson, make for uncritical, simplistic viewing.

| Jan 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 29, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 30, 2005