DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN
US, 1987, 99 minutes, Colour.
Charles Bronson, Kay Lenz, John P.Ryan.
Directed by J.Lee Thompson.
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown was not the last of the Death Wish series. There was a fifth episode with Charles Bronson and Lesley- Ann Down. However, this film, made 13 years after the original, still has Bronson acting under his age as the vigilante Paul Kersey.
While the film focuses on vigilante activity, corrupt police unable to administer justice, it also focuses on the drug dealers of Los Angeles and their unscrupulous violence as well as their gang wars.
Kay Lenz is the token woman, a reporter with whom Bronson has a relationship. It is her daughter's death from an overdose of cocaine which precipitates the action - and she too is killed at the end. A range of character actors portray the gangs and villains, especially John P. Ryan as the gang leader intent on taking control of all drug dealing in Los Angeles. Direction is by J. Lee Thompson, the British director (Tiger Bay, Guns of Navarone) who directed quite a number of Bronson vehicles including White Buffalo, St Ives, Capo Blanco, The Evil That Men Do.
1. The continued popularity of the Death Wish series from the '70s to the '90s? Issues of law and order in the United States? Police justice and inability to control criminals? Drug dealers and drug wars?
2. The Los Angeles setting, the officers, architecture, apartments and homes? The drug dealers' mansions? The waste areas for showdowns? The carnival? Musical score?
3. The title, the focus on Paul Kersey and his vengeance? The drug dealers and the crackdown?
4. Ethical issues of the role of the vigilante, taking the law into his own hands, executing criminals? Audience sympathy for the vigilante, for vengeance against criminals? The drug dealers and their empires, gang warfare and audience reaction against them?
5. Bronson as Paul Kersey, acting under his age? Architect, his relationship with Karen? His care for Erica? Suspicions of Randy? Erica's death, Kersey following Randy, the amusement arcade, Jo Jo stabbing Randy and Kersey shooting JoJo? His reaction to the police investigation?
6. The character of Kersey and his ethics? The importance of the prologue, the rape in the car park, his vengeance against the rapists - and the rapist being revealed as himself in the dream?
7. Karen, her investigations at the paper, her informants, going deeply into the drug rings for information? Her anguish at her daughter's death? Her being taken as a shield and killed by Nathan White?
8. The police and their investigations, Reiner and Nozaki, the interviews, the following of suspects? Nozaki and his seeing the car? The irony that he's corrupt? The confrontation with Kersey and his death? Reiner and his disbelief? The confrontation with Kersey - and letting him go? The role of the police?
9. The drug dealers, Ed Zacharias and his mansion, Jack and Tony Romero and their gang? The parties? Kersey and his investigations, infiltrating the party, the deaths at the party? His setting up the gang war, killing members of the various gangs, the invasion and the blowing up of the drug processing factory? His final confrontation with the gangs and the deserted oilfields shootout?
10. Nathan White, the millionaire, his daughter's drug death, summoning Kersey? Secrecy, sinister? Feeding information to Kersey and Kersey following it, the phone taps, the disguises? The irony that Nathan White is a drug dealer and his wanting to eliminate rivals? The pursuit by the police? The confrontation in the car park, the shooting of the henchman, the killing of Karen? Nathan White and his being destroyed by the grenade?
11. The portrait of the gangs, their backgrounds, style? Corruption? Wealthy lifestyle? The contrast with Kersey's way of life?
12. Action sequences, violence, the shootouts, the finale? The action sequences as a context for ethical issues? (Or just an action show?)
