I once lived in a party house with a huge pastel painting on the wall featuring famous men with famous mustaches. For some reason, Charles Bronson and Salvador Dali were the most prominent. Over cereal and beer each morning, I came to hold the former mustachioed legend in the highest regard and thus began to rent his movies. Watching Bronson calmly maneuver and detonate a soccer ball bomb using a remote control in Death Wish V: The Face of Death made me realize that sometimes you have to do supremely odd and disagreeable things as a man, and one must always look as if he’s done them a million times by expressing cool disinterest.
I’m not interested in seeing Sylvester Stallone remake Bronson’s most signature film, the first Death Wish, and I don’t grasp why the guy’s so excited to update it. Back on the scene promoting this month’s much anticipated Rambo, Stallone revealed plans for the main character in his potential remake of the 1974 vigilante classic, saying he’d make him…
“completely violent, an ex convict who walked the walk, was accepted back into society and did everything he could to be a [good person] like these thieves and junkies who now work on the side of the law. They’ve gone that way, but when something happens he reverts back to that guy.”
Stallone also further clarified his fascination with the film’s premise and core ethical dilemma …
“I think Death Wish, if it were done today, would be volcanic. The idea of Jeff Goldblum being a mugger [in the original film] who breaks into an apartment is very simplistic. It gives you an idea how bad the elevation of violence has become. I would focus on defense attorneys, I would focus on [the people] allowing this crap to happen — not so much the guy on the street. It’s like, ‘Who permits it?’ What if it happened to you, that your daughter was grabbed and her eyes were put out? Would you want to sit there and defend that guy? There’s moral questions here that are being presented that have not been answered in 30 years.”
Whoa. Have there been a lot of eyeball kidnappers recently that I don’t know about? One thing is for sure, Stallone is not taming with age. The buzz leaking out of preview screenings has this latest Rambo stained with the sort of unapologetic, irony-free blood and violence we haven’t seen since the squib-popping ’80s. But I equate Rambo with Sly, Dirty Harry with Eastwood, and Death Wish with Bronson, and believe there shouldn’t be any overlap. If only in the name of that grueling soccer ball terrorism that was Bronson’s last paycheck, don’t do it.
source: IGN
January 11th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
bronson is turning in his grave
January 11th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I saw the Death Wish remake last year. It was called “The Brave One” No need to do another so soon :P
January 12th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Oh hell - after the mess Sly made of Get Carter, this news depresses me greatly.
January 12th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Dumb move for Sly Stalone. Death Wish was a real shocker in the Seventies but Death Sentence and The Brave One prove people are sick of it. People want to see him play Rambo and Rocky so he should do more of those movies.
And how about a sequel to Demolition Man or Tango and Cash? Those were big hits and great films.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Glad most of us don’t agree with the writers view. Can you imagine if he was the same writer writing about how ROCKY would fail. That last writer is eating his words.
I for one loved Charles Bronson Death wish Series seen them all. And of all the actors I can think of , I think Stallone would be a perfect fit. He brings a strong presense to the screen which is what Bronson did You can’t put Michael Douglas or Harrison Ford in a role like that You need someone that will make impact who has substance . Stallone has it all for this role. Bronson the loaner approach you see him walking the streets quiet man turmoil inside of him, I can see Stallone carrying off this character . You saw his demeaner in COPLAND , you see the powerful strength and im not talking just about ROCKY or RAMBO its the edge he has the fire in the pit of his stomach, the way he comes across the screen. He can be explosive or quiet and into himself. His ruggedness and his posture a feeling of being a bit weathered a toll that has been taken on him, yet strong and not willing to lay around and have his candle fade out. All traights Broson portrayed in the film. Yet Stallone would bring a bit more liveliness that I found Bronson showed differently, he was more subdued sad lonely but Stallone would take it to greater heights you’d see it in his emotions and features .
Kudo’s to the person who thought of Stallone for this roll he can pull this off.
Save a ticket for me count me in.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:36 am
@James Duncan,
Whaa? I’m sorry, what commenter here disagrees with me besides you? And I don’t grasp your first sentence at all. I also really liked Rocky Balboa, plan to see the new Rambo and hope it does well, and dressed up like a street-garb 0-110 Rocky last Halloween. A Death Wish remake is just an inexplicable, poor and odd choice for Stallone’s next movie.
Your ticket is saved you are counted in. ;)
January 12th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Hunter, dude, you liked Rocky Balboa? Having just sat through it (half an hour ago!), it completely played like a made-for-TV movie. Sly’s direction is still back in the late 70s/early 80s. His performance was fairly good, but the script was all over the place and the actual movie-making was abysmal.
Sentimental sludge.
January 12th, 2008 at 7:23 am
SO silly. that’d be like if Harrison Ford didn’t play Indy in “Crystal Skull”
and for real, who’s got a better stache than the Brons? see.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:23 am
I have novel idea for Sly. Why not write AN ORIGINAL STORY that explores these themes you feign interest in instead of taking the lazy man’s way out? “Those who allow this to happen?” You mean the Founding Fathers who sought to establish a free society, warts and all? Here’s and idea for you: Disgruntled ex-cop kidnaps the greatest scientist on Earth and forces him to build a time machine so he can go back in time and smack Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson around for creating an open society where the potential for crime exists. Only to return to find an America where he is hunted for being far too free-thinking by the new standards he himself established. Oh the irony! The title: Be Careful What You Ask For or Think About It or Look Before You Leap of Don’t Be an Idiot. Sorry, got carried away.
That one is on the house.
January 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
@Christopher,
Calling any Rocky movie sappy is like calling Stanley Kubrick Kubrickian. To many men, those movies are like sportsx1,000 that allow them to get teary eyed and relate to massive training regimens from the couch (”just like my high school football days”). Sure, Rocky Balboa is formulaic but in its own way it’s the deepest of the films. I’ve never seen a modern star like Stallone make or star in a movie that’s basically his ideas on the ravishing of time and the inevitable. He doesn’t gussy himself up. We see it on his face (I know he’s had cosmetic surgery, but still). It’s a very personal film for an actor not to mention a director, and a lot of non-Rocky fans were disappointed with the “slow” first half, but that’s the film’s point. The messages are laid out in the film like they’re from Sly’s private journal, and if you didn’t see them as metaphors for his trials in Hollywood this last decade or two, re-watch it. Of course, the messages are there to be understood by families, and it’s Rocky, not exactly a brainiac, but that’s why we like the dude and the movies.
As for the ’70s look, Rocky’s character is mentally stuck in the good ol’ Philly days. He’s a dinosaur amongst men. Philly can look drab, and Rocky Balboa reflects that. It’s a great, hard working city with a bad murder rate. I’d say the look reflects Stallone’s eye as a director, but to each his own. I will say that I watched the Rocky box set over Christmas, and Rocky III is more dated than ever. Also, Rocky’s IQ goes up and down through the films, but it returns to regular Rocky in Rocky Balboa. It was a fine send off. And Paulie is just as bat shit as ever. Gotta love it.