The Charles Bronson Appreciation Thread

[Rawhide7]

Just finished watching Death Wish 2.  Really enjoy watching the Death Wish series.  Charles Bronson is a fabulous actor.

[antonis]

Saw again the rarest of them all " yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus".
 Perhaps the most out of character Bronson role , along with the Indian runner. A film shot not long after his wife (Jill Ireland ) passed away & Bronson portrays an emotionally broken widower.
A well made by all means tv-movie.

[_Clintan_]

Saw again the rarest of them all " yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus".
 Perhaps the most out of character Bronson role , along with the Indian runner. A film shot not long after his wife (Jill Ireland ) passed away & Bronson portrays an emotionally broken widower.
A well made by all means tv-movie.

Do you mean rare performance-wise? If so, I tend to agree. It's a cute little Christmas movie, I make it my mission to watch it every holiday season.

[antonis]

Do you mean rare performance-wise? If so, I tend to agree.

Exactly...

[_Clintan_]

This is something I wrote on another forum regarding Bronson's 7 year stint with The Cannon Group between the years 1982-1989:

Not a popular opinion among Bronson fans, but I actually like the Cannon years. It's probably because I love 80's action movies, 80's scores, 80's cheese and of course, Charles Bronson. Nevertheless, I think a lot of his Cannon movies offers good entertainment, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way.

Love these:

Death Wish II-IV
10 to Midnight
Murphy's Law

Good, but don't measure up to the previously mentioned:

Messenger of Death
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

Pretty bad:

Assassination

People claim Cannon ruined his career and some even say they ruined his legacy, I think that is pure bull$#!t. Shortly before joining Cannon he made Caboblanco and Borderline, two movies that flopped, are seen as some of his worst movies and even pissed off fans, who wondered if Bronson even cared about the movies he made at that point. Had he given up? He listened to the fans and followed up those turkeys with Death Hunt before joining forces with Cannon on Death Wish II. The rest, as they say, is history. If anything, I think Cannon may have prolonged his career as a box office star. He may have been forced to do TV-movies a little earlier than in the early 90's if he had added more flops to his name in the early 80's. A lot of kids of the video era were introduced to Bronson through his Cannon movies, so he got a whole new audience.

A lot of people like to say that he was only in it for the paycheck in the 80's. While that may be true, he was always in it for the paycheck, which he was quite frank about, as were others around him. Yes, he liked to work with better scripts in the 70's, but at that point in his career he was the biggest star in the world and had offers thrown his way, with great scripts to choose from. After a few bombs and disappointments, less of those probably came his way in the 80's. So he did exactly what he had done previously, work for the paycheck, only this time in movies with lesser scripts that used the established, stereotypical Bronson persona. This benefitted both Bronson and the fans. Bronson got a nice paycheck (reportedly 3 million dollars) for each movie and fans got the Bronson they loved to see on the big screen, only these movies may not have aged that well compared to his 70's work. Honestly, after Love and Bullets, Cabo Blanco and Borderline, I don't think fans at that time were too upset with Bronson making movies like 10 to Midnight, the Death Wish sequels and Murphy's Law.

Are the best ones he did for Cannon capable of competing with the best ones he did in the 60's and 70's? In my opinion, no. It would be hard for anything he did in the 80's to top some of the great stuff he did back then, considering he wasn't getting the same offers anymore.

So, in short, I enjoy most of his Cannon movies and revisit them quite often. I don't view them as a dark period in Charlie's career, nor do I view them as a highlight. They are what they are, I'm thankful for them and am proud to have them in my collection.

[Christopher]

Good post, Clintan. I agree with that. The movies from that era are fun, and some are really good.

[Hemlock]

Well I still think 10 To Midnight stinks and at times in Bronson`s Cannon movies it looks like he`s just doing same character over and over again (well in Deat Wish films-series he did  )...and yet those films are quite entertaining.

I´d love to see Murphy`s Law again.Vaguely remember that to be good and funny too.

[_Clintan_]

Well, I don't think his dildo-inserting, racist character in Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is a lot like the reporter he plays in Messenger of Death, or the depressed, drunken cop on the run in Murphy's Law. If you only scratch the surface, it could appear to be so, but the same goes for a lot of Clint Eastwood characters/performances.

And yes, 10 to Midnight stinks, of delightful 80's cheese God I love the soundtrack to that movie, I listen to it quite often.

[Hemlock]

Well, I don't think his dildo-inserting, racist character in Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is a lot like the reporter he plays in Messenger of Death, or the depressed, drunken cop on the run in Murphy's Law. If you only scratch the surface, it could appear to be so, but the same goes for a lot of Clint Eastwood characters/performances.

Good point(with Eastwood vs Bronson) and it`s been awhile since I saw those three films.

Always though he could act and he should`ve shown the range more often...I guess that`s my point.He had loads of charisma and that carried many films.Only because of him 10 To Midnight is barely watchable.Film`s many flaws lies elsewhere .

[_Clintan_]

After the success of Death Wish, he got away with showing more range just once, in Breakout. But that movie was a well made action adventure ride and it was his first movie to be released after Death Wish, so it had all the makings of a box office success. Later on when he tried to do different things and show range in movies like St. Ives and From Noon Till Three, the audience wouldn't have any of it and the movies flopped.

A good case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Christopher]

I do think Bronson is a better actor than he gets credit for sometimes, and I think it could be said that he was a better actor than he probably gave himself credit for. Indeed I think he could have varied his roles a bit, and he could have had a career more along the lines of the type Eastwood has had as an actor.

[_Clintan_]

In September last year, a very rare 80's Bronson movie was finally released on DVD - Act of Vengeance, a Cannon produced TV-movie. Highly recommended for the completists. Now all we need is a release of The Sea Wolf on DVD and fans can own every movie Bronson did from 1970 up to his last movie, Family of Cops III (1999) on either DVD or Blu-ray.

For those of you who like to upgrade your favorite Bronson movies to Blu-ray, Mr. Majestyk and Breakheart Pass were released on the format this past fall, and The White Buffalo is coming in April. The German release of Violent City seems to have been postponed indefinitely. Hopefully we have a good Bronson year in Blu this year.

[Christopher]

I was just on IMDb and saw that Bronson was in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I'm not sure I've seen any of those. I remember his episode "Two" in Twilight Zone. Two of Bronson's Hitchcock episodes were in season 1, which means they're currently available on Netflix (they just have the first three seasons).

[antonis]

In September last year, a very rare 80's Bronson movie was finally released on DVD - Act of Vengeance, a Cannon produced TV-movie. Highly recommended for the completists. Now all we need is a release of The Sea Wolf on DVD .

1)I hope they didn't use the VHS cover for this Act of Vengeance DVD release.Totally misleading.
2)I'm almost certain there is a Danish DVD of the Sea Wolf around.

[_Clintan_]

1)I hope they didn't use the VHS cover for this Act of Vengeance DVD release.Totally misleading.

Which one are you referring to? The American?

2)I'm almost certain there is a Danish DVD of the Sea Wolf around.

This would shock and THRILL me if true. Please, if you can, look into it. I'm dying to replace my Swedish VHS tape of it.

[antonis]

Which one are you referring to? The American?

This would shock and THRILL me if true. Please, if you can, look into it. I'm dying to replace my Swedish VHS tape of it.

1)

2)Sorry, ... Spanish

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sea-Wolf-Charles-Bronson/dp/B00A8OB4UI

[_Clintan_]

Yeah, the French VHS of Act of Vengeance is misleading. Here's the German DVD cover, same as the German VHS cover: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00LX19AY2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0SE7S2EPB8MZ1QWXH2M1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455353687&pf_rd_i=301128

One hilarious thing is the back cover, it has a bad photoshopped picture of Bronson from Death Wish V on it, what makes it even worse is that in Death Wish V, he has a mustache, which he doesn't in Act of Vengeance!

Oh yes, the Spanish version of The Sea Wolf. Ordered that one some time ago, because it was supposed to have an English audio track on it. When I got it, however, it only had Spanish and GERMAN! Pissed me off royally. There is a German DVD of it, but only with German audio.

[Christopher]

I've just recently recieved these two DVDs in the mail--the first a double feature with Rider on the Rain and Farewell Friend, and the other with Cabo Blanco and an episode of U.S. Marshal Bronson guest starred in. Rider on the Rain is the only one of these I've seen before. In fact I have a cheap DVD version of it but replaced it since this is widescreen and the picture quality looks good.

[antonis]

Rider & Farewell are two of Bronson's best.
I was lucky enough to watch the second one in a theater during the '80s.

[_Clintan_]

If anyone have missed it, Twilight Time (same company that released the now OOP Blu-ray of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) are releasing Ten to Midnight. Here's the awesome cover: