Death Wish 3 poster & wallpaper

Charles Bronson, Deborah Raffin, Martin Balsam

The rugged Mr. Bronson is back again as Paul Kersey, the Korean War vet who loves to lure street thugs to surprise endings.

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56% liked it

7,417 ratings

R, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Michael Winner

Release Date: November 1, 1985

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DVD Release Date: February 3, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (447)

  • PvtCaboose91
    August 7, 2009
    PvtCaboose91
    "A .475 Wildey magnum is a shorter version of the African big game cartridge, it makes a real mess."


    By 1985, the movie-going public had been subjected to a new breed of action filmmaking: the "one man army" genre. Character development and logic are of no concern to

    ...( read more) such actioners since their prime focus is instead on a lone hero annihilating as many bad guys as possible (think Rambo: First Blood Part II and Commando). Death Wish 3 (the second sequel to 1974's Death Wish) employs this particular template. It discards the gritty drama and interesting themes of the original movie (which spoke about the urban condition of its time) in favour of simple, orgasmically satisfying violence. Death Wish 3 is a bona fide guilty pleasure - it isn't a particularly good movie and it recycles every '80s action movie cliché in existence, but it's a highly entertaining product of its time.


    As expected, the plot of Death Wish 3 is as thin as they come. Paul Kersey (Bronson) departs from Los Angeles and travels back to New York City to visit a friend. His buddy (who resides in a bad neighbourhood) is killed by local gang members, and Paul is mistakenly arrested for the crime. The local police captain (Lauter) recognises Kersey from his earlier vigilante adventures, and sets him free under the condition that he tidies up the streets. Living in his late friend's apartment and amassing an arsenal of weapons, Paul rages war on the local gang, much to the happiness of the law-abiding citizens of the neighbourhood. The movie of course eventually builds to a crescendo in which the neighbourhood is reduced to a massive war zone.


    Death Wish 3 is just a 90-minute turkey shoot - a madhouse of rape, torture, violence, brutality, explosions, and savagery. Attempts to justify the violence and mass-murder are perfunctory for this instalment. The dialogue is frequently awkward and the proceedings are generally silly. The street creeps are cardboard caricatures that in no way resemble genuine criminals of 1985, not to mention the main gang is portrayed as more of a cult - they dress in strange break dance fashion and wear identifying marks on their foreheads.


    Throughout most of the movie Paul merely lures out his victims with the promise of an easy steal before hosing them down with hot lead. At no point does he ever seem in genuine peril. On top of everything, there's a romance subplot that's cumbersome and random. To set up an incredibly violent climax, Paul has to endure some form of emotional turmoil, and that's where this romantic subplot comes into play (though after his girl is killed, he doesn't give her a second glance before he returns to whatever he was doing). When all's said and done, Death Wish 3 exists to showcase gratuitous violence...and it delivers in spades. It's impossible to keep up with the amount of people who are shot, blown up, stabbed, beaten, pushed off rooftops, or just plain maimed during the climax. The whole thing is so violent that it was initially hit with an 'X' rating by the MPAA, though this was successfully appealed. Death Wish II was also a repellent, exploitative actioner, but this third movie surpasses its predecessor because it has more style and a greater entertainment value.


    Charles Bronson remains shockingly one-note for all of his screen-time. Even when people close to him are killed, he doesn't seem too fazed. His dialogue is restricted, and his most complicated deliveries come in the form of providing rundowns of the weapons he receives in the mail. Just like the second Death Wish picture, credibility is a key issue - despite looking so old, Bronson's Paul Kersey is able to run down opponents on foot and is a perfect marksman while the young hooligans can't shoot for shit (even when Paul is in the open).


    Kersey's .475 Wildey Magnum is probably as much the star of the movie as Bronson. Hilariously (and perhaps alarmingly), the creator of this handgun (Wildey Moore) admitted in an interview that there is a spike in sales of the .475 Magnum every time Death Wish 3 appears on television.


    Bronson tore Death Wish 3 to pieces in later interviews and ended his professional partnership with Winner after the film was released. Bronson was reportedly dissatisfied with the script since production commenced, and at the time he was far more concerned about the health of his wife (Jill Ireland) who was diagnosed with cancer. In any case, Bronson still starred in the film. His performance may not contain much heart, but his rugged demeanour is nonetheless compelling. Death Wish 3 (Roman numerals weren't used in the title like the second film because most Americans are unable to decipher them) fails as a serious crime/drama, but it works marvellously as an entertaining, balls-to-the-wall '80s action film.


    Followed by Death Wish 4: The Crackdown.
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    March 2, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Bronson on a killing rampage!
  • clooneyfan
    February 3, 2008
    clooneyfan
    Not as good as Death Wish 1 but I enjoy watching bad guys taking a beating!
  • stopitgoaway
    January 28, 2008
    stopitgoaway
    There are few movies out there that can honestly be called classics, Deathwish 3 is one. I must have watched this movie dozens of times, yet each time it is just as ridiculously funny. From the outset the movie explodes with laughs. Kersey's trip to jail, where he is threatened b...( read more)y some thug, who apparently high on goof balls, decides to attack the most giant guy in the jail for no reason and is bloodily beaten down. At this point he turns back to Kersey and curses him like it is his fault! Make no sense? Don't let that stop you, there is more where that came from. Next the police inspector beating Kersey up, then abruptly out of nowhere saying, `you see, I'm a big fan of yours'! . There are so many other hilarious plot inconsistencies. Mr.Kaprov saying `Mr.Kersey, it's 90 degrees outside!' as he is wearing a full shirt and thick sweater! Or Kersey's friend Charlie, who somehow managed to smuggle back two massive machine guns from Korea. Did he take that in his carryon luggage on the trip back? Add to all this lame romance that Kersey and the public defender have and you have the making of a masterpiece. For whatever reason, the desperate woman wants a date with Kersey. The romance that ensues is epic, until unfortunately, like all women that Kersey dates, she is horribly killed. The final piece of the puzzle is some of the best one liners in any movie. Some include, `it's your wife, she is sick or... something' Fraker, `bulletproof just like yours asshole' Fraker, `they call him the giggler, he laughs when he runs' Bennet, "I'll kill a little old lady for you. Catch it on the 6 o'clock news!" Fraker. I could go on and on. You owe it to yourself to rent this extraordinary film. Truly one of the greatest ever made!
  • jonnycrumley
    February 18, 2009
    jonnycrumley
    It's hard not to enjoy this series. Even though Bronson is always watchable, the terrible story, music, and editing make it easy to discredit. The original Death Wish movie got in trouble for glorifying violence, however this does it to a level that's actually great fun to watch.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 25, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    After this the Deathwish movies sucked
  • billytechkid
    September 22, 2009
    billytechkid
    exceeded my expectations. many moments of hilarity.
  • studaddylou
    September 3, 2009
    studaddylou
    Add a review (optional)...
  • gravityandgrace2003
    March 1, 2009
    gravityandgrace2003
    Charles Bronson returns to the Big Apple to help a bunch of old people blow away a bunch of snot-nosed punks ruining their neighborhood. Michael Winner's 1985 classic 'Death Wish 3' is his love song to the works of Bergman, and the veritable 'Seventh Seal' of bad action movies. I...( read more)t deserves a Criterion edition disc. Hopefully someone will alert its fans to how to go about procuring this, or the stupid liberal movie studios will wake their asses up, and the world will sing its praises even more.

    Okay, so this movie is part of the standard that I look for when judging a bad action movie- it is easily up there in the top ten movies ever made, and why it didn't gross more than all the Star Wars movies combined is just mind-boggling to me.

    I'm assuming if you're looking @ this film, you already know the first two. Paul Kersey (Chuck Bronson) is Paul Kersey here; he's a professional vigilante NOW, who smiles and looks more like your grandpa than someone who would blow you away with a bazooka or a big game weapon, but there it is. So Kersey comes back to New York after ten years to help one of his friends from the Korean War. Said friend is killed by the evil, cartoonish Warriors-esque gang, and somewhere along the way, Kersey is recruited by the head police guy and given basically a free pass to blow the punks away. He spends a lot of time hanging out in an apartment building with other old people eating cabbage soup. His other hobbies include ordering things through the mail. The premise is as dumb as it sounds, but I'd take it any day over that scmaltzy Ron Howard 'Beautiful Mind' bullshit. If Russell Crowe were blowing shit up with bazookas and killing the Giggler, maybe I'd be a little more interested. But he wasn't, so there.

    As with all the Death Wish sequels, the gang members and criminals get more and more cartoonish- which matches the tone of the movies, as the movies feel more and more cartoonish and glorious. The main baddie is played by Gavin O'Herliy, and a big part of the beauty of this movie is little shit like this, where we're supposed to believe this pasty, bald white guy is the head of this big giant minority-heavy gang. I guess they all respected how the bald spot allowed the facepaint to go all around his dome. The guy from Bill N Ted tells some chick he wants "to eat" her. And shows his enthusiasm by jumping on her car hood and staying there for half a mile, until the ol' Bronsinator wipes that smug smirk off his crushed peas' eatin' face.

    Another Death Wish cliche is the chick who gets close to Paul, and must be immediately terminated or violated in some way for befouling our rugged hero with her vaginal juices. Here, the chick is a DA who meets Paul for two minutes @ the station and practically throws herself @ his feet half an hour later in the movie, asking him to dinner and that she'd rather save a horse and ride a Kersey. No sooner had they thrown the condom wrapper away, than the head baddie wastes no time in dispensing with her, hilariously too.

    This movie probably has the highest body count of any movie in history, perhaps matched by its sister movie, the equally classic 'Invasion USA.' Someone here suggested this movie was like the Tom Jane Punisher- I beg to differ. This is pure kindred to the 1989 Dolph version of the Punisher. It's almost like Dolph's Castle could be Kersey, Jr. I tell ya something, if Tom Jane were half the man Bronson was, the 2004 Punisher wouldn't have sucked half as bad as it did. That movie was the Will Smith version of Castle. But I'm getting off topic here.

    The sight of seeing a bunch of geriatric tenant-dwellers unite behind Kersey's example and turn their block into a war zone, blowing away thugs left and right, is a sight to behold, and I'm sure even the Apostles would opt to see this spectacle rather than be worried about some spider-web-encrusted ol' tomb. Don't fuck with the oldies.

    As in part II, Jimmy Page (yes, THAT Jimmy Page, who wrote 'Stairway' and 'the Song Remains the Same') provides the horrible soundtrack. I know a lot of bad movie honks like the soundtrack, but I'd rather listen to the Cobra Strikes from American Ninja III than this score. Lots of funky slap-synthesizer bass, drum machines, and the like. But it fits. I dunno.

    1985 was a glorious year for bad action, and our favorite movie studio, Cannon films. Death Wish 3 is the crowning achievement of our friends, Golan-Globus, like an artifact from a once-great Roman or Greek empire. Even if this weren't like the Seventh Seal of bad action cinema, it would be worth seeing alone for the scene where the police chief blows away the Bill N Ted guy, or people getting blown to bits out of second story apartment windows with military weapons. Familiarizing yourself with this essential piece of filmmaking is like learning to walk if you want to exist in the realm of bad movie knowledge. It should be taught in university film and history classes around the world, along side 'Cobra' and 'Stone Cold.'
  • Louxchador
    February 15, 2009
    Louxchador
    It's like Rudi Giuliani took great offense to the existence of "The Wire" and decided the problem with Bernie Goetz was that he didn't have a silver haired Blagojevich mane, moustache, and decked out arsenal, and didn't walk through all of Manhattan.

    Certainly campy funny and so...( read more) bad they're good moments, but not enough to become a Bcherng Classic.

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