Death Wish, based on the novel by Brian Garfield - 6 out of 10

Death Wish, based on the novel by Brian Garfield
6 out of 10


Critics have destroyed this motion picture, which enjoys a lamentable Average Metascore of just 31 out of 100.

Indeed,  if we can all understand the trauma of a man who loses his family, aggravated by the idea that the killers would escape punishment, we cannot condone revenge killings.

Which arguably is all that Death Wish is about.
If the law is not obeyed and the instructions are not allowed to do their job, what next?

I remember reading a statement made by William Golding, author of one of the best books of all time, Lord of the Flies.
He was asked about it and he said why he has not included girls - hon the one hand, he knew more about boys, having spent much of his time in their company and on the other hand, with girls, the idea of sex would have had to be addressed.

What was more important I guess was what the genius said about the most important message of the book:

If you have no rules, you have nothing!

Indeed, for those familiar with The Lord of the Flies, the plot of the story is known- the group of children has no authority to recognize unanimously and therefore there descend into chaos.

If we allow aggrieved individuals to make the law, there is nothing left.
Furthermore, the supporters of extremist groups, talibans, fundamentalists of various sorts would maintain that they have a right to kill.

That's what they do anyway, maintaining that they only do the just thing, when they revenge somebody who ha been killed somewhere.
Trump, the absurd clown that is the leader of the free world- how low we have fallen! - talked from the start of his election campaign about Mexican rapists.

Earlier today, some other lunatic has killed five or more people in Texas and he surely did so with some abject, gruesome theory of some kind, taking revenge for whatever crazy thing made him mad.

Hence, Death Wish is not just flawed, it could even be toxic.