Death Wish 2 (1982)

[Trevor]

I had seen the original and numbers 3 - 5 but never this one. After watching it last night, I was seriously revolted by it and understand now all the hate it got on its' first release when I was too young to see it.

At times, I felt that I was watching a porno film with the rape of Charles Bronson's housemaid and his daughter shockingly depicted: the deaths of the bad guys, especially the death by boom box were well deserved, it was nice to see Jill Ireland and Bronson was good as always, but the film was just too ugly for me.

A rare Michael Winner dud, IMO.  

[zelmo73]

The early '80s were an interesting time, in that there was a brief period before the PG-13 rating came along when Hollywood filmmakers were really pushing the boundaries of the ratings system. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), by all rights, should have been rated R, what with all of its Nazi face-melting, Nazi-getting-chopped-up-in-airplane-propeller glory. And not many people know that Scarface (1983) almost got an X-rating due to its at-the-time extreme subject matter and violence (rather tame by today's standards though).

1982 was a golden year in Hollywood due to the sheer number of movies that came out that year. I think Death Wish 2 (1982) kind of got snuck into the party with its rather disturbing graphic violence. Most big Hollywood movies nowadays would never depict rape as graphically as that movie did; even the "controversial" rape scene in the remake of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) was one of those "I waited a whole hour for that?" movie moments. I think Death Wish 2 (1982) went for the shock value to make the movie audience cheer on the murders...oops, I mean "vigilante justice"...of the perps that Paul Kersey deals in the film.

[jimpickens]

Ah the early 80s a great time to be an exploitation movie fan sure the 70s were groovy but movies like Maniac and Death Wish2 could only be made in the early 80s and in todays climate the studios wouldn't touch Death Wish2 with a ten foot pole.