 |
|||
| SOUNDS | |||
Coworker describes Kersey
as a bleeding-heart liberal.
 53
k wav
Sam tells Kersey his idea for the underprivledged.
Jeff Goldblum playing "Freak 1" demands money.
One of Kersey's victims gives the police a clue.
A construction worker demonstrates vigilantism's universal
popularity.
After a beating in an alley, one witness isn't cooperative.
|
The original movie which started the quintilogy
was not that good. It must be taken for what it is...a setup for later
movies. Paul Kersey is a happy, mild-mannered and newly-married architect.
During his honeymoon in Honolulu he is dissappointed when his wife insists
they're to civilized for sex on the beach. When they get back New York
is clearly a dissappointing contrast to the utopia they'd just visited.
Still the couple is clearly very content with their situation when they
fall asleep the night of their return. Presumably the next day, while a
coworker drones on to Kersey about the crime plaguing the city, Kersey
shows strong liberal feeling toward the criminals this man despises. This
prompts the coworker to call Paul a "bleeding-heart liberal" and all the
criminals (and probably just the poor in general) should be stuck in concentration
camps. Paul realizes this guys a nut so he doesn't argue much with him
but the message is loud and clear: Paul Kersey feels bad for criminals.
Kersey gets out of the conversation by bumping into his boss whereupon
he reports that the Jainchill development in Tuscon Arizona looks like
a risky venture that the company, Blue Ridge Development can't afford to
underwrite half of it. The boss says Jainchill's a successful guy and he
wants to go ahead with it. Kersey then suggests a man from the San Francisco
office should go look at it to see how they can redesign it for more profit.
The boss says he'll consider it.
At the grocery store, Jeff Goldblum and two of his hoodlum friends are causing trouble while Joanna and her daughter arrange to have their groceries delivered to the apartment. Goldblum's group spends $2.17 after buying spraypaint and walks out just behind the Kersey's where they see an address sheet on their groceries that reads, "Kersey 33 Riverside 4A". Goldblum immediately realizes he's found a way to rob them easily as demonstrated by the huge grin on his face and they head off in the direction of Riverside. They sneak down a back ramp to avoid the main entrance. The spraypaint guy of the group takes the opportunity of walking up the stairs to spraypaint every wall he can. When they reach the apartment they simply say they come with groceries and the unsuspecting Joanna and daughter Carol open the door. When they forcibly take control each one's concerns become apparent. The "artist" uses his spraypaint to cover the walls. The bald Billy Corgan lookalike is very physical with the girl and it's obvious he's only in on this crime to rape her. And Goldblum wants as much money as he can get. He leaves the group to go raid Joanna's purse while Corgan steps off Carol to raid her purse. All along the artist is still painting the walls. Goldblum is unhappy to find only four dollars and the Billy Corgan guy finds only three after a half hearted search. He obviously doesn't want the money, he wants the girl. Goldblum demands more money but Joanna insists that's all they have. Goldblum and the gang proceed to beat up Joanna and rape Carol and the artist gets in on it too by painting Carol's butt. Joanna is clearly dazed by the ordeal and lies on the floor bloody from the encounter. At his office, Kersey is interupted by a call from his son-in-law Jack. Kersey's real short tempered with Jack initially and it's clear he can't stand him. When Jack breaks the news that the police called him and said both were at the hospital, Kersey is very distressed. When he arrives at the hospital Jack is waiting and officer Joe Charles of the 21st precinct who isn't cooperative in giving Kersey answers to his many questions about the two. Kersey's very distressed by the whole deal and is very impatient. The two wait about 1 minute when Kersey gets mad that they've been waiting "a long time." The doctor comes and tells Jack that his wife is sedated and in bed but okay. Kersey expects the same news but the doctor tells him she died a few minutes ago. He's literally devastated as anyone would be. At the cold snowy funeral Kersey seems to have dealt with the events well enough. Carol made the funeral but didn't say anything and used Jack as physical support the whole time. Kersey decides he'll return to his apartment for the first time immediately after the funeral. Jack doesn't want him to but Kersey insists he must return sometime. The police station where Kersey goes later is very chaotic and the police are very incooperative with Kersey when he wants to speak to Joe Charles. A lady at the police station is frustrated by the police's uncooperativity with her after a mugging. Kersey overhears this and is beginning to change his whole view of the system. As Joe Charles comes out to meet him, Kersey asks for info on the case.
After getting off the bus near his apartment at night, Kersey's walking back alone when crime seems to occupy his every thought. After walking past an alley, a man lighting a match in the alley freaks him out thinking he's about to get mugged. A police car passes by him on the street, but later on that same walk, he's confronted by an actual robber asking for all his money and threatening with a knife. Bronson is rattled but manages to collect himself and pull out his new sock weapon and lands a clean blow to the face knocking the assailant down and then sending him running away. Bronson stands there terrified, yet satisfied with himself. Still the fear of the situation sends him running in the opposite direction. At home he can barely keep his body from shaking enough to pour a drink to settle his nerves. He swings around the sock in his apartment in a confused panicky sort of way hitting the sock against the chair breaking spraying quarters everywhere. Arriving in Tuscon, Ames Jainchill spotted Paul from no more than he looked like a New Yorker. At the site, Ames insists the hills won't be bulldozed because people need space for life. Ames takes Kersey to a phony western town tourists frequent. They watch a show where three hoodlums plot to rob the bank. The Marshal tells them to get out of town by sunset right before they start beating up on him convincingly. As the come out, a vigilante shoots all three and is a hero. The show portrays him as one of the honest men with dreams who fought to protect their town and furthermore planted the roots that were to grow into a nation. Back at the Tuscon offices, Kersey tells Ames BlueRidge won't buy it. Ames insists he won't bulldoze the hills, but lets Kersey work on it. Kersey works hard to squeeze in more houses. Kersey works late on it every night and Ames invites him to a gun club meeting. Kersey goes but isn't very enthusiastically. Ames asks about how long it'd been since he'd shot a gun. It'd been a long time. Ames brings up the Korean war which Kersey was a conciencious objector in a medical unit. Ames goes over why Tuscon is so safe due to everyone carrying guns. Kersey takes some target practice and hits it dead on. Ames is amazed at the accuracy he displays and asks about his history with guns. It turns out Kersey's dad was a hunter or gunman but his mother was entirely anti-guns. When his father was killed in a hunting accident his mother won the arguement and he hadn't touched a gun since. Back at the office, Kersey managed to squeeze 100 more houses into the development with Ames still pleased with the results. On the way back to New York, Ames drops a present off in Kersey's bag. Jack was waiting at the airport when he got back but Carol was in the hospital. It turns out Jack had been leading Kersey to believe Carol was doing better after coming back from the shore. Jack admits he lied because he didn't see any reason to get him all worked up over it when there was nothing he could do. Kersey's really distraught about it and as Jack explains he starts breaking up. Kersey blames the doctors Jack's chosen, but Kersey wants to believe there's something he can do. When the two go to see her she's nearly a vegetable. The choice before them is to commit her and they end up doing it after Jack goes off on a tyrade of how she's nothing but a statistic on a police record. When Kersey gets in that night the honeymoon pictures are back and he's reminded of his wife and can't seem to take it. He unpacks his bags and finds Ames' gift. When he opens up the case he's almost awed by the power he has holding the gun. Kersey seems to be asking for trouble that night when he goes for a desolate walk in a park-type area. He's off course attacked and this time he shoots killing his attacker and sending him running home. This time at home he's even more shaken up. He collapses upon entering his apartment then goes and throws up. At the scene of the crime, Inspector Frank Ochoa is told the corpse is Thomas Leroy Marston who was on parole after 42 months of a 5 year sentence for Grand Larceny. He was a drug addict so they figure he was probably trying to rob someone who was trying to rob him. The wallet still has money in it so the inspector feels that can't be it. At Paul's office, Sam-the concentration camp guy, and the boss look over his design for the Jainchill development. Kersey is happy to report a nearly 2 million dollar profit take it or leave it. The boss approves of it and comments on how well he looks after Tuscon. Paul reluctantly states he feels good. That night, Kersey's walking down a dark street when in the alley three thugs are assaulting a man. Kersey steps in and the three leave the man they were beating on to approach him. He pulls out his gun and shoots all three including one of them twice. On the crime scene, reporters swarm the inspector who walks up to an officer trying to extract information from the man they were beating up who isn't about to give them Kersey's identity. Ochoa thinks this guy killed all three and is making up the story so he send the bullets to the lab for ballistics tests to show the victim shot them. Of course ballistics shows the same gun killed the guy in the park too and the media soon picks up on this. At the Hampshire Institute for Mental Rehabilitation nuns take over care of Carol while Jack and Kersey think about the events and ponder society's problems. Jack thinks they'd both be smarter to just live in the country. Kersey thinks it's ridiculous and suggests they should go back to the old American social custom of self defense. He asks, what do you call someone who when faced with the condition of fear does nothing about it? Jack answers civilized, exactly the thing Kersey wished they weren't on the beach in the opening scene and it's clear he's about to take a bigger step toward uncivilized behaivor. At the police station, Ochoa starts the investigation with all the agents listening. He looks for motive and says to check the records for victims of mugging in the last three months because he feels the vigilante is in it for revenge. He wants the search limited to homicides. He thinks the vigilante's had a member or members of his family killed by muggers. Since he shoots the gun so well he wants only those who are combat veterans as well with Vietnam vets at the top of the list because they're youngest and toughest, but then Korea and World War 2 will be checked. Ochoa's also very concerned with how the media will view the situation and briefs them on how to deal with reporters. On the subway, two thugs enter Kersey's car where only two other people are onboard. The two get off immediately so it's just Kersey and 2 thugs. Kersey's reading the paper when one man advances on him while the other stands watch. Kersey collapses the paper over his gun-toting hand and shoots both a few times before running out of the subway station with police right behind him but not identifying him. At a press conference where international news is covering the vigilante killings. Ochoa and the mayor explain the situation to the media circus and everyone realizes that this is all the work of one man. Sam, Paul and the boss watch this press conference on the television while they have lunch and Kersey seems quite amused. The mayor pleades with the vigilante to stop his killings and leave this up to the police. Two ladies in the resteraunt watch the television as well and one points out to another that Ochoa is on the cover of "People" magazine. A reporter asks if the vigilante is crazy, and Ochoa answers, "I don't think we're dealing with a raving maniac." Another reporter asks if muggings are down since the vigilante became headline news. He responds that it's not which prompts the reporter to ask, if it were would you announce it? This leads to question evasion typical of politicians. Kersey's lunch table thinks muggings are down and they're just afraid to tell them. At the Police station, Ochoa gets the 23rd confession to the vigilante killings phoned in. There weren't any prints on the vigilante's groceries he was carrying on the subway when it happened. But the reciept identifies the store and from there they can narrow it down sufficiently to search Kersey's apartment later-without his knowledge of course. Jack drops by Kersey's apartment to find loud cheerful music and a new bright yellow coat of paint as well as a cheerful Kersey who's decided to quit crying about the past. Jack's amazed he could be so happy when Carol's in such bad shape. Kersey lashes out at him for that, but he's definitely in better spirits. That night Kersey's hanging out in a diner when two thugs see him leave alone and follow him out. The see him enter the subway and decide they'll go to another station entrance and rob him that way. So Kersey walks head on at them and inevitably shoots them after they ask for a match. One man though gets away injured and that spells trouble for Kersey though he barely escapes capture. When Kersey gets home his shoulder is badly cut and he repairs his own wounds. At the hospital, the wounded thug died, but he said he cut the man who hit him. In Kersey's apartment, he's watching the news report and is pleased that this vigilante attitude is catching on. The news shows how an old lady used a hat pin to drive off her attackers. Also at a construction site, someone noticed a mugging going on. In his words, "we roughed him up a little before the police got here." The search of the computers yields 14 people who are suspects. Ochoa demands all the info on all 14 of these people. At a party, Kersey overhears talk about the vigilante. People are divided as to whether he's helping or hurting the crime problem. One lady insists he's a racist because he hits more blacks than whites. Another man argues that more blacks are muggers than whites and asks if she wants them to increase the amount of white muggers to have racial equality among muggers. Bronson seems to have grown used to this attention and isn't grinning from ear to ear anymore like he was at the resteraunt. Kersey goes outside with drink in hand to look at New York and think. The next day, Ochoa and his friend stale out Kersey's apartment and Ochoa illegally searches it once he leaves. Kersey goes to work with Ochoa's friend following him. They pass a billboard for Newsweek that had "Vigilantism" on the cover. Ochoa finds bloody gauze in his bathroom which suggests he was wounded and finds lots of periodicals with vigilantism in common including the People magazine which featured Ochoa. Ochoa reports his findings to the district attorney and the DA decides he doesn't want Kersey if he's the vigilante. They explain that mugging has gone down from 950 to 470 per week. They realize that if that gets out people would be killing everyone who even looked thugish. Still they want him to stop so they tell Ochoa to make him stop without arresting him. Ochoa reluctantly agrees to scare him off. In Kersey's office late, he gets a call saying he's under police surveillance. Kersey doesn't like that but deals with it. He leaves his gun at the office that night as a result. On the way home several policemen confront him and search him. After asking for identification, they let him go. One of the cops asks Ochoa if the performance was okay and he says it was indeed okay. Kersey noticed an orange car right behind the police car and knew something was up. That night while they're watching him, he sees their car in front of the building and sneaks out the back way the same way Goldblum and the gang snuck in. Ochoa's getting restless in the car for no reason and demands that his buddy go call him. It takes a while to find a pay phone that works but when he does, there's obviously no answer at Kersey's because he's going to his office to get his gun. He leaves the office just before Ochoa gets there. Kersey then heads over to the parklike place where he shot his first mugger. Three men advance on him there. He shoots two but one comes after him and shoots Kersey. Kersey goes after that one despite the risk. Ochoa gets word of the gunshots and heads over to the scene. Kersey is lead into an industrial sort of place and the mugger thinks he's in the clear when Kersey starts talking to him. Kersey's hurting from blood loss and collapses when the police find him. Only one patrolman saw the gun on Kersey so Ochoa brings him aside and convinces him he didn't see anything and gives Ochoa the gun. Ochoa takes it to Arthur C. Logan Memorial hospital where they took Kersey. He fights off the media circus which thinks they have the vigilante inside. He's badly wounded but still conscious so Ochoa speaks to him alone. He seems to admire Kersey's determined attitude. He offers Kersey the option to transfer offices to another city in which case he'll drop the gun in the river. Kersey musters up all his energy to ask, "By sundown?". The inspector is really angry at the media waiting for him outside. In a Chicago train station, a new coworker of his is waiting to meet him. In the station, some hoodlums are roughing up a girl. He walks over to the girl, helps her gather her things, then makes an imaginary gun with his fingers and points at the thugs amussed. Kersey doesn't spend long in Chicago because he's soon to go to Los Angeles for Death Wish II. |
||
|
|||
