Death Wish - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Death Wish or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Death Wish

[clayton]

Wendell Mayes preserved the basic structure of the novel and much of the philosophical dialogue. It was his idea to turn police detective Frank Ochoa into a major character of the film. His early drafts for the screenplay had different endings than the final one. In one, he followed an idea from Brian Garfield. The vigilante confronts the three thugs who attacked his family and ends up dead at their hands. Ochoa discovers the dead man's weapon and considers following in his footsteps. In another, the vigilante is wounded and rushed to a hospital. His fate is left ambiguous. Meanwhile, Ochoa has found the weapon and struggles with the decision to use it. His decision left unclear.

[jim]

First ever filmed adaptation of a novel written by Brian Garfield.

[leo]

The killing in the subway station was supposed to remain off-screen in the script, but Michael Winner himself decided to turn this into an actual, brutal scene.

[manuel]

Director Michael Winner was anxious before production because he was waiting for Charles Bronson to tell him he wanted Jill Ireland to play his wife in the movie, despite Winner's feeling she was unsuitable for the part. Finally he said to Bronson, "Charlie, do you want Jill to play your wife in 'Death Wish'?" Bronson replied, "No. I don't want her humiliated and messed around by these actors who play muggers. You know the sort of person we want? Someone who looks like Hope Lange." Lange was an attractive, blonde, all-American "girl next door" type who had starred in the TV series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968) and The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971). Winner said, "Well, Charlie, the person who looks most like Hope Lange is Hope Lange. So I'll get her." And he did.

[jeffrey]

This movie produced four sequels: Death Wish II (1982), Death Wish 3 (1985), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) and Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994). Charles Bronson played Paul Kersey in all four sequels. A remake was released in 2017, starring Bruce Willis as the lead.

[marc]

Charles Bronson first refused the ending scene, in the railway station. But the eventually accepted to make it because Michael Winner insisted. And after seeing the good reviews from the audiences, he told he wrote this scene.

[kristen]

Charles Bronson was fifty-two years of age when he appeared in this movie.

[nina]

After viewing the film, Brian Garfield was dissatisfied with the result of his novel-turned-film, due to its advocacy towards vigilantism, resulting in him writing a sequel novel called 'Death Sentence,' which dealt of the consequences of vigilantism. The book was adapted in 2007 starring Kevin Bacon, but with a complete different story, which kept only certain elements from the book.

[kenneth]

Although the film was released in 1974, according to information in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), the movie is set in 1976.

[riley]

The role of Paul Kersey was originally intended for Steve McQueen, who turned it down.

[riley]

Body Count: 11 (Ten killed by Paul)

[leo]

Initially, Charles Bronson wasn't sold on starring in the film. "The way the part was written, it was about a meek little New York-born accountant," Bronson said. "I thought it was a much better picture for Dustin Hoffman." Eventually, it was Michael Winner who convinced Bronson to take the role anyway. "He said we could change the part to a more active and virile architect, and we'd all make a potful of money."

[gabriel]

Development of this film was turned-down by other Hollywood movie studios due to its contentious, controversial and sensitive subject matter involving vigilantism, pack-rape, and crime.

[kyle]

Death Wish is said to have inspired several copycat incidents of vigilantism around the country. Probably the most famous is the 1984 NYC subway shootings of four youths by Bernard Goetz who was approached by the teens on the subway and had demanded money. The four were all shot and wounded by Goetz, whom the New York tabloids would call the "Death Wish" vigilante.

[bryan]

Playing a young police patrol officer, Patrolman Jackson Reilly, this movie features actor Christopher Guest in one of his earliest screen roles.

[russell]

Brian Garfield thought that Charles Bronson was miscast as Paul Kersey. Garfield didn't like the fact that as soon as Bronson appeared on screen, "you knew he was going to start blowing people away." Michael Winner dismissed the author's criticisms, calling him "an idiot."

[toni]

Audiences loved the film so much that Paramount raised the ticket price from from $3.50 to $4.00 per ticket. At that point, only The Godfather (1972) and The Great Gatsby (1974) had been as expensive.

[chris]

The final script had the vigilante making the occasional reference to westerns. While confronting an armed mugger, he asks him to draw. When Ochoa asks him to leave town, he asks if he has until sundown to do so.

[kyle]

At one point, Kersey is seen reading a magazine called "Tempo," which has the distinctive layout of Time magazine. "Tempo" is the Italian word for "time."