Thursday, March 04, 2010

Death Wish II- A very heated debate

In 1982, Director Michael Winner once again stirred up a controversy with the sequel to Death Wish. The following is a debate between Winner and Journalist Anna Raeburn. I agree and disagree with Raeburn. This is a badly made film with rather bad dialogue, though I do love the action sequences like the gun fight and when Kersey kills the punk who murdered his daughter. Is this some sort of menace to society as Raeburn makes it out to be ? No. Alfred Hitchcock and Sam Fuller would have done a rape scene if they could have but they would have had the techincal aspects up to snuff. In general you can see how Raeburn found this film in bad taste but should we limit filmmakers to certain subjects ? No. Artists have every right to exploit human misery for their own gratification or financial gain. However if your going to handle a sensitive subject such as rape you are automatically commisioned the responsibility to handle such material with maturity coupled with technical expertise; Winner failed to do either.



I just love the way Winner handles himself here, very calm and reserved and making a few cracks at his critics.