The Big Picture
It’s hard to imagine the Death Wish franchise without Charles Bronson, but if certain actors had taken on the part then there’s a chance that we would have had a very different set of movies than what we ended up with. This is a series that is deeply indebted to Bronson’s portrayal of the iconic anti-hero Paul Kersey. Imaging anyone else occupying this part just feels wrong, and would have taken Death Wish’s legacy down a very different path. While it is interesting to look at the potential faces that almost nabbed the lead role, would we have loved these filthy action movies if they were served to us any other way? Charles Bronson *is* Death Wish! And yet there was a moment when the role of Paul Kersey was floated to acting legend Henry Fonda.
In the early ’70s, Hollywood was gearing up to dive head first down one of its grimiest eras. Vigilante movies, exploitation films, and a good whiff of American cynicism were running through art everywhere. The Vietnam War showed the people of our country that our leaders might not have our back as much as we thought, and the Watergate Scandal drove that idea home tenfold. Of course, artists will always react to world events in their work, and the ’70s is a prime example of that. This led to a slew of thrilling films that had a strong and topical bite to them. Audiences were fed paranoid, angry goods with The French Connection, The Andromeda Strain, and of course, Death Wish.
The Original ‘Death Wish’ Is Not What You Think It Is
The original Death Wish is one of the coolest movies of its kind, but it’s not quite the action movie that the rest of the series would go on to be. On the surface, most people expect Paul Kersey’s first outing to be the same kind of despicable yet badass, gonzo run-and-gun action extravaganza that Death Wish 3 is. In reality, the first film in the series is actually a simple slow-burn revenge thriller. This might upset new viewers who are coming to see a mindless, fastball shoot-em-up, but if you’re willing to ease up and go with filmmaker Michael Winner where he’s trying to take us, then you’ll find the gutsy, gripping tale of a man who takes desperate measures to avenge his wife and daughter.
‘Death Wish’ Is the Dark Portrait of a Man Pushed to the Edge
Again, this isn’t the later Death Wish movies where Paul Kersey comes out swinging before the opening credits. This first entry starts out with the infamous anti-hero as an honest working man. After a gang of street thugs (one of them being a very young Jeff Goldblum) break into his apartment, sexually assault his wife and daughter, beat his wife to death, and leave his daughter in a catatonic state, Kersey is left with nothing. He tries to find the monsters that destroyed his family, but going through the law takes far too long, so he’s left to his own devices. After acquiring a handgun, Kersey stalks the streets looking to catch criminals in the act. At first, he’s clearly disturbed by taking on a vigilante lifestyle and killing criminals, but slowly, he grows to accept that this is his new calling in life.
If you’ve never seen any, but you’ve only ever heard about how fun and wild the Death Wish movies are, then you’ll be surprised to find out that its first installment is an eerie portrait of a man who is pushed to violent extremes after losing everything dear to him. It’s not that far off from the difference between movies like First Blood and Rambo III. The Rambo movies started off with an earnest film that was actually trying to say something but eventually devolved into over-the-top action movies. The only difference is Death Wish has always been trashy, but the first movie was sincerely trashy.
Henry Fonda Found ‘Death Wish’ “Repulsive”
That being said, another actor brought in to try out for Paul Kersey didn’t seem to find the screenplay very sincere. Henry Fonda legendarily found the role “repulsive”. With a career that spanned from the Golden Age of Cinema, all the way to the groundbreaking New Hollywood era, Henry Fonda was one of the most beloved faces in the entire movie industry. Given the classy credits that he had to his name, with movies like 12 Angry Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and On Golden Pond, it should come as no surprise that Fonda turned down Death Wish. He might have played a part in the badass Western epic Once Upon a Time in the West just a few years earlier, but that still doesn’t set you up for a movie like this, nor a role like Paul Kersey.
Paul Kersey is a tough role for anyone to take on, especially those who aren’t used to playing major parts in such mean-spirited projects. Kersey isn’t exactly a Boy Scout in this movie. He might start out with a good heart and be portrayed as the ideal family man, but having his morals flipped to the extreme after a traumatic experience like this would be troubling to portray. Given the dark nature of this role, it should come as no surprise that Fonda was out on the original Death Wish. That being said, it makes you wonder how different this movie would have been had an actor of his caliber come along and taken Kersey on. Bronson’s great in the role, but he doesn’t exactly have the chops to bring the full degree of emotional and psychological damage to the character that someone like Fonda could have.
Charles Bronson Is the Perfect Fit for ‘Death Wish’
With a more dramatic actor in the role, we probably would’ve ended up with a less fun series of movies. Bronson was willing to take audiences all the way to Death Wish V: The Face of Death and kicked ass the entire way there. Would Fonda have done that for us? Probably not. Even George C. Scott was tapped for the role, sought after because of his “everyman” qualities, but he turned the part down because of the violence in the script. Scott feels like a good middle ground between Fonda and Bronson, but if you’re looking for the right actor to give us the franchise that we ended up with, then it’s hard to argue that anyone would have done it better than what we got.
You wouldn’t have the Death Wish franchise that we ended up with if Charles Bronson hadn’t taken on the role of Paul Kersey. You might have ended up with a more serious and nuanced performance at the center though — just look at Kevin Bacon’s work in James Wan’s Death Sentence, a loose adaptation of one of the original Death Wish novels. Still, as good as Henry Fonda would have been, it’s hard to believe that the Death Wish name would have lived on in the way that it has without Bronson pushing these movies to the extreme. Fonda found it “repulsive.” Good! Now we have the banger that is Death Wish 3. Everyone walks away happy.
