REVIEW: Death Hunt (1981)

This movie has balls of steel, to quote Duke Nukem.  And it probably reflects what this site is quintessentially about.  Charles Bronson is not like Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, John Wayne or Bruce Lee.  Instead he is Charles Bronson, a man who existed within his own sphere of mandom, someone who really has no equal.  And this is one of his finest hours.  A manhunt movie that also stars Lee Marvin and Carl Weathers.

Bronson rescues a dog from a dogfight and gets framed for stealing it. So the local lawman and about 70 hicks chase Bronson, who goes on the run. Like the title suggests, the ‘Hunt’ the hicks are planning in this movie is not one about capture. So in the movie, Bronson is a former special operations soldier being chased through the wilderness by a raging mob with screaming hounds. Little do they know who they are chasing. Bronson is armed with two guns and 700 rounds of ammunition.

This is First Blood set in the 1930s. Bronson lives off the land but unlike John Rambo in Jerkwater, Bronson has no problem killing his pursuers. “Leave me be”, comes the one and only warning. And once it is not heeded, backs of heads get blown out by Bronson and locals take photographs of bodies stacked-high courtesy of Bronson’s rifle. Maybe it was because they killed his dog, maybe its because he enjoyed it, but the lesson is: Don’t fuck with Bronson in them there hills. The lesson is: Leave him be.

Even dynamite and attack aircraft prove ineffective against Charles ‘The Beast’ Bronson. This movie even reveals the source of R. Lee Ermey quotes… did you think ‘the best part of you ran down the crack of your mommas ass’ originated in Full Metal Jacket?  You thought wrong!  I did this movie, a lot.  Including Lee Marvin’s stoic nod as the man who is leading the hunt, but actually admires Bronson and does so unwillingly.  This movie is why we miss Big Charlie now that he’s gone, we’ll never see the like of him again.

Death Hunt – one to watch!