Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

"This time it's war!"

1987 1h 39m EN

😐

5.7

MID

★5.7TMDB · 368

CrimeActionThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After the death of his girlfriend's daughter from a drug overdose, Paul Kersey takes on the local drug cartel.

“This time it's war!”

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Cast

Charles Bronson
Paul Kersey
Kay Lenz
Karen Sheldon
John P. Ryan
Nathan White
Perry Lopez
Ed Zacharias
George Dickerson
Detective Reiner
Soon-Tek Oh
Det. Phil Nozaki
Dana Barron
Erica Sheldon
Jesse Dabson
Randy Viscovich

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: J. Lee Thompson
Writers: Gail Morgan Hickman
Languages: French, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

39 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Death Wish Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by J. Lee Thompson, shot by Gideon Porath. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Paul McCallum. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Lee-Thompson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Charles Bronson and Kay Lenz and John P. Ryan carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "This time it's war!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

J. Lee Thompson directs. Gideon Porath behind the camera. Paul McCallum scores. Peter Lee-Thompson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

139 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
3Part of the "Death Wish Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by J. Lee Thompson, shot by Gideon Porath. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Paul McCallum. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Peter Lee-Thompson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Charles Bronson and Kay Lenz and John P. Ryan carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "This time it's war!".
9IMDB entry: tt0092857 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "police", "gangster", "anti hero", "revenge".
11Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gideon Porath
Original score: Paul McCallum
Editing: Peter Lee-Thompson
Stunt coordinator: Ernie F. Orsatti
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,000,000
Box office: $6,880,310
Return: 138% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

Part of

Death Wish Collection

Five films about Paul Kersey, an architect with no luck whatsoever. First His wife is murdered when their apartment is broken into, 8 years later his mentally ill daughter is raped and murdered. After all this Kersey is never the same and ends up taking on the drug lords and various criminals of the world.

Also by

J. Lee Thompson

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Social Justice Sally2017-02-24
★ 5/10
Bronson should have shown restraint. CONTAINS SPOILERS To be fair, the bad guy did warn Bronson that he would kill the girl - but Bronson did not listen. He kept on coming at the other guy until the guy delivered his promise and killed the girl. Bronson pushed the guy into it. He did warn Bronson. Here is the unacceptable part - Bronson then mercilessly blows him to pieces. The man was trying to reason with Bronson and gave him ample warning but Bronson just opted for a violent conclusion. Bronson should have not killed the man - especially as the guy was trying to make concessions for Brosnan. Bronson brought it on himself.
kevin20192024-02-22
★ 6/10
"Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" really ought to have a more routine and listless quality about it by this late date and while there is a faint sense of that detectable here it isn't as prevalent as it could have been. The film pushes incredibly hard to create some sort of new and innovative angle on its central theme - a theme which has now gone from being highly controversial and politically and socially divisive to becoming acceptable and commonplace action movie fodder in just a span of fifteen years - to trigger the mayhem and by and large this results in a much better film than you could have ever expected. There is still an abundance of gunplay on display, but fortunately the unpalatable and lurid violence towards women (which still exists here to a certain extent) receives far less attention from screenwriter Gail Morgan Hickman than some of her male counterparts in previous times and best of all there are no deliberately cruel and horrifically over extended rape scenes to fast forward through this time around.