Charles Bronson, 1921 - 2003.

"Charles Bronson was one of my favorite actors in the '50s and '60s. I first saw him in a television series called Man with a Camera - I was into photography, so the idea of a heroic crime-fighting photographer seemed pretty cool."

Jon Lebkowsky.

"At the height of his career, Mr. Bronson was hugely popular in Europe; the French knew him as 'le sacre monstre' (the sacred monster), the Italians as 'Il Brutto' (the brute). In 1971, he was presented a Golden Globe as 'the most popular actor in the world.'"

Bob Thomas in the Chicago Sun-Times.

"But reporters who checked out his stories found no police record, no assault and battery, no predisposition toward violence. In fact, they learned that Mr. Bronson's hobby was painting and that he was a quiet, personable, gentle man.... There was no question, however, that Mr. Bronson had known hard times.... By the time he was 16 he was working in the coal mines, earning about $1 for each ton of coal he clawed out of the earth."

Richard Severo in the New York Times.

"Westerns really are about politics, and The Magnificent Seven were kind of a Peace Corps/Green Berets combo. This fairy tale of mercenary killers being elevated and transformed by a noble cause is not an outgrowth of the 'adult psychological' western of the '50s, but a new kind of western where history (even John Ford's history) is irrelevant, and the trappings of style and affectation are all. Yul Brynner struts around, Steve McQueen acts alternately coy and petulant, Robert Vaughn broods and whines, Charles Bronson is the sour hardass, and James Coburn does a zen act. Poor Brad Dexter thinks he's in a movie from the '40s, unfortunately, and Horst Bucholz is having fun playing Roy Rogers. After four years of television packed with Western shows focused on shootin'-iron talents, the Western had finally reached the stage where the star's basic job was to be a mobile weapons platform, in boots."

Glenn Erickson, the DVD Savant.

"It opens with a riff on High Noon as three expressive gunmen - Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock - wait for a train, bothered by a drip of water and a buzzing fly, and [Sergio] Leone stretches out what ought to be dead screen time into an operatic crescendo of suspense (scored by the great Ennio Morricone) that pays off when a granite-faced Bronson, stepping into the Eastwood No-Name role as the vengeance-seeking Harmonica, arrives in a shimmering haze to face down the killers in a few brief, eventful seconds."

Kim Newman, reviewing Once Upon a Time in the West for Empire.

"When it comes to conservative vigilante revenge fantasies, one should always go back to the granddaddy of the entire genre: Michael Winner's Death Wish.... Bronson is his usual stoic self through much of the film, though at one point he becomes nearly giddy with his power over criminals and even cracks a smile."

Mark Zimmer in digitallyOBSESSED

"The story makes no sense whatsoever and most of the performances are awful, but that's not important in a Charles Bronson vehicle. His is an implacable movie presence, quite unlike any other. It's good to know that he's still in there, squinting at the bad guys and occasionally dispatching them with as little effort as possible."

Vincent Canby, reviewing Assassination for the NYT in 1987.

Posted by dwhudson at September 1, 2003 5:22 AM