Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

**Death Wish 4: The Crackdown** is a 1987 American action\thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson which was released on November 6, 1987 by The Cannon Group.

It is the fourth installment in the "Death Wish" film series.

## Plot

After his girlfriend's daughter dies from a drug overdose, Paul Kersey becomes a vigilante again and is recruited by tabloid owner Nathan White to help take down various crime figures of the drug trade in Los Angeles, California.

## Cast

* Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey
* Kay Lenz as Karen Sheldon
* John P. Ryan as Ferrari / Fake Nathan White
* Perry Lopez as Ed Zacharias
* Mike Moroff as Jack Romero
* Dan Ferro as Tony Romero
* George Dickerson as Detective Sid Reiner
* Soon-Tek Oh as Detective Phil Nozaki
* Gerald Castillo as Lieutenant Higuera
* Dana Barron as Erica Sheldon
* Jesse Dabson as Randy Viscovich
* Danny Trejo as Art Sanella

## Production

### Development

In 1986, Cannon Films announced the creation of a new sequel to "Death Wish", estimating that it would be ready for release by spring 1987.

Although, the film company was by this point facing financial problems. Its greatest box office hit was still the 1984 film, "Missing in Action" with $38 million domestic gross, but they lost money through box office flops such as the 1986 film, "Pirates." Consequently, they tightened the budgets of upcoming films to under $5 million per film.

When it came to a screenplay for the film, there were several available. Writing duties were ultimately assigned to Gail Morgan Hickman, who had previously contributed rejected scripts for "Death Wish 3."

Hickman's first script, which had Paul Kersey struggling with a crisis of conscience and trying to reconnect with Geri Nichols (Jill Ireland) from "Death Wish II" was rejected because Ireland was battling breast cancer at the time.

The second script (which had Kersey going after an international terrorist) was rejected due to its premise having similarities to the 1987 film, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

The final script had the premise of Kersey playing two gangs against each other. Hickman was influenced by the use of this premise in the films "Yojimbo" and "A Fistful of Dollars."

Hickman also came up with the idea of a millionaire benefactor for Paul Kersey, with both of them having lost a daughter (surrogate in Kersey's case) to the deadly effects of the illegal drug trade. Kohner found this an interesting idea in need of a plot twist. He came up with the idea of the millionaire being a drug lord who is using Kersey to eliminate his competition.

According to Hickman, he also understood that Cannon producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus "wanted a mindless movie with nonstop action", so he came up with "cartoonish" action scenes. He revised his screenplay from February to March 1987, during which time he wrote from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on a daily basis.

Hickman toyed with the idea of giving Paul Kersey a surrogate son called Eric, to avoid repetition in having the character lose another daughter.

However, he changed his mind and turned Eric into Erica, because he felt that the death of a girl would be a stronger echo to the original loss in Kersey's life. Hickman was also the father of a daughter and could better understand the agony of losing a girl.

For "Death Wish 4", Cannon reached an agreement with independent producer Pancho Kohner, son of Paul Kohner and the senior Kohner was the agent of Charles Bronson.

It was the first film in the series not to be directed by Michael Winner, who was occupied filming the 1988 film, "Appointment with Death" at the time.

Both Charles Bronson and Kohner had in mind assigning directorial duties to J. Lee Thompson, who had worked with them in several previous films, and had also had a good working relationship with the producers of Cannon Films.

### Filming

Filming for "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" began on April 13, 1987 and most of the scenes were filmed in Los Angeles, California.

Principal photography for the film was originally scheduled to begin on January 5, 1987, but it was delayed due to a stipulation in a line-of-credit agreement that prohibited The Cannon Group from having more than two movies in principal photography at the same time.

During filming, Charles Bronson requested further rewrites of certain elements of dialogue and action scenes. Gail Morgan Hickman recalled going through several rewrites on a daily basis.

## Box Office

During its opening weekend, "Death Wish: The Crackdown" grossed $2,466,557, debuting at #6 at the box office behind films "Fatal Attraction", "Hello Again," "Baby Boom," "Less Than Zero" and "Suspect."

Overall, the film grossed $6,880,310 worldwide.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" has an approval rating of 14% based on 7 reviews with an average rating of 4.80\10.

Caryn James of The New York Times criticized the "*cartoon thin*" characters and the fact that the hero is essentially a dangerous sociopath, but concluded that the film serves as solid entertainment for those willing to suspend their sense of moral outrage.

Kevin Thomas commented that while the film's plot is "*preposterous*" and its characters thin, it serves as *"a solid textbook example of crisp exploitation picture craftsmanship."* He credited this mainly to director J. Lee Thompson having a strong sense of efficiency and humor, ensuring that hero Paul Kersey's apparent invincibility makes the audience laugh in a way that is *"friendly rather than derisive."*

Variety poked fun at Paul Kersey's naive approach to eliminating the drug trade, but summed up the film with: *"What raises Death Wish 4 above the usual blowout is a semi-engaging script and sure pacing by veteran action director J. Lee Thompson."*

Richard Harrington of The Washington Post poorly reviewed "Death Wish: 4", citing the rudimentary and predictable plot, amateurish dialogue, inept villains, lack of tension, mindless violence, and Charles Bronson's weak performance.

In the UK film magazine Film Review, critic James Cameron Wilson praised director J. Lee Thompson's vision saying that *"it's flashy without being distracting and more or less gets on with the job of storytelling."* He also criticised the script, noting it needed to be smartened up, but preferred Thompson's direction over the original director Michael Winner.