Charles Bronson

Battle of the Bulge

Nazi Panzer forces stage a last-ditch Belgian front offensive that could turn the tide of WWII. Henry Fonda Robert Shaw and Robert Ryan in the spectacular recreation of a crucial campaign. Year: 1965Running Time: 170 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085391108627

The German offensive in December 1944 became the basis for this all-star Hollywood take on the Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is an officer who predicts the assault, Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews are Army brass skeptical of his intuitions, and Robert Shaw (his hair dyed yellow and his eyes glinting with malice) is a German officer leading the tank attack. Shaw is certainly the most compelling thing about the film, especially in his philosophical debates with ambivalent underling Hans Christian Blech. Elsewhere, the movie jumps around to sidebar stories (cowardly James MacArthur becomes a leader, wheeler-dealer Telly Savalas falls in love) while messing around with the historical facts of the battle. There are interesting episodes, such as the Malmedy massacre of American POWs and the Germans' use of English-speaking spies, but overall Battle of the Bulge has the feeling of having been patched together from different scripts. On the physical level the movie comes up short, with the Spanish locations rarely suggesting the wintry misery of the battle, and the use of models and studio sets highly inadequate. A number of war films from this era are compelling on their own terms, but in the wake of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, this one looks antique. --Robert Horton

The Great Escape (2-Disc Collector's Set)

The true story of 76 allied airmen who plot a massive escape from Stalag 3, a maximum security prison in World War II.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: GREAT ESCAPE
Title: GREAT ESCAPE
Street Release Date: 05/18/2004
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE

A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges's The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music, this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding "Cooler King." The rest of the all-male Anglo-American cast--Dickie Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Coburn, and Gordon Jackson--make the most of their meaty roles (though you have to forgive Coburn his Australian accent). Closely based on Paul Brickhill's book, the various escape attempts, scrounging, forging, and ferreting activities are authentically realized thanks also to technical advisor Wally Flood, one of the original tunnel-digging POWs. Sturges orchestrates the climax with total conviction, giving us both high action and very poignant human drama. Without trivializing the grim reality, The Great Escape thrillingly celebrates the heroism of men who never gave up the fight. --Mark Walker

The Dirty Dozen

A model for dozens of action films to follow, this box-office hit from 1967 refined a die-hard formula that has become overly familiar, but it's rarely been handled better than it was in this action-packed World War II thriller. Lee Marvin is perfectly cast as a down-but-not-out army major who is offered a shot at personal and professional redemption. If he can successfully train and discipline a squad of army rejects, misfits, killers, prisoners, and psychopaths into a first-rate unit of specialized soldiers, they'll earn a second chance to make up for their woeful misdeeds. Of course, there's a catch: to obtain their pardons, Marvin's band of badmen must agree to a suicide mission that will parachute them into the danger zone of Nazi-occupied France. It's a hazardous path to glory, but the men have no other choice than to accept and regain their lost honor. What makes The Dirty Dozen special is its phenomenal cast including Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, Trini Lopez, Robert Ryan, and others. Cassavetes is the Oscar-nominated standout as one of Marvin's most rebellious yet heroic men, but it's the whole ensemble--combined with the hard-as-nails direction of Robert Aldrich--that makes this such a high-velocity crowd pleaser. The script by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller (from the novel by E.M. Nathanson) is strong enough to support the all-star lineup with ample humor and military grit, so if you're in need of a mainline jolt of testosterone, The Dirty Dozen is the movie for you. --Jeff Shannon

Death Wish

This controversial, 1974 drama exploits urban paranoia and presents vigilantism as cathartic release. But it is also a captivating, Everyman-ish story of a New Yorker who goes through a sea change after crime depletes his family, and who runs afoul of the law while taking it into his own hands. Charles Bronson stars as the vengeance-seeking urban warrior who goes on a punk-killing spree after his wife and daughter are attacked by intruders. Director Michael Winner (The Wicked Lady) shamelessly builds upon audience identification with Bronson's rage, but he also makes an interesting story out of the latter's tug-of-war with disapproving police. It's an unpleasant film all around, but not nearly as bad as its horrifying, numerous sequels. Watch for a very young Jeff Goldblum--in this, his second movie--as one of the assailants of Bronson's loved ones. --Tom Keogh

The Mechanic

Charles Bronson delivers [in this] action-drenched (Variety) gangster thriller that delves into the dangerous minds of the underworld's most elite killers. Visually alive (Cue) and 'totally engrossing (The Hollywood Reporter), The Mechanic is a movie you won't want to miss! Arthur Bishop (Bronson) is a mob hit man who operates in a world of his own an uncompromising world where conventional rules of morality don't apply and where one wrong move could cost himhis life! He's always worked alone but, as age catches up with him, Bishop takes on a competent andruthless apprentice (Jan-Michael Vincent) and teaches him everything he knows. Together they becomean unmatchable team of globetrotting killers until the pupil's ruthlessness puts him on a collisioncourse with his teacher!

The Great Escape

In 1943 the Germans opened Stalag Luft North a maximum-security prisoner-of-war camp designed to hold even the craftiest escape artists. In doing so however the Nazis unwittingly assembled the finest escape team in military history-brilliantly portrayed here by Steve McQueen James Garner Charles Bronson and James Coburn-who worked on what became the largest prison breakout ever attempted. One of the most ingenious and suspenseful adventure films of all time "The Great Escape" is a masterful collaboration between director John Sturges ("The Magnificent Seven") screenwriters James Clavell ("Shogun") and W.R. Burnett ("Little Caesar") and composer Elmer Bernstein. Based on a true story "The Great Escape" is epic entertainment.Starring: Steve McQueen James Garner and Richard AttenboroughDirector: John SturgesProduced by John Sturges; written by James Clavell & W.R. Burnett; DVD released on 03/31/1998; running time of 172 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1963 MGM Home EntertainmentSystem Requirements:24-Minute in-depth Documentary on the Making of "The Great Escape" Trivia and Production Notes Original Theatrical Trailer Dual-layer Format for Continuous Playback Languages: English & French Subtitles: English French and Spanish Dolby Digital sound Widescreen Theatrical Release Format Featurette Interactive Film Trivia Interactive Menus Video Format: Widescreen (no AR specified) Track Info: English: Dolby Digital Mono French: Dolby Digital MonoFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating:  UPC: 027616668028 Manufacturer No: M108735

The Great Escape image of Steve McQueen (as "The Cooler King") astride his motorcycle has entered silver-screen iconography, alongside Brando on his bike from The Wild One. Based on a true story about a group of POWs who mount a daring breakout from a supposedly inescapable Nazi prison camp, this rousing and suspenseful WWII epic features an all-star cast, including James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and David McCallum. The DVD also includes a 24-minute documentary about the making of the film. --Jim Emerson

Hard Times

Charles Bronson demonstrates exactly what tough is in this two-fisted action drama about a drifter suddenly caught up in the fight game during the Great Depression. Chaney (Bronson) a down-on-his-luck loner hops a freight train to New Orleans where on the seedier side of town he tries to make some quick money the only way he knows how with his fists. Chaney approaches a hustler named Speed (James Coburn) and convinces him that he can win big money for them both. Chaney wins a few tough illegal fights bare-fisted but Speed's carelessness with his money and indebtedness to a gang of thugs forces Chaney to fight one last match with Street a huge monster of a man. The final bout is a no-holds-barred knock-down drag-out fight that Bronson fans will love.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 043396030633

Walter Hill's colorful directorial debut has quite a cult following for its toughness and violence; it may well be his best film, in fact. Charles Bronson plays a silent street fighter in New Orleans in the '30s managed by the cool James Coburn. Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, and Michael McGuire costar in this spare existential Depression dirge. It owes a lot to its noir origins that Hill adores so much, yet there's something very fresh and vital about its subject and approach. That's really what made so many of these films from the '70s so endearing. An added bonus is the love and affection displayed by the real-life husband and wife team of Bronson and Ireland. --Bill Desowitz

Death Wish V - The Face of Death

Drifting as far from Michael Winner's original and interesting 1974 Death Wish as possible, this belated sequel in an often ugly series is nevertheless a harmless, fairly conventional thriller featuring a watchable cast. After his life of loss and misery at the hands of criminals, vigilante Paul Kersey is ready to settle down in romantic bliss with a fashion designer named Olivia (Lesley-Anne Down). Unfortunately, the lady happens to be the target of her mobster ex-husband (Michael Parks), who has a tight grip on New York's garment district. Disfigured and finally murdered by her former spouse, Olivia is avenged in very creative ways by Paul, who resorts to such esoterica as using a remote-controlled soccer ball to deliver an explosive punishment. Bronson largely phones it in for this potboiler, though even in the winter of his life he can look quite compelling in his stoic way. Helping to keep things interesting is Parks's kinky cruelty and Saul Rubinek's vaguely bemused performance as a well-meaning prosecutor. --Tom Keogh

Raid on Entebbe

It was in June 1976 that an Air France plane carrying 244 passengers and a crew of 12 on a flight from Athens to Paris was hijacked by terrorists who forced the captain to alter course and eventually land at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. With the tacit appro

Chato's Land

Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) and Academy Award(r) winner* Jack Palance (City Slickers) star in a magnificent western as wild and untamed as the Old West itself. Bristling with dynamic action sequences and riveting performances, Chato's Land is a bold, sweeping tale of passion, vengeance and cold-blooded murder. Chato (Bronson) is a half-breed Apache Indian who treads the line between two cultures, balancing allegiance to his tribe with the allure of the white man's world. But when Chato kills a vicious sheriff in self-defense, he finds himselfhunted by a posse led by the ruthless Quincey Whitmore (Palance), a former Confederate soldier who is determined to see him hang. It's 13 men against one, but the odds shift in Chato's favor when he leads his pursuers into Apache territory, where the harsh, cruel countryside can kill as surely as agunman's bullet. *1991: Supporting Actor, City Slickers