Former killer Holland (Charles Bronson) is hired to assassinate a torture expert who has been terrorising South America.
This movie starts the way all movies should:
Chuck Bronson, in slo-mo, throwing a knife at the camera.
You will not see that in The Brutalist!
Aside from supporting roles in The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen, my knowledge of Bronson is poor.
I have seen about 20 minutes of the original Death Wish.
I have seen 10 to Midnight and Hard Times, but those viewings were so long ago they should not count.
The Evil That Men Do has given me the bug.
It is kind of hilarious, considering how grim this movie is.
Because of the era it came out in, I was under the impression this was a Cannon movie (it is an ITC production, Lew Grade’s old production company).
It does not have the same sense of sleaze, nonsensical plotting or racism against Arabs.
This is more of a slow-burn thriller.
The opening scene is an eye-popper.
We are introduced to our villain, Dr Molloch, as he demonstrates his torture techniques on live human beings.
He prayed to an audience of military men in the style of an academic lecture.
Joseph Maher’s matter-of-fact delivery is chilling, made more so by the way he is blocked for camera so that a dead woman’s bloody form is out of focus but visible behind him.
I was re-listening to Steven DeSouza’s interview with Matt Gourley and he quoted producer Joel Silver referring to action movies as ‘hate movies’.
Instead of a ‘meet cute’ in a romantic picture, an action film - according to Silver - needs to feature a similar moment between hero and villain.
We do not get a face-to-face confrontation, but this scene is effective at Molloch instantly hate-able.
Bronson’s character is cut from familiar cloth:
A former paid killer, he is lured out of retirement when a good samaritan (Jose Ferrer) brings him videotapes of victims giving their accounts of surviving Moloch.
The characters give their accounts in Spanish with a dispassionate English voice-over provides translation. It almost plays like a drama - until we cut from Bronson’s face to a wide shot of the TV, and there is a mountain of tapes waiting to be played.
It is not that this is funny by itself - but the peoples’ stories are so horrific, it pushes over from disturbing to being almost pornographic. And the idea that Bronson’s friend has thought it was a good idea to cart an entire library of these tapes to his remote island home pushes into the realm of parody. Maybe he thinks Holland is such a tough cookie, he’ll need a few tapes to get worked up?
Shot in Mexico for less than $5m, the movie is relatively action-lite, but the various locations are eye-catching and well-photographed.
The film was directed by frequent Bronson collaborator J. Lee Thompson, and it shows. The film moves at a clip, and as with Moloch’s introduction, there is a sense of care and attention to the compositions.
The film throws in a few effective shocks - including a nasty moment we were realise Holland’s plan has been blown.
And it features some really weird, interesting moments that keep it watchable.
Take the threesome sequence. As a way to infiltrate Moloch’s inner circle, Holland and his compatriot Rhiana (Theresa Saldana) pretend to be swingers looking for a third, and lure the villain’s thirsty henchman (Raymond St. Jacques).
Bronson is so wonderfully opaque, you can map almost anything onto him. When he says he is into “all kinds of stuff” it carries as much weight as when he is threatening to kill someone.
This scene leads me to one of my big problems with the film - Bronson runs through all of Molloch’s goons too quickly, and in the wrong order.
He even takes out the most dangerous one first.
The henchmen are wiped out so quickly that the film seems to recognise the problem, and introduces a completely new set of goons for the third act.
Saldana’s role is odd. It feels like it should lead to an increase in terms of stakes, or a potential romance. Neither happen.
She wants to see the villain die. And she kind of does. That is about it.
The third act is based around a great idea to end this story - Molloch is surrounded by former victims who enact bloody vengeance.
Despite the blood-letting, it lacks catharsis.
Part of the problem is that this is a Bronson movie. Because of how the movie is centred around him, you need Bronson to get his man.
Giving the killing blow to Molloch’s victims should provide a dramatic symmetry, but the film has never given these characters their own voice.
Saldana, playing a victim’s wife, is probably the closest. But even she does not get to kill Molloch.
While the ending is underwhelming, The Evil That Men Do is worth a look. It has enough ideas and atmosphere to make up for some weird narrative and character choices.
