Gang War gives Charles
Bronson one of his earliest starring roles and plays kind of like a
prototypical Bronson vehicle. He stars
as a meek schoolteacher who witnesses some gangsters kill a man. When he reluctantly puts the finger on them,
their boss (John Doucette) has his punch-drunk enforcer whack his pregnant
wife. This sends Chuck’s character, a
Korean vet, on a quest for vengeance.
All of this sounds like
it can't miss, but it does. It’s
painfully slow moving and there’s not a whole lot of action. Even though Bronson is top billed, he's not
given much to do. Mostly, it’s just
scenes of Doucette sitting around and plotting.
Director Gene Fowler, Jr. has a nice eye for detail. He brings the same visual flair that he
brought to I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Married a Monster from Outer Space as
the film often looks like a ‘40s film noir.
Too bad the sluggish pacing, low budget, and flimsy script pretty much
undoes all his hard work.
Although Bronson kind
of gets the short end of the stick, he does have at least one memorable badass
moment. After he learns his wife and
unborn child have been killed, he breaks open his dead kid’s piggy back with a
hammer and uses the money to buy a gun. Too
bad his eventual clash with the villains is so lackluster.
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