Over the span of his career, Charles Bronson worked with a variety
directors on more than one project. The
director that most fans associate with Bronson would likely be Michael Winner. After all, Winner was directing Bronson when
the actor was at his peak and the two collaborated on the first three films in
the iconic Death Wish series. Together, Bronson and Winner made six films
together. There was, however, one other
director that Bronson worked with more than Winner. That director’s name is J. Lee Thompson and
the duo would end up making nine movies together! Thompson is probably best known for directing
such films as Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone, but in the 80’s
Thompson and Bronson made several violent B-movies for production companies
such as Cannon Films. Both men were in
the twilight of their career and resorted to low-budget exploitation to keep
the checks coming in. Some of these
films turned out to be pretty entertaining pieces of trash cinema. Films like 10 to Midnight, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, and the film being
reviewed, The Evil That Men Do.
A sadistic expert of torture, notoriously referred to as “The
Doctor”, contracts his services out to oppressive governments who want to keep
their dissidents in check. After a
failed assassination attempt on The Doctor, the rebellion reach out to Holland,
a retired CIA assassin, to kill The Doctor and end his cruel methods of
torture. Holland decides to go
undercover and present himself as a family man so that he may get close to The
Doctor and take him out before he is forced to leave Guatemala. Along the way, Holland will have to go
through various henchmen and villainous characters before he reaches his
target. Scenes of action and bloody violence
transpire as Holland lay waste to this evil cast of characters.
Bronson plays Holland, the former CIA agent, who’s retired to the
Cayman Islands to work on his tan and befriend stingrays he’s affectionately
named Quasimodo. Bronson’s limitations
when it comes to emoting actually work to his advantage in this role. His character is cool, calculating, and has no
reservations about murder if the end justifies the means. This is the kind of role that fans of the
actor have come to expect when they go into a Bronson film. There are plenty of scenes in The Evil That Men Do where Bronson gets
to show off what a badass he is. We get
to see him toss a guy off the balcony of a high-rise apartment, throw a knife
through a man’s neck, and the highlight of the film: squeeze a sexual
predator’s testicles until the attacker passes out! There are some half-assed attempts to make
Holland appear to be a man with morals and a belief in the rebel’s cause by
having him do the job for free, but mostly he’s just shown murdering people
with extreme prejudice.
Much like 10 to Midnight
the year prior, J. Lee Thompson brings the violence and sleaze to his direction
of The Evil That Men Do. Right from the opening, Thompson treats the
audience to a torture scene involving electrodes applied to a man’s nipples and
testicles. The scene ends with the
grisly death of the man and this opening will set the tone for the rest of the
film. I’ve already referenced some of
the scenes of violence that can be found in this film but it wouldn’t be a
Bronson / Thompson collaboration without some sleazy moments in between. After all, Thompson is the man who was able
to convince Charles Bronson to not once but twice act in a scene where he holds
a sex toy while he delivers some dialogue.
I guess Chuck really needed the cash at this point in his career. In The
Evil That Men Do we get a scene where Bronson convinces a goon to join him
and the woman posing as his wife in a threesome back at their hotel so he may
set a trap for the unknowing victim.
Another scene has Bronson hiding underneath a bed, waiting to strike
while two lesbians have sex above him! Thompson’s
collaborations with Bronson may not have reached the depths of Michael Winner’s
Death Wish films in terms of
depravity, but he certainly gave Winner a run for his money.
It may be predictable, but The Evil That Men Do provides exactly
what most fans of Charles Bronson want from these type of films. Bronson is really nothing more than an
instrument of death who massacres one despicable baddie after another until
there are none left. If his victims were
camp counselors he might be mistaken for Jason Vorhees! Because the villains of the film are so
awful, we take joy and excitement from their gruesome death scenes. I do
feel that it was a bit of a misstep in not making Bronson’s character more vulnerable. His seemingly indestructible presence doesn’t
allow for any suspense or tension to occur.
There was a missed opportunity to have The Doctor capture Bronson and
put him through one of his torture sessions only to have Bronson amazingly
survive the torture and escape. I guess
by this point ol’ Charlie Bronson couldn’t be bothered to break a sweat in one
of his latter-day films.
MVT: Bronson and Thompson both deliver but they’ve had better
efforts. The cast of villains are the
type of deplorable characters you want to see get their just deserts. Therefore, they collectively get my Most Valuable
Thing.
Make or Break Scene: The moment when Bronson grabs a handful of an
attacker’s genitals and squeezes until the man passes out.
Score:
7/10
