![\"Gang](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Gang-War.jpg\" "\\"Gang")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gang War (1958): Breakdown by Kain424<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A non-violent man’s pregnant wife is killed, he seeks to avenge the deaths.<\/p>\n Gang War<\/strong> is essentially a spiritual prequel to Death Wish<\/a>, starring Charles Bronson as a sort of would-be vigilante.\u00a0 After witnessing a mob execution, he unwittingly becomes a target.\u00a0 His wife gets killed and Bronson spends the remainder of the film attempting revenge, but is ultimately stopped either by the police or his own conscience.\u00a0 The themes are familiar and even character attributes the same, but ultimately the message is a different one.\u00a0 Instead of arguing against criminal rights and a limp-wristed justice system, Gang War<\/strong> seems to be about citizen responsibility and the consequences of high crime.<\/p>\n The film opens with a montage of evil criminal activity: a man is shot to death in the street, a car explodes, a storefront is blasted away, and a car does a U-turn.\u00a0 This is the highpoint of the movie’s Action.\u00a0 There are fights and attempted assassinations to follow, but it never quite hits the rush of this introduction.\u00a0 Still, the flick moves quickly, no doubt due to its short running time and smooth editing.<\/p>\n The movie plays as a morality tale, comparing the lives of two people: Bronson, an honest man who earns a modest living and is hoping to start a family; and mobster Maxie Meadows (played in a showstealing performance by John Doucette), a thuggish, immoral asshole who wants to look “cultured.”\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of the scenes dealing with Maxie are so goofy I still don’t know whether or not they’re being played for laughs or are meant to be taken seriously.\u00a0 Meanwhile, all of Bronson’s scenes are shown in such a straight, dry manner they almost appear to be from a different film.\u00a0 This makes Doucette’s moments shine while Bronson almost fades into the background.<\/p>\n While there are some nice story elements (including a rather touching subplot involving Maxie’s attorney), Gang War<\/strong> isn’t really worth the find for anyone other than big fans of Charles Bronson.\u00a0 And even then it’s only the 75 minute haul that won’t drag on your spirits.\u00a0 A little more Action and it might just have worked.<\/p>\n Charles Bronson is Alan Avery<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This could easily be Paul Kersey under a different name and occupation (schoolteacher instead of architect).\u00a0 The guy is non-violent, a bit unassuming, and a Korean War veteran.\u00a0 He has a very thoughtful, relaxed vibe about him, responding to his wife’s fears of mob retribution with this:<\/p>\n “I spent two years in Korea, there was a whole army trying to kill me.\u00a0 They didn’t even come close.”<\/strong><\/p>\n In a film with this title, one might expect immense violence, but alas, Gang War is a product of its times.\u00a0 Though the first few minutes have a few deaths, most of the movie is spent in dialog sessions rather than shootouts.\u00a0 That being said, there are deaths from shooting, stabbing, beating, and strangulation.\u00a0 All are pretty much bloodless, but they work well enough.<\/p>\n Maxie’s punchy servant Chester fights a mob syndicate thug around the living room as his guests play piano and sing.\u00a0 This is made all the more funny by the constant cuts to the singer woman’s face as she awkwardly attempts to be enjoying herself and not notice the brawl occurring in front of the Christmas tree.<\/p>\n Only a couple times are men shown as actively interested in women.\u00a0 And aside from the fact that Bronson’s wife was pregnant, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that these men have ever had sex with a woman.<\/p>\n Most of the women here are treated as “scenery” and referred to as “dames.”\u00a0 And of course, being shot in the 50s, the fairer of the sexes is shown to be the dumber of the sexes as well.\u00a0 These women are all with men who use them and treat them like children, but that’s not to say they’re all victims of circumstance.\u00a0 Bronson’s wife is fucking smoking while she’s pregnant!\u00a0 But she comes off completely sympathetic compared to Maxie’s girl Marie, played as a city bimbo by Jennifer Holden.<\/p>\n Marie:<\/span> “We’ve been together almost two years.\u00a0 You’ve asked me to do a lot of things… but you’ve never asked me to read<\/em><\/strong> before!”<\/strong><\/p>\n Maxie treats this girl like Paris Hilton treats tiny dogs.\u00a0 As an accessory.\u00a0 She’s his trained little pet, and when he doesn’t feel amused he makes her run laps around his pool.\u00a0 I’m not sure whether or not this is supposed to be funny, but I got more than a giggle out of the situation.\u00a0 In addition to the above, there is also this little bit of heartwarming dialog between the two:<\/p>\n Marie:<\/span> “I learned a lot of things without notebooks.”<\/strong><\/p>\n Maxie:<\/span> “Yeah.\u00a0 And if you use any of them with anybody but me I’ll break both your legs.”<\/strong><\/p>\n A big part of the film’s problem lies with the fact that there really are no epic moments.\u00a0 The closest the film gets is when Maxie’s dumb thug Chester goes to beat on Bronson’s wife to send a “message” to him about testifying.<\/p>\n My favorite line actually belongs to Marie.\u00a0 Seeing Maxie’s wealthy life disappear in all but a few minutes, she starts to take off.\u00a0 Maxie at first pleads with her not to go but then turns angry, shouting, “I bought you!”<\/strong><\/p>\n “Sale’s canceled!”<\/strong><\/span> She replies.\u00a0 Excellent line.\u00a0 Too bad he strangles her to death for it.<\/p>\n Dealing with criminals isn’t the job of the police, but rather each and every law-abiding citizen.\u00a0 And no one really likes mobsters, they’re just cartoonish imbeciles anyway.<\/p>\n [THE CHALK-OUTLINE] Gang War (1958): Breakdown by Kain424 A non-violent man’s pregnant wife is killed, he seeks to avenge the deaths. [THE EXECUTION] Gang War is essentially a spiritual prequel to Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson as a sort of would-be vigilante.\u00a0 After witnessing a mob execution, he unwittingly becomes a target.\u00a0 His wife gets … Read moreGang Bore<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[THE EXECUTION]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Avery\"](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Avery.jpg\" "\\"Avery\\"")
<\/p>\n[HOW BAD-ASS IS THE MAIN CHARACTER?]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Alan\"](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Alan.jpg\" "\\"Alan\\"")
<\/p>\n[THE BODY COUNT: 7]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Gang](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Gang-War-Bodycount.jpg\" "\\"Gang")
<\/p>\n[MOST SATISFYING ASS-KICKING]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Chester](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Chester-fight.jpg\" "\\"Chester")
<\/p>\n[DUDESWEAT AND MACHISMO]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
[EXPLOITATION AND MISOGYNY]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Marie\"](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Marie.jpg\" "\\"Marie\\"")
<\/p>\n[EPIC MOMENT AND BEST ONE-LINER]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Chester](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Chester-vs.-Edie.jpg\" "\\"Chester")
<\/p>\n[THE MORAL OF THE STORY]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
[THE CHECKLIST: 09 outta 25]<\/span><\/h2>\n
[\u00a0 ] Athlete(s) Turned \u201cActor\u201d
\n[\u00a0 ] Clinging To The Outside Of A Moving Vehicle
\n[\u00a0 ] Crotch Attack
\n[X] Dialogue Telling Us How Bad-Ass The Main Character(s) Is\/Are
\n[\u00a0 ] Ending Featuring An Ambulance, A Blanket or A Towel
\n[\u00a0 ] Factory\/Warehouse
\n[X] Giant Explosion(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Heavy Artillery
\n[X] Improvised Weapon(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Macho Mode(s) Of Transportation
\n[\u00a0 ] Main Character Sports Facial Accessory(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Manly Embrace(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Notorious Stunt-Man Sighting
\n[X] Passage(s) Of Time Via Montage
\n[X] Politically Fueled Plot Point(s)
\n[X] Senseless Destruction Of Property
\n[\u00a0 ] Shoot Out(s) and\/or Sword Fight(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Slow-Motion Finishing Move(s)\/Death(s)
\n[X] Stupid Authoritative Figure(s)
\n[X] Substance Usage and\/or Abuse
\n[X] Tis The Season
\n[X] Torture Sequence(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Unnecessary Sequel
\n[\u00a0 ] Vehicle Chase(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Vigilante Justice<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"GANGWAR\"](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/GANGWAR.jpg\" "\\"GANGWAR\\"")
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nBut The Poster Made It Look So Cool!<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"