L'enfer de la violence

Charles Bronson doing what he does best--setting things right with fire power. This is not quite a vigilante movie like the Death Wishes, but it has a vengeance element to it. This time he is trying to stop "The Doctor," a sadistic torturer for despotic Central American governments.

Holland (Charles Bronson) has been pulled out of retirement to rid the world of a brutal menace. He travels to Mexico City under the guise of being a married tourist with a child. The woman he has posing as his wife is a woman who suffered personally at the hands of The Doctor. I don't have to tell you that this woman and her daughter only makes things more difficult for Holland. If I didn't know any better I'd say they inserted them into the movie just so he'd have to rescue someone.

This was a by-the-numbers hired assassin film. Holland was creative, decisive, and always one step ahead of the bad guys. It was alright.

Stumbling upon this 1984 movie by random chance in 2023 and seeing that it starred Charles Bronson, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

I had actually never heard about this movie before, so I didn't know what I was in for here. So writer John Crowther and Fred A. Wyler had every opportunity to entertain me with this movie.

The storyline in "The Evil That Men Do" was entertaining enough for what it turned out to be. It wasn't, however, the best of Charles Bronson movies. And that being said, don't get me wrong, because it definitely is a watchable movie, it just was sort of bland in a way.

The movie does have some familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Charles Bronson himself, with the likes of Joseph Maher, John Glover, Roger Cudney and Joe Seneca.

As it turned out, then I hadn't exactly been missing out on a particularly outstanding Charles Bronson feature here. And now that I have seen it, I doubt that I will actually ever return to watch it a second time, because the storyline just didn't have all that much appeal.

My rating of director J. Lee Thompson's 1984 movie "The Evil That Men Do" lands on a five out of ten stars.

One of the most widely hated films with the great late Charles Bronson, "The Evil That Men Do" of 1984 is the nastiest most brutal, and in my opinion one of his better collaborations with director J. Lee Thompson. I haven't seen "The White Buffalo" yet, but their other collaborations include the decent "10 To Midnight", the mediocre "Murphy's Law" and the god-awful "Death Wish 4". Even though far from flawless, "The Evil That Men Do" is another highly entertaining Bronson flick, with a super-tough Bronson, non-stop action and extreme brutality - can one ask for more? Bronson plays Holland, a professional assassin who has retired to a tropic paradise on the Cayman Islands. When an old friend, an oppositional journalist in a South American dictatorship is tortured to death by the English torture specialist 'The Doctor' Clement Molloch (Jospeh Maher), Holland decides to come out of retirement to avenge his friend and free Latin America of its most despicable torturer, The Doctor, who travels from one dictatorship to another in order to fulfill his evil deeds...

Bronson is great and super-tough as always and Joseph Maher makes a particularly evil bad guy. Bronson has had better roles playing a professional assassin - Sergio Sollima's great "Citta Violenta" is just one example. But he nevertheless kicks ass as Holland in this movie, even if it is far away from being one of the masterpieces he has starred in. The only character that annoyed the hell out of me was that of Teresa Saldana, who plays the wife of the friend Holland is out to avenge. On the one hand she wants Bronson to avenge her husband and put an end to the Doctor's evil deeds, but on the other hand she keeps complaining when people get hurt. The violence is omnipresent and bloody, the film begins with a torture scene that is more than a bit nasty. People keep complaining about the lack of character development and plot, and about the violence. I wonder what people some people expect from a mid 80s action flick with Bronson that runs 87 minutes. Citizen Kane? Charles Bronson is one of my favorite actors, and director J. Lee Thompson was doubtlessly talented, which great films like "Cape Fear" (1962) prove. I admit that their collaborations were not exactly masterpieces, but most of them, such as this one, are pure, violent fun made strictly for entertainment purposes. And that is exactly what "The Evil That Men Do" provides: Pure, violent entertainment! Enjoy!

I am surprised there is so much negative buzz around this film. I found it to be well acted and well done. I felt that the villain and his sister in the film were chillingly scary. Bronson acts as natural as can be and is more realistic and cool than today's action film stars. The film did have its quirks ( Was the daughter's voice dubbed in ?) But hearing the voice on the videos about the doctor, and the opening scene give you a chill. This film is no more violent than those of today, so I don't understand the criticism. The film has a good cast and keeps your attention, although I wish there was more of the Dr.'s sister in the film. Those of you that like action and vengeance should definitely check this one out.

This movie was a foray into the darker sides of men. It was released in the final-wave post WWII 'man hunt' era, and the midsts of human rights troubles in various parts of the world where governments tried to rule by violence. The year of its release '1984' is probably not an accident either.

Unfortunately, this movie quickly fell victim to the 'PC' culture, apparently, and with a few snips of the sissors became nothing but a hollow vision of barely believable evil.

This movie, largely because of the now 'missing' scenes, etched its message deeply upon me the first time I saw it. The second time I saw it, those scenes were gone. And they are not in either of the 2 VHS releases I have.

Playings on both pay and free TV over the past decade have cut out (at least) the first scene where the 'doctor' discusses and demonstrates the differences in torturing men vs women. Without that opening scene, many of the following scenes and much of the movie become pointless depictions of torture without the insights into the deepest 'evil that men do.'

Admittedly, even with those scenes, it was not Charles Bronson's best, yet any movie that etches itself as deeply, and as hauntingly upon the memory is worth seeing at least once, uncut.