Le cercle noir

If you're not already a Charles Bronson fan, this film isn't likely to change your mind. But for those of you like their action films with side-burns, bell bottoms and good old fashioned,hard-hitting action, you'll really enjoy this. Bronson does his "Dirty Harry" impression while investigating a strange ring of murders involving ex-vietnam vets and the Mob. Great car chases. The crazy car crack up inside a parking lot is this film's action highlight. One of my favorite Bronson flicks.

A Dirty Harry clone? The Stone Killer is an interesting film, Bronson portrays a plain-clothes cop named Lou Torrey, Torrey has a penchant for being a little violent at times and it costs him his badge in NYC. Torrey eventually picks up a Lieutenant position at the Los Angeles department and gets knee deep in some real problems. War veterans (Vietnam) with itchy trigger fingers, anti-war sentiment, druggies, prostitutes, civil rights issues, a mafia-related vengeance plot that has been in the works for forty two years as well as a host of other problems. I had to watch this film twice in order to really follow the films somewhat confusing pace, there are some subplots which confused me a little bit but upon the second viewing I had, the film made a lot more sense to me than in my initial viewing. There are some scenes that go straight from Los Angeles to New York City and back throughout the film but the pace is easy to keep up with. There is a ton of action to feast your eyes upon, many gun fights, a few car chases, etc. Bronson acts in his usual tough-guy role as Lou Torrey and plays it very well in my opinion. The ending is not as satisfactory as I would have liked, but Director Michael Winner is known for having unique endings/twists to his films. As far as rating the film goes, The Stone Killer in my opinion is just a notch or two below other Bronson/Winner collaborations such as 'The Mechanic' or the classic 'Death Wish', but all in all I would recommend this film to any Bronson fan, or anyone who appreciates old, dated action films. I certainly enjoyed it.

Michael Winner has directed the great Charles Bronson in several films, all of which can be described shortly as 'bad-ass'. Their collaborations include some truly great films including the 1974 vigilante masterpiece "Death Wish" and the hard-boiled Western "Chato's Land" (1972). All the films that the actor/director team Bronson/Winner made together are highly entertaining, and while "The Stone Killer" certainly isn't one of their best collaborations (in fact, its arguably their weakest besides the hugely fun but very silly "Death Wish 3") it is definitely another testosterone-driven flick that will not leave my fellow Bronson-fans bored.

Bronson stars as Lou Torrey, a tough New York detective who gets transferred to LA. Soon after arriving in LA, hints lead Torrey to a Mafia-Don's plot to use Vietnam Veterans as assassins... My fellow reviewers seem to either love or hate this film, the division being between Bronson fans and non-Bronson fans. As a huge fan of Charles Bronson, I tend to be on the 'love it' side, though, as mentioned above, it is nowhere near one of the most interesting flicks of his. It pales in comparison to other Bronson/Winner Vehicles such as the first two "Death Wish" films, "Chato's Land" or "The Mechanic", but then, these are all great 70s cult favorites, and while "The Stone Killer" is, in my opinion not quite as good, it is still a decent enough film that promises action and bad-assery. Bronson is his great self once again. To me personally, the man's presence alone makes it impossible for a film not to be at least entertaining. Apart from Bronson, the film features another truly great cult-actor, the magnificent Martin Balsam, who plays the role of a mob boss. Michael Winner has been unfairly scorned by critics throughout his career. Fact is, that the man is actually an outstanding director of gritty cult-cinema, who has been successful in any genre he has worked in, be it Action/Thriller ("Death Wish", "The Mechanic"), Western ("Chato's Land", "Lawman") or supernatural Horror ("The Sentinel"). Some folks only seem to be satisfied when they can claim intellectual superiority over other people's work. Some people seem to complain about this film's lacking depth and not bringing up any ideas. I wonder what these folks expect. This is a Bronson flick: It's meant to be hard-hitting, bad-ass entertainment, not melodramatic drivel. "The Stone Killer" features Bronson, loads of action and is filmed in typically stylish 70s style. What else could one ask for? Recommended to all my fellow Bronson fans.

This movie with Charles Bronson was extremely no nonsense, whatsoever. "The Stone Killer" is when Bronson plays a hard as nails cop who uncovered a group of Vietnam veterans who are do the dirty work for the Mafia. That form of dirty work is to take out the completion. In this movie, there are future "Three's Company" stars John Ritter and Norman Fell. Ritter plays the one in uniform, while Fell plays Lou Torrey's boss Les Daniels. Lou Torrey (Bronson) worked for the NYPD, until a incident with a young offender caused him to quit the force. So he ends up moving to Los Angeles as a detective to investigate mob like killings. It turns out that the mafia has been using Vietnam veterans to kill the competition. Some of their help have ended up dead by the people that hired them. This was a coast to coast situation for the police to handle. And Torres showed plenty of tenacity to put an end to this mess. The shootout in both areas was awesome. Especially in the parking lot scene in New York. Great movie, great plot, great cast, "The Stone Killer" makes great sense! 3 out of 5 stars

I liked this film, despite being a bit thrown by the jumpy, confused directing of (I presume) Michael Winner. Bronson is good, as are all the actors playing the major characters. But I think I got most pleasure from the mob-style Fedora hats that almost everyone seemed to be obliged to wear perched high on their heads. Surely by 1973, this style of headgear was way out of date? It looked vaguely ridiculous but at least it kept me amused. There was a 'Dirty Harry' vibe about the film and some of Roy Budd's music was quite close in style to that of Lalo Schifrin. Overall, an enjoyable film but maybe not because of the story.