Le cercle noir

I sought relaxing and undemanding action entertainment, I found …. Charlie Bronson! What's better after a hard and long working day than to sit down in a comfortable couch, switch off all still operational brain functions, and watch Charlie kill off some random street scum? During the 70's and 80's, Bronson mastered in depicting unorthodox coppers/relentless vigilantes in ultra-violent and gritty movies, and personally I love each and every single one of them, even though – admittedly – they're not the most sophisticated or even memorable form of art! In this same period, Charlie collaborated a number of times with director Michael Winner, who himself isn't exactly known for his subtlety and flair either, so a joint venture of these gentlemen is a guaranteed piece of uncompromising trash. "The Stone Killer" boosts a slightly more ambitious storyline – one based on a novel by John Gardner – but eventually it just remains a raw 'lone cop' thriller. After the umpteenth "shoot first, ask questions later" incident, lieutenant Lou Torrey gets transferred from gloomy New York to sunny California. There, during a banal prisoner's transport, he stumbles upon a convoluted crime network that brings him all the way back to New York. Torrey, thanks to the help of bizarre informants and dissident interrogation techniques, gradually uncovers the plot of a mafia war to end all mafia wars. Bronson's acting performance is more automatic pilot than ever, but Michael Winner serves numerous exciting car chases and vigorous shootouts, including a wildly out-of-control finale. Did I mention that the film is violent?!? This is early 70's at its best, full of racial slur, realistic dummies falling from the nineteenth floor and gay musicians getting run over by a Cadillac! Oh, and this movie proves that Charlie Bronson is the most efficient shooter ever! With him, each shot is a hit. Whether from inside a shaky helicopter or from an impossible angle on a staircase, it's always bullseye!

Tense but violent film about a tough detective named Lou Torrey (Charles Bronson) who from New York is transferred in the underworlds of Los Angeles and uncovers a perfectly executed scheme carried out by a Sicilian gangster (Martin Balsam) to utilize Vietnam vets (Stuart Margolin , among others) to murder all his enemies in a mass killing , rerun of the 30's "Sicilian Vespers" when the former generation of Sicilian mobsters were all murdered on a single day by orders Lucky Luciano . Lou Torrey gets numerous tracks that something big occurs.

This exciting film contains suspense, noisy action-packed drama, intrigue, thrills and lots of violence . Interesting screenplay Gerald Wilson from the book ¨A complete state of death¨ by John Gardner .This is a formula two-fisted cop stuff in the Vigilante mould . Bronson with his usual stoic acting displays efficiently his weapons such as ¨Dirty Harry¨ style and killing mercilessly nasties . Bronson as wealthy and cold cop who takes the law on his own hands offers the sort of monolithic acting as always . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the top cop Bronson's side . Packs thrilling multiple shootouts staged in a remote location on Mojave desert . As the picture emerges as a series of spectacular set-pieces , each perfectly realized ; the best of theses are the chase scenes between Charles Bronson-Paul Koslo , the busting on the desert and the Mafiosi slaughter with subsequent climax final . Furthermore, appears a nice secondary cast as Norman Fell as assistant cop , Ralph Waite as obstinate police , Paul Koslo as heinous hoodlum ,John Ritter in his film debut, Charles Tyner in minor role, Stuart Margolin as Vietnam veteran and Martin Balsam as mafioso chief. In addition , an atmospheric musical score composed, orchestrated and performed by Roy Budd .

This motion picture is professionally directed by Michael Winner though passionless , such as the successive films with his main star, Charles Bronson. In the mid-70 Winner had great commercial hit , ¨Death Wish¨¨ , a box office success he repeated when badly in need of another big hit smash with the sequel , but both of whom , Bronson and Winner, looked increasingly cold , clinic and mechanical in the later years of their partnership . The worst sequels in which Kersey goes on to torture robbers, all of them inferior and the violence could be deemed excessive, are the following : ¨Death wish II¨ by Michael Winner with Jill Ireland and Vincent Gardenia, ¨Death wish III¨ again by Winner with Ed Lauter and Deborah Raffin . Subsequently Michael Winner career was failed , alternating some hit as ¨the sentinel¨ and various flops as ¨Firepower,The big sleep,The wicked lady, Appointed with death, A chorus of disapproval, Bullseye¨ and of course ¨The stone killer¨ that got a mediocre box office . Rating : average but is indispensable ,essential and well worth watching for Charles Bronson fans.

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.

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.