Revenge flicks: The best in eye-for-an-eye genre

Charles Bronson must be doing the finger-shoot and wink from the grave.

"The Brave One" with Jodie Foster and "Death Sentence" with Kevin Bacon — both of which bear more than a passing resemblance to 1974's "Death Wish" — are dishing out cathartic, blood-spattered revenge sprees for theatergoers. (The latter is "Death Wish" author Brian Garfield's sequel, although he's said the movie departs significantly from the book.)

Two movies don't make a trend, but it's axiomatic that violence begets violence, and those movies may have just awakened your thirst for dispatching filthy lowlifes. So before you go all Bernie Goetz in the real world, here's my list of vengeance on video that made an impact. Because sometimes revenge is a dish best served on a silver platter.

Carnage classics

"Death Wish" (Paramount, 1974, R): The controversial classic that made Bronson a superstar. He plays a liberal and former conscientious objector whose outlook becomes more red-state after urban thugs kill his wife and leave his daughter comatose. This ain't Schwarzenegger silliness. Even with minimal dialogue, Chuck's torment is palpable. It spawned four increasingly bad sequels. Look for a young Jeff Goldblum as one of the punks.

"The Virgin Spring" (The Criterion Collection, 1960): If only Ingmar Bergman had worked with Bronson. Instead, he's stuck with Max Von Sydow as a medieval father who realizes the three goatherds seeking shelter under his roof are the ones who raped and murdered his daughter. Etiquette goes out the window.

"Rolling Thunder" (1977, R): Criminally unavailable on official DVD, but the determined can find a copy. Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver") directed and co-wrote the tale of an ex-Vietnam POW (William Devane) who returns home to a hero's welcome — and robbers who kill his wife and kid, then stick his hand in a garbage disposal. He sharpens the hook that replaced his hand, enlists war comrade Tommy Lee Jones and sets out for payback.

"Point Blank" (Warner, 1967): Lee Marvin was never cooler than in director John Boorman's impressionistic noir about a thief relentlessly pursuing the wife and best friend who double-crossed him and left him for dead. Check out the 1999 remakes: Stephen Soderbergh's "The Limey" and Brian Helgeland's "Payback" — but only in the latter's harder-edged director's cut released in April.

"Get Carter" (Turner, 1971, R): Michael Caine is volcanic as a nervy London hood who tears through a village to find the truth about his brother's death. Best line: Caine tells a rival his eyes look like "pissholes in the snow." Avoid the Stallone remake at all costs.

Sagebrush slaughter

"Once Upon a Time in the West" (Warner, 1968, PG): Seems like half the Western genre is about settling scores, but Sergio Leone's sprawling, operatic spaghetti fest is a masterpiece. Bronson lets his harmonica and pistol do the talking. Cast against type, Henry Fonda is mesmerizingly nasty as the villain. Bronson's agenda and the harmonica's significance aren't clear until the end of three unforgettable hours (in the restored version).

"High Plains Drifter" (Universal, 1973, R): After appearing as The Man With No Name in Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, Clint Eastwood directed himself — from a script by Ernest "Shaft" Tidyman — as a darker and more mysterious nameless anti-hero. He literally and figuratively paints a town red after residents with a shameful secret hire him to protect them from a trio of vicious outlaws. He says in his trademark hiss, "It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid."

"Seven Men from Now" (Paramount, 1956): Not the story of Larry Craig, but one of several superb revenge outings with director Budd Boetticher and leathery, laconic Randolph Scott. (See also: "Ride Lonesome" and "Decision at Sundown.") He plays a tortured ex-lawman tracking the dudes who killed his wife during a bank robbery. Lee Marvin is in full glorious sleaze mode as the plotting nemesis.

Low-budget lowlifes

"The Exterminator" (Tango, 1980, R): It's just never a good idea to provoke a Vietnam vet. After gangbangers cripple the buddy who saved his life in 'Nam, said vet (Robert Ginty) turns vigilante and starts cleaning up New York's streets through grisly means that include ... wait for it: a meat-grinder.

"I Spit on Your Grave" (Elite, 1978, R): Notorious for being reviled by Roger Ebert and surrounded by controversy because of its graphic, exceedingly gruesome depiction of an aspiring novelist's (Camille Keaton, Buster's grand-niece) gang rape and her extra-nasty revenge. Try to shower this one off.

"Coffy" (MGM, 1973, R): A blaxploitation classic with the amazing Pam Grier as a nurse by day and vigilante by night, killing her way up the chain of drug dealers who turned her kid sister into a smack addict.

Recent reprisals

"Kill Bill" vols. 1 and 2 (Miramax, 2003 and 2004, R): What's as fun as director Quentin Tarantino's exuberantly insane odyssey of "The Bride's" (Uma Thurman) hyperviolent quest to get even for getting ventilated and left for dead at her wedding? Getting an education from the movies he lifted everything from — uh, homaged — ranging from Shaw Bros. kung fu flicks to the outrageous, once-banned Swedish "Thriller: A Cruel Picture," aka "They Call Her One Eye."

"Oldboy" (Tartan, 2003, R): A singularly bizarre and disturbing Korean tale of a man who's snatched off the street, held prisoner without explanation for 15 years, then abruptly released with a cellphone and a new suit to look for answers. Highlights: He eats a live squid and takes on multiple attackers with a hammer.

"Revenge" (Sony, 1990, R): Director Tony Scott's director's cut, released on DVD in May, is more intense, steamy and markedly better than the forgettable theatrical version. Ex-pilot Kevin Costner hooks up with the young wife of Mexican godfather pal Anthony Quinn, who seriously messes them both up for it.

"The Count of Monte Cristo" (Buena Vista, 2002, PG-13). Dumas' archetypal revenge tale has seen many incarnations, but the latest version from "Waterworld" perpetrator Kevin Reynolds is shockingly good. Jim Caviezel plays the unjustly imprisoned Dantes, whose plan takes years to execute, and Guy Pearce is the friend who sent him up the river.

Biblical badass

"Ben-Hur" (Warner, 1959, G): Seriously. Think about it: An honorable man is sent into slavery, then takes years to build up a new life and confront the powerful man responsible. It's just like "Gladiator."

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com