RIP: Michael Winner (DEATH WISH; LAWMAN)

[erik]

British filmmaker Michael Winner, best known in the US for his controversial 1974 film DEATH WISH, as well as the 1971 psychological western LAWMAN, passed away today at the age of 77 after a long illness. More details below:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/9816044/Michael-Winner.html

[egoodstein]

I liked his early films like Lawman and The Jokers, not very much
at all later Hollywood stuff (inc. the Death Wish films). He was in many ways I think better as a writer or even curmudgeonly commentator than director. But an interesting character for sure.

[erik]

I definitely thought LAWMAN was his best film because of the psychological nature of the story, and the superb performances in it by Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Lee J. Cobb. After that, though, I think he got caught up in the rush of violent action, which he did well, but without the verve or the dramatic realism of, say, Sam Peckinpah.