Uriah43
"Vince Majestyk" (Charles Bronson) owns a watermelon plantation in Colorado and needs migrant workers to help harvest his crop. As it so happens he sees a car pull up with some migrants and after witnessing some blatant discrimination to a young Mexican woman named "Nancy Chavez" (Linda Cristal) decides to hire them on the spot. However, when he gets to his plantation he finds that a weaselly hooligan named "Bobby Kopas" (Paul Koslo) has already hired some people without his permission in an attempt to cut in on his business. A fight breaks out and Vince is arrested which greatly impacts the few days available for him to get his produce to market. Even worse, as he is being transferred to another facility, the bus he is on is ambushed by the mob in an attempt to free a psychotic hit man named "Frank Renda" (Al Lettieri). As bullets are flying all around him, Vince manages to drive the bus to a secluded area in the country with the plan of turning the assassin over to the law in exchange for his freedom. Unfortunately, Frank escapes and now nurses a vendetta which has tragic consequences for Vince and those who are closest to him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a better movie than I was initially expecting based largely on the realistic plot and the overall performance of Charles Bronson. Likewise, the presence of two beautiful women like Linda Purcell (as "Wiley") and the aforementioned Linda Cristal certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, this film wasn't too bad all things considered and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
ferbs54
With the release of "Death Wish" on July 24, 1974, the career of Charles Bronson was re-energized, granting him almost superstar status after over 20 years in the business. This tale of vigilante vengeance, set on the mean streets of NYC, proved so popular with the public that it led to no fewer than four sequels, with ever-diminishing returns, both financial and artistic. Just one week before "Death Wish"'s release, however, another vengeance tale starring Bronson hit the big screens, and that film--"Mr. Majestyk"--though certainly less popular, seminal and influential, was perhaps even more exciting and well done. In the July 17th picture, Bronson stars as Vince Majestyk, a former Vietnam vet (who had received the Silver Star) and current watermelon farmer in the fictitious town of Edna, Colorado. When we first encounter him, it is harvest time, and Majestyk's overriding concern is employing Mexican laborers at $1.40 an hour to harvest his 160-acre spread. Trouble soon looms, however, when Majestyk is put in the slammer after a run-in with a small-time protection-racket thug. While in jail, Majestyk encounters Frank Renda, a Mob hit-man played with growling savagery by Al Lettieri (who many may recall as Sollozzo in 1972's "The Godfather"). And while being transferred by bus to another location, the men are embroiled in a violent attempt by the Mob to free the hit-man; the attempt fails, and when Majestyk tries to turn Renda in himself, he arouses the perpetual wrath of the gunman. Both are ultimately freed, but now Majestyk's hopes of bringing his crop in become increasingly problematic, as both Renda and his goons target both Majestyk and his helpers, as well as his spread, for vengeance....Besides the attack on the prison bus just mentioned, "Mr. Majestyk" features several other extremely well-done action sequences and violent moments. Highlights include the nasty encounter that Majestyk's foreman, Larry Mendoza (Alejandro Rey; not to be confused with Fernando Rey!), has with Renda's goons; the slaying of a cop in a roadside Portosan; and the film's entire final 20 minutes, during which Majestyk and his gal pal, Mexican farm laborer Nancy Chavez (the beautiful Linda Cristal), elude Renda and his thugs during an off-road chase (Majestyk's pickup truck must be the sturdiest such vehicle ever shown on film!), leading to a cat-and-mouse shoot-out at the hit-man's rented lodge. Bronson is simply wonderful in the film, and makes us root for this decent man (a vet, ex-convict through no fault of his own, a divorcée with a 7-year-old daughter, a hard worker, an employer who treats his hires very fairly, a good citizen who turns down a $25,000 bribe from a gangster) throughout. His fine performance is matched by all the supporting players in the film, especially by Lettieri, who is truly menacing as the frothing hit-man hot for revenge. The film's script, by Elmore Leonard, based on his own novel of that same year, is both winning and witty, and the beautiful countryside of Colorado has been nicely captured by DOP Richard H. Kline. Director Richard Fleischer has brought this picture in with a very sure hand, and that, really, should come as no surprise. Fleischer had previously excelled in any number of film genres, directing film noirs ("Armored Car Robbery" and "The Narrow Margin," two of the best noirs ever), sci-fi ("20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Fantastic Voyage," "Soylent Green"), horror flicks ("See No Evil," "10 Rillington Place") and historical blockbusters ("The Vikings," "Barabbas," "Tora! Tora! Tora!"), and here demonstrates how very adept he could be at the modern-day action thriller. But the bulk of this film's success must surely reside on Bronson's sturdy shoulders. Though pushing 53 here, he yet proved to be a terrific action performer in this picture. Being shortly preceded by "The Valachi Papers" and "The Mechanic," and soon to be followed by not only "Death Wish," but "Breakheart Pass" and "Hard Times" as well, it is easy to see that Bronson, during the mid-'70s, was on some kind of a genuine renaissance roll. And "Mr. Majestyk" is one of the best of that bunch....
JoeytheBrit
Charlie Bronson's a melon farmer who just wants to get his melons in on time, but fate conspires against him. First of all when he arrives at his melon fields with a crew of migrant labour, he finds that a wannabe tough guy has already set a crew of drunks and vagrants to work. Of course, Charlie soon sees him off with his tail between his legs. The pipsqueak reports him to the police, and because there's a gun involved and Charlie has a history, he finds himself locked up with only his anxiety over his melons going mouldy to keep him company.Actually, that's not quite true because while in the cells he comes across the wonderful Al Lettieri as a ruthless hit man. The bus they're in is ambushed by some of Al's men but Charlie turns the situation to his advantage by kidnapping Al and trading him with the police in return for his own freedom.This is a typical seventies crime thriller that lacks any credible storyline and falls back on the kind of violence typical of both the era and Charles Bronson movies in general. It's also a typical example, I suppose, of why Elmore Leonard never really enjoyed the success as a screenwriter as he did as a writer of novels, even though his novels were 80% dialogue for some reason he never seemed able to translate the natural sound of his written dialogue to the screen. Anyway, the violence is quite brutal – and often gratuitous. At one point bad guy Lettieri and his cronies drive into a portable toilet into which one luckless deputy has just entered. Lettieri prevents his comrade from shooting the dazed cop to death, and picks up a plank instead, which he uses to efficiently batter the poor soul to death. 'Make them think he was run over by a truck,' he explains. We don't actually see the act, just Lettieri's face as he dispassionately goes about his work, and for this reason it is probably the most effective moment of the film.Speaking of Lettieri, he's by far the best thing about this film; it's a shame that he would die within a year or two, cut down by a heart attack at the relatively young age of 47. He was just beginning to make a name for himself as a Hollywood heavy, and there's no doubting that, like here, he would have enlivened many an otherwise routine film if he'd had the opportunity. If you like Bronson films you probably won't be disappointed by this one, but it isn't one that most people are likely to remember.
