charles bronson play a liberal and mild mannered architect . his wife ( hope lange ) be murder and his daughter be gang rap into a near comatose state by a gang of thug ( one play by then unknown jeff goldblum . ) . he slowly become a vigilante go out late at night and shooting and kill any mugger and thief that attack him . somewhat unrealistically he attack every single night he go out be ny that bad in 1974. he become a medium hero and police detective vincent gardenia be assign to stop him . interest movie on one hand youre all for bronson and and on the other and youre disgust with what he do . both side of the issue be present but not deal with in much depth this be a charles bronson movie after all . film be date ( ny have get much safe since this come out ) but be still powerful . bronson give a bad performance which somewhat diminish the film impact and but everybody else be great especially lange and gardenia . and look for olympia dukakis and christopher guest ( very young and handsome ) in small role . only complaint the murder or rape it way too graphic and disturb . it hard to watch today i can only imagine the impact in 1974. avoid the sequel theyre all violent killing and nothing else . all the moral issue bring up in this movie be go .