R.I.P Michael Winner !

Michael Winner

 The renowned English filmmaker Michael Winner passed away at the age of 77 in London. He is one of my favourite Hollywood filmmakers of action/thriller genre and I grew up watching his movies.  The name Michael Winner may not be as familiar as say, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg or James Cameron. Yet if you go through the list of his movies, many movie-fans could recognise them - esp. if you are a Charles Bronson fan. His famous movies include The Mechanic(1972) Chatos Land (1972) Law Man (1971) The Stone Killer (1973) Scorpio(1973) The Sentinel(1977)Fire Power(1979) and of course, Death Wish- 1,2 & 3. As a hardcore Charles Bronson fan, I've watched most of these movies (esp. during the VHS-era of late 80s and early 90s) over a dozen times!  

Like most action/thriller movies of 1970s, Michael Winner's movies too depicted brutal and graphic violence. Keeping with rebellious spirit of that era, his movies had the existentialist/nihilistic hero - a sort of American Raskolnikov - out to finish off the baddies who had wronged him. Despite its dark and gloomy themes, Michael Winner could often create poetry out of his frames. The brilliant cinematography and music-score (often by Jerry Fielding) came as a bonus.

Winner was a prolific filmmaker who also dwelled into other genres like comedy and drama. But it was his action/thriller movies that achieved greater success. His action sequences were innovative, spectacular and even bizzare. For instance - the (in)famous final scene of Death Wish 3 - the villain (head of street punk gang) was advancing agressively towards Bronson and the only weapon Bronson could lay his hands was a rocket-launcher! The brutal annihilation of that cruel and loathsome villain was exactly the audience wanted to see so badly !

Like some other prominent filmmakers of his era, Michael Winner clearly understood the audience psychology well and often played with it. Even his non-action sequences  had a calm and soothing effect - as if to give viewers a respite from the big bad world of crime & punishment. Just as Fyodor Dostoevsky did with his novels, Michael Winner (and some other film-makers of the 70s) did not glorify violence, but portrayed its ugly side, where there are no permanent winners and losers. The graphic and brutal depiction of violence was used infact to promote the concept of an alternative world - an utopia where there is no crime, no violence and no exploitation.