Charles Bronson plays a liberal, mild-mannered architect. His wife (Hope Lange) is murdered and his daughter is gang-raped into a near-comatose state by a gang of thugs (one played by then unknown Jeff Goldblum!). He slowly becomes a vigilante--going out late at night and shooting and killing any muggers and thieves that attack him. Somewhat unrealistically he's attacked every single night he goes out--was NY THAT bad in 1974? He becomes a media hero and police detective Vincent Gardenia is assigned to stop him.<br /><br />Interesting movie--on one hand you're all for Bronson and, on the other, you're disgusted with what he's doing. Both sides of the issue are presented but not dealt with in much depth--this IS a Charles Bronson movie after all! Film is dated (NY has gotten much safer since this came out) but is still powerful.<br /><br />Bronson gives a bad performance which somewhat diminishes the films impact, but everybody else is great--especially Lange and Gardenia. And look for Olympia Dukakis and Christopher Guest (very young and handsome) in small roles.<br /><br />Only complaint--the murder/rape--it's way too graphic and disturbing. It's hard to watch today--I can only imagine the impact in 1974.<br /><br />Avoid the sequels--they're all violent killings and nothing else. All the moral issues brought up in this movie are gone.