moonspinner55 Charles Bronson is Vince Majestyk, a dedicated melon farmer and Vietnam vet with one prior on his record, who is hauled into jail for assault with a rifle after a gang of small-time hoods attempt to force him to use their amateur laborers for pickers instead of the migrant workers he usually hires. Being transferred in a prisoner's van alongside a hit-man for the mob, Majestyk takes charge in a volatile situation and tries cutting a deal with the cops: the hit-man in exchange for his release. When the plan goes awry, Majestyk is eventually freed and goes back to work--but now he's got angry mobsters on his tail. Muddled plot by screenwriter Elmore Leonard (!) is strictly emotion-based; there's no logic or reasoning behind the actions taken by the hoods (led by a sniveling Paul Koslo) hoping to muscle-in on the melon picking, nor by the incompetent police department, nor by the hired gun (a cartoonishly volatile Al Lettieri) who will not stop until he gets his revenge on Majestyk. Still, Bronson comes through with one of his best genre performances; there was no one else working in '70s action pictures who could stare down a lying, cheating weasel the way Bronson could. All-purpose director Richard Fleischer keeps Bronson in character--he also stages some fast, tough action sequences--but the rest of this show belongs strictly to the star. **1/2 from ****

geohaber-2 A good Bronson performance, but the movie is weak and the "hit man" is cartoonish...looks like someone who couldn't make The Sopranos team. The bad guys have dozens of ways to dispatch Bronson's character, but botch it up time after time. A pretty one-dimensional story, but a good one for Bronson fans.

LeonLouisRicci Charles Bronson had a Prolific 25 Year Career in Movies and TV before His Totally Bonkers "Breakout" Year when "Death Wish" (1974) Hit Theatres and Bronson became an Unstoppable Macho Movie Man throughout the Seventies. He was 53 Years Old.This Film was Released just Weeks Prior to the "Death Wish" Megahit. It is a Favorite among the Bronson Brigade as a Personification of the On-Screen Persona and 1970's Type Action.With Names like Richard Fleischer, a Genre Hopping Above Average Director and Elmore Leonard, a Popular and Prolific Post-Modern Pulp Novel Writer, this Movie Draws Attention to Itself. The Result is a Likable, sometimes Gritty Film with a then Trendy Social Conscience Back-Dropping the Cartoon Violence.The Movie is Stylish but not Ultra-Stylish (Sam Peckinpah) and at its Best is Light, but not Too Light Entertainment that Goes Down Easy and makes for a Ride Worth Taking. Al Literati is along just after His Star Turn as "Rudy" in Peckinpah's "The Getaway" (1972).Overall, it's a Bronson Show all the way, Take it or Leave it, and You're either with its Vibe or You're Not. Nowhere Near the Star's Best and Far from the Worst. It's Typical and a Treat for Fans.Note...Every Critic on the Planet cannot let this one go without a Melons Joke or Pun. So for fear of being a Party-Pooper...There are no Babes in this Movie with low-cut fronts or any topless Scenes that were common for the Period.

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.