10 Movie Characters That Shocked The World

It's not usual for an author to dislike an adaptation of his work, but author Brian Garfield was enraged at what Michael Winner had done to his novel, Death Wish. A conscientious objector who did not see combat in Korea, Paul Kersey's worldview is shattered when a group of hooligans (including a young Jeff Goldblum) beat and rape his wife and daughter. His wife is murdered, his daughter is left in a vegetative state.

The novel had come from the gut reaction Garfield had when his wife's purse was stolen. "I could kill the bastard," he thought before dismissing it. Later, however, he wrote the novel as a contemplation on vigilantism, but it largely excoriated it. He called the film and its four sequels "incendiary" and later wrote a sequel to drive his point home.

Ironically, that sequel would serve as the basis for an equally exploitative and incendiary work, James Wan's Death Sentence. The film would also be remade by Eli Roth, but unlike the original, it is too cowardly to pick a side. Releasing it shortly after the Stoneman Douglas shooting didn't help matters.

At heart, though, Paul is a hypocrite, only responding to violence when personally affected and lashing out at random street thugs when the guilty parties go unpunished.

The film inspired fears of vigilantism that ultimately wouldn't be realized until Bernie Goetz's rampage through the NYC subway in 1984.