A Dirty Harry clone? The Stone Killer is an interesting film, Bronson portrays a plain-clothes cop named Lou Torrey, Torrey has a penchant for being a little violent at times and it costs him his badge in NYC. Torrey eventually picks up a Lieutenant position at the Los Angeles department and gets knee deep in some real problems. War veterans (Vietnam) with itchy trigger fingers, anti-war sentiment, druggies, prostitutes, civil rights issues, a mafia-related vengeance plot that has been in the works for forty two years as well as a host of other problems. I had to watch this film twice in order to really follow the films somewhat confusing pace, there are some subplots which confused me a little bit but upon the second viewing I had, the film made a lot more sense to me than in my initial viewing. There are some scenes that go straight from Los Angeles to New York City and back throughout the film but the pace is easy to keep up with. There is a ton of action to feast your eyes upon, many gun fights, a few car chases, etc. Bronson acts in his usual tough-guy role as Lou Torrey and plays it very well in my opinion. The ending is not as satisfactory as I would have liked, but Director Michael Winner is known for having unique endings/twists to his films. As far as rating the film goes, The Stone Killer in my opinion is just a notch or two below other Bronson/Winner collaborations such as 'The Mechanic' or the classic 'Death Wish', but all in all I would recommend this film to any Bronson fan, or anyone who appreciates old, dated action films. I certainly enjoyed it.
Review of The Stone Killer
