Mr. Majestyk
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''Mr. Majestyk'' is a 1974 American
action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
directed by
Richard Fleischer Richard Owen Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the ...
and written by
Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story author and screenwriter. He was, according to British journalist Anthony Lane, "hailed as one of the best crime writers in the land". His earliest no ...
.
Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in ...
stars as the title character, a melon farmer and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
veteran who comes into conflict with gangsters. Leonard, who wrote the film with an original screenplay, took the name Majestyk from a character in his 1969 crime novel '' The Big Bounce''. He would also write the
novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...
of the film.


Plot

Vince Majestyk is a farmer, and a former U.S. Army Ranger instructor and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...
, who owns and operates a 160-acre
watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...
farm in rural
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
near a small town called Edna. He needs to harvest his crop soon in order to keep the farm financially solvent. A small-time hood, Bobby Kopas, attempts to coerce Majestyk into a
protection racket A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from vio ...
of using unskilled drunks to harvest his watermelon crop. Majestyk runs him off with Kopas' own shotgun and hires experienced Mexican migrant workers, including Nancy Chavez, a crop picker who is also a union organizer. Kopas brings assault charges against Majestyk, resulting in the farmer being placed under arrest before he can finish the harvest. In jail, Majestyk meets and annoys Frank Renda, a notorious mob hit man being transferred to a higher-security prison. Renda's men try to break him out of police custody during a prisoner transport by bus. In the escape attempt, Majestyk drives off in the bus with Renda still in handcuffs, eventually taking him to his hunting cabin in the nearby foothills. Majestyk hopes to trade Renda to the police in return for being released to finish harvesting his melons. Renda offers his captor $25,000 for his freedom, but Majestyk declines. Renda then threatens to kill Majestyk if he doesn't release him, and Majestyk pretends to be persuaded to take the money, but contacts both the police and Renda's Mafia contacts to come pick them up. Wiley, Renda's girlfriend, arrives and they manage to turn the tables on Majestyk, although he is able to escape. Renda learns the charges for which he had been imprisoned have been dropped due to the only witness, a police officer, being killed during the jailbreak. Renda meets up with his right-hand man, Lundy, who advises him to fly to Mazatlan, Mexico and enjoy himself; Renda will have none of it as he wants to get revenge on Majestyk. He arranges for Kopas to drop the assault charges against Majestyk, and orders his men to find the "melon picker" so he can have the satisfaction of killing him personally. They arrive at the farm to kill Majestyk, but not finding him they instead machine-gun the melons and rough up the hired hands, forcing them to depart. That same night, as Majestyk and Nancy have a drink at a bar in town, Renda approaches and tells him he plans to kill him. Instead of being intimidated, Majestyk punches Renda in the mouth and knocks him down telling him to "call the cops", further infuriating Renda. The next day, Lundy uses his car to break the legs of Majestyk's friend and foreman Larry Mendoza as he tries to deliver a load of melons, putting him in the hospital. Renda and his men surround Majestyk's home, but Majestyk gets away in the back of a pickup truck driven by Nancy, and a prolonged car chase ensues. The police set up roadblocks and launch a helicopter hoping to find them. Luring Renda and his men into the foothills, Majestyk turns the tables on them and becomes the attacker, killing most of Renda's men during the pursuit. Realizing they are now the hunted, Renda retreats to their lodge hideout where he, Wiley, Lundy, and Kopas hole up. Renda sends Wiley outside to negotiate with Majestyk, hoping to force him to show himself, but Majestyk sends her away with Nancy. After removing the keys from their vehicle, Majestyk then assaults the cabin, killing Lundy after Renda sacrifices him to save himself. Disgusted, Kopas decides to leave when he realizes Renda will also sacrifice him to get to Majestyk. With Kopas' help, Majestyk gets the drop on Renda and kills him. The police soon arrive and arrest Kopas and Wiley. Majestyk tells Lieutenant McAllen, "You were right, lieutenant. He was really trying to kill me," before driving away in the pickup with Nancy.


Cast

*
Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in ...
as Vincent "Vince" Majestyk * Al Lettieri as Frank Renda * Linda Cristal as Nancy Chavez * Lee Purcell as Wiley * Paul Koslo as Bobby Kopas * Taylor Lacher as Gene Lundy * Frank Maxwell as Sheriff Detective Lieutenant John "Johnny" McAllen * Alejandro Rey as Larry Mendoza


Production


Filming

The movie was filmed on location in
La Junta, Colorado La Junta is a home rule municipality in, the county seat of, and the most populous municipality of Otero County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,322 at the 2020 United States census. La Junta is located on the Arkansa ...
, Canon City, Colorado, Rocky Ford, Colorado, and Manzanola, Colorado.


Release


Marketing

The
Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
used scenes licensed from the movie showing extreme driving of Majestyk's 1968
Ford F-100 The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford Motor Company since model year 1948 as a range of full-sized pickup trucks — positioned between Ford's Ford Ranger (T6), Ranger and Ford Super Duty, ...
pickup truck during commercials for its 1976 Ford trucks.


Home Media

The film was first released to DVD in 2003 by MGM/UA on a dual-sided disc that contained both the Widescreen and Standard versions. On the back cover there is a picture of Bronson holding a shotgun with a cigarette in his mouth. Although Bronson smoked in real life, his character in the movie smoked only once, indicating that this may be an outtake or publicity still. The picture is missing from the back cover of Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release for 2021, but is still there on the 2014 bare-bones release.


Reception


Critical response

The movie was popular with Bronson
action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
enthusiasts. Howard Thompson of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' said, "Except for some dutiful splattering of gore, it ticks along rather steadily, under Richard Fleischer's unruffled direction. There is a take-it-or-leave-it air that snugly suits the star's performance, or vice versa." The scene in which Nancy and Majestyk drive away in a pickup truck with Renda's men in hot pursuit became one of the most famous chase sequences of the period, following the recent trend of those in ''
Bullitt ''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American action thriller film directed by Peter Yates from a screenplay by Alan Trustman, Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner and based on the 1963 crime novel ''Mute Witness'' by Robert L. Fish. It stars Steve McQueen, Ro ...
'' (1968) and '' The French Connection'' (1971). On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
the film holds an 82% rating based on 17 reviews.


See also

* List of American films of 1974


References


Sources


'Elmore Leonard Week: Elmore on Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, and William Friedkin', ''Contrappasso Magazine'' (Contrappasso #2, December 2012)


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Majestyk 1974 films 1974 action films American action films Films based on works by Elmore Leonard Films with screenplays by Elmore Leonard Films directed by Richard Fleischer Films produced by Walter Mirisch Films scored by Charles Bernstein United Artists films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language action films