Mr. Majestyk

• Directed by Richard Fleischer
• July 12, 1974

A Vietnam veteran turned melon farmer comes into conflict with a mafia hitman.

Charles Bronson was a screen presence like few others. I think only John Wayne was in the same category. He walked onto the scene and you knew his character meant business. His characters tended to have a personal code and a moral clarity that helped them stand strong in the face of their adversity. The code of Bronson’s characters though tended to be less yielding and much tougher than those of Wayne. Wayne was a father. Bronson was a drill sergeant getting troops ready for war.

Vincent “Vince” Majestyk is a hard man who has lived a hard life and been screwed over more than a few times by the system. He treats everyone fairly (in a tough way) and this clearly rubs others in the wrong way. He is just a man pushing back against a system that has treated him unfairly while he just tries to live his life. He is a melon farmer barely hanging on and his focus on keeping things together causes him to handle things bluntly.

Majestyk is framed by local jerk Bobby Kopas (Paul Koslo) who tries to force a work crew on Majestyk after Majestyk had already hired some. Koslo is best known for playing villains and gave them all something that made them worse than just what they material provided. They were slimier or creepier or more so of whatever they were written as. Here Kopas is a sniveling coward that is willing to lie about his encounter with Majestyk just to ruin him and even see him killed.

Majestyk’s life gets more difficult and exceedingly complicated when he is caught in the prison escape of mafia hitman Frank Renda (Al Lettieri) while being transferred. Renda is all loud and shouting and Lettieri’s performance borders on unintentionally comedic. You can see the spit spray (figuratively) when he shouts. And he shouts a great deal. In real life his brother-in-law was Pasquale Eboli who was the brother of Genovese crime family boss Thomas Eboli. Was he purposely being over the top for some reason? Or drawing on personal experience?

Majestyk makes friends and allies with his sense of right and wrong. Particularly the film’s love interest of Nancy Chavez (Linda Cristal) who’s a migrant herself as well as a labor organizer. I am not sure what Bronson’s politics were in real life, but the average guy and the system bearing down on them were common (and better done) in his starring roles from around the time of this film.

Nancy is the loyal girlfriend. She manages to keep Majestyk’s harvesting limping along and even plays a part in the finale. She was a bit more than token girlfriend in this and not entirely indispensable to events. Though barely overall.

There is not an excessive amount of violence in Mr. Majestyk. That’s not the saying it’s boring or a long slog. There is only as much action and gunplay is used as necessary. It has impact but it’s not exaggerated for impact. It is just what it is. There is no glory in it.

The dialogue is good with well written characters. Mr. Majestyk is about a man who’s gotten screwed by the system not once but twice and the second time around he’s put in some serious danger and tries to come out on top. And when his back is against the wall he does not back down. The villains don’t know who they’re messing with and find themselves quickly in over their head. This is a character with genuine strength that just wants left alone.

There was a bit of unintentional comedy in this movie involving a cop using Majestyk as bait to capture the escaped Renda. I admit to snickering every time Sheriff Detective Lieutenant McAllen (Frank Maxwell) came on screen. He would show up, say what he had to say, and disappear. Almost as if he was just breezing through the set. Poke his head around the corner or whatever. It felt random and came off as funny. ZAZ could not have wrote something better on purpose.

I absolutely love the music in this movie. It’s just perfect. It’s unique and just set a tone all its own for the film. Good music can tell a story or convey a feeling. The music here feels like it describes Majestyk.

Mr. Majestyk is a great bit of 70s filmmaking with Bronson giving a great performance in a story written by the legendary Elmore Leonard. I definitely recommend this one to Bronson fans and non-Bronson fans alike.