MovieChat Forums > Death Wish (1974) Discussion > Two things confused me about Death Wish

Two things confused me about Death Wish


1. Why does the daughter open the door and let the muggers in? She looks though the peephole and the guy's got his eye jammed up there, wouldn't you ask to see the groceries or at least have the guy move away from the peephole? I know it's the 70's but c'mon.

2. On the day of the attack/death with Kersey's wife there's not a flake of snow on the ground. She's dead at the hospital that day and then the funeral comes and it's a full out blizzard. For continuity's sake why did they think they needed to have the funeral in a raging snowstorm when there was no snow on the ground a few days earlier?

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I can answer both of your queries. She opened the door because the guy said "Groceries, ma'am" and she and her mom were expecting the delivery boy from the supermarket. She had no reason to suspect that the guy on the other side of the door was anything but legitimate and that he was there to deliver the groceries.

As for the blizzard- it rounded out the emotional nature of the burial sequence. The cold, drab, lousy weather was intended to reflect the grief and sense of loss that Paul Kersey was feeling at having to bury his beloved wife. Having a raging snowstorm on the day when the women were attacked would have been meaningless to the context of the story. It was at the gravesite that something like that was more fitting, so as to mirror the grim, somber mood intended.

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When someone comes to make a delivery where I live and I look through the peephole I should see a guy wearing a delivery uniform of some sort (Fed EX, UPS, etc.). She saw a guy with his eye jammed up into the peephole and no groceries nothing. Wouldn't you want to have more than just a verbal confirmation that the guy on the other side of the door was legit? That's what the peephole is for right? She unlocked the chain on the door to let him in. Pretty careless/stupid if you ask me.

I understand why they would have the snowstorm at the funeral for dramatic effect but like I said 3 days prior there's not a flake on the ground. Was it dramatic? Yes. Consistent with the weather on the day of the attack from a few days earlier? No

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I think they said the funeral was wherever the wife was from which was another state. So maybe the weather was different there. It may have even been upstate New York which is much further north obviously so they could have different weather there.

As far as the peephole. Yeah, she made a mistake or she was very trusting. Things like that happen all the time. There would be no such crimes if that weren't the case. I used to work as a Census worker and some people just open the door. This is in a big city with a lot of crime. I didn't have a uniform, I could have been anybody. I could have had other people hiding out of sight. I just saw on the news a similar crime happened in my city where a guy pretended to be a delivery man or a repairman and he raped a woman and set her apartment on fire.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

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How is the weather not consistent? In the winter there can easily be not a snowflake in sight and then within an hour snow covering everything. Happens all time.

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In response to your first query, this is all you need to know; just because you would not take the action that the movie character took, does not mean that it is unlikely, or unusual. In this case, just because opening the door was not the safest thing to do does not make it far-fetched. I mean you can probably think of a hundred examples of where you did something that could have been dangerous, whether it was leaving your door unlocked, or leaving a drink unattended at a bar, while you went to the bathroom. If something bad had happened, like you getting burglarized, or drugged, then you could say, "gee, I sure shouldn't have done that," but it you wouldn't question if it was believable or not. This question is just pedantic and silly. Find something else to harp on.

Speaking of pedantic and sill questions, the weather? really? c'mon man, you can do better than that. I mean, the very beginning of the movie shows the main characters taking a vacation in Hawaii, then, when they return, they're all wearing heavy coats. Use your imagination for a second and tell me what season you think they are trying to get you to think it is... Are you really going to try to tell me that you have never seen a snow storm pop up out of nowhere? That was hardly a blizzard, btw. It was windy and it was snowing, but that was far from a blizzard. GTFO with this nonsense complaining.





"We are here to help the Vietnamese, bc inside every *beep* there is an American trying to get out"

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The film is set in New York, but the funeral was in Connecticut. It is entirely possible for there to be snow in one part of New England and for there to be mild weather in another part on the same day, yet alone with a few days between them.

"No man yet found drinks his tea blacker"

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During the scene where Kersey goes to the police station to talk with the detective, he mentions that the funeral for his wife was in Connecticut.

Muggers operating out here, they just plain get their asses blown off. - Aimes Jainchill

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Some people are so crazy. It was clearly the winter time. It snows out of nowhere in the winter time. One day,sunny. Next day,snowing. It's winter. It happens all the time.

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No sh!t. I live in NY state, and just because the ground is bare today doesn't mean it will be three days from now. There's no snow, and then it snows, and then there IS snow. Hard concept to grasp, I'll admit.

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Go live in Vermont and get a taste of it along with massive unemployment and state over site on everything, but u can carry a gun there. That's all folks.

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On the national level, Vermont's unemployment rate is one of the lowest, and they had the lowest violent crime rate in 2014, so I guess that's something.

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Yeah, and towrds the end of the movie, it looks like it's Halloween b/c there are people parading in the streets in costumes. Yet it was snowing in CT (my home state) a few months earlier.

I don't have a problem with Carol opening the door--after all they were expecting the delivery boy.

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Women in Boston continued to open their doors even after it had been publicized that the "Boston Strangler" might be wearing workmen's or deliverymen's attire. You never know...

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

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For continuity's sake why did they think they needed to have the funeral in a raging snowstorm when there was no snow on the ground a few days earlier?


I don't think they did. Death Wish was filmed in 39 days and on the day of shooting the funeral scene it was snowing for real. Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7s99TPwNPTMC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=death+wish+snow+at+the+funeral&source=bl&ots=z5xqQCIDPV&sig=x-eakgZxsP6MvtoTs46c3qFKVkg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6nKXf2tXPAhWpJcAKHcxlDLwQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=death%20wish%20snow%20at%20the%20funeral&f=false

YOU SHOULDN'T BE EATING SAUSAGES!!

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