One of Bronson's starring vehicles is an attempt to do something a little different - though not too different. Here he's a journalist, and doesn't shoot that many, though he fires a gun at one stage and beats up someone at the end.
Ironically the story would have been more effective if played more typical. It's based on a novel The Avenging Angel, a Mormon thing (there was a Tom Berenger movie with that title) and is about a feud between two Mormon brothers in Colorado and an investigation into the death of a whole family. It would have been easy to give Bronson a personal connection to that family and had his quest be a personal one - I think the movie would have been better. I understand the novel was about a cop but Bronson plays a reporter so presumably that was a requested change.
The film is fine. Solid story. A lot of old pros around - Paul Jarrico did the script, J. Lee Thompson directed, Jeff Corey and John Ireland play feuding Mormans, Trish Van Dere is the girl. A few younger faces would have helped.
I genuinely didn't guess the baddie, the Colorado locations are a treat, the Mormons gives it novelty, but really it feels like the episode of a TV series. If they wanted to make it a movie, they should have had Bronson has a former Mormon, with a personal connection (like he was raised by them or something) and it was his estranged sister who was shot. Being a reporter makes it feel like this is just another episode in his life.
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