Charles Bronson Superstar

This is probably a bit pulpish and bit hard to track down, but I couldn't resist talking about this fawning 70s monument to action icon Charles Bronson.

Now, I'm a huge Charles Bronson fan. Death Wish, The Machinist, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Great Escape, The Indian Runner, The Magnificent Seven, Mr. Majestyk, Apache... well, maybe not Apache, but you get the picture. He has a huuuuuuge back catalogue of pulp action films from the 70s and 80s that I've been slowly working my way through - they're cheesy, but Bronson is always so ice cool in them.

This book was written in the 1970s, shortly after Bronson became an uber-star with the 1974 hit revenge-film Death Wish. The book opens with a quote from Bronson, "I hate biographies", and then launches into a spirited re-telling of his early days as a migrant kid in extreme poverty. According to this book, the extremes Bronson faced in his childhood go beyond belief... he endured the deaths of several siblings and his father, all of whom worked in dangerous mines, and became an actor in spite of his premature weather-beaten looks and inability to speak English properly.

The point where I realised that I might not have been reading a completely truthful biography of Bronson's life came with the book's serious use of this quote from the man himself on losing his virginity...

"I remember my first time. I was five and a half years old... this was a Fourth of July picnic, and there was this girl, six years old, I gave her some strawberry pop. I gave her the pop because I didn't want it - I had taken up chewing tobacco and I liked that better. I didn't start smoking until I was nine. I gave her the pop, and then we... hell, I never lost my virginity. I never had any virginity!"

And with every paragraph the writer swoons and gushes about Bronson's genius. I'm not saying the man is without talent - like I said, I'm a huge fan, but this author really takes it too far. If you happen across this book and you're up for an amusing read then I'd recommend this, just don't take it seriously. I guess I should never have taken it seriously... the cover reads "The real man behind the rock-hard macho image! The dramatic, revealing inside story of what has made Charles Bronson the #1 movie male!"

Charles Bronson Superstar!
(with candid and exciting photos!)