An Interesting if implausible period piece
In"The Stone Killer"Charles Bronson plays a rather nasty police detective named Torrey involved in an attempt,by a mafia godfather,to re-write underworld history..Based on the book"A Complete State Of Death"By John Gardener,"The Stone Killer"as directed by Michael Winner becomes a period piece,at once dated and implausible..
Set in the early 1970s,the film includes an unnecessary scene at an"ashram"populated by a horde of stereotypical "hippies"that has absolutely no bearing on the plot,but which was included,apparently,because Winner thought that it would make his otherwise routine action film relevant..Likewise we have a medical doctor spouting off about how the viet-nam conflict alledgedly transforms decent american males into"stone killers"..
Stuart Margolin plays the leader of one such group of"stone Killers",who have contracted with an elderly mob boss,played by Martin Balsam,to murder all of the other mob bosses,apparently in some sort of bizarre revenge over a similiar incident that had taken place almost 50 years previously..That a mob boss would wait almost half a century to kill a bunch of rival mobsters because other,long dead mobsters had killed his
countrymen nearly half a century earlier makes no sense..That this mob boss would contract his mass execution out to a group of non-mafia ex-servicemen makes even less sense...
Sure,the flick is long on action,and has a nice score by the late Roy Budd,but it has more holes in it's plot that a whole wheel of swiss cheese.

ITS BRONSON!
Bronson and director Michael Winner warmed up before DEATH WISH in 1973 with this watchable thriller that has its' "gaudy moments" as quoted by Bronson. There are some great lines and where else can you see (Papa Walton) Ralph Waite playing a racist detective in a series of outdated suits? You also get a very young John Ritter in LAPD blue serge and Martin Balsam haming it up (fake Italian accent and all) as the central casting New York Mafioso. THE STONE KILLER isn't great, it isn't awful. It's Bronson!

Where's the DVD??
Great Bronson film loaded with action and great Bronson lines. I truly think he should have gone with this character as his franchise instead of his career ending Death Wish stuff. Bronson gives a great performance and the soundtrack is in the same classic 70's style as Enter the Dragon and Dirty Harry. Also available at Amazon.com, check out the re-mastered soundtrack for The Stone Killer. A must have for fans of the 70's!!! Be advised that this VHS pictured here is recorded in the dreaded LP mode. Time to put this one on DVD.....

Bronson's best
This film takes it's place right in the tough cop films of the seventies. I place it right in with the likes of The French Connection; Dirty Harry; Magnum Force and Death Wish. Another plus is the movies great sondtrack.

Awesome soundtrack, average film...
Michael Winner and Charles Bronson collaborated on a few films in the early 70s (The Mechanic, The Stone Killer & Death Wish), with this one being a fairly good example of what that partnership could produce. Flashy camerawork, a fair bit of violence and some pretty funny lines contributed by Bronson are mixed with the story of some Italian godfather rubbing out witnesses with a Vietnam Vet hit squad.

As with all the films (at least the ones I've seen) of Bronson, the story takes what was currently hip or newsworthy at the time and twists it to fit Bronson's 'stoic' charasima. In this case the original godfather movie (only here the Don's are totally unbelievable), Dirty Harry (with less anguish/realism)and public fear of Vietnam Vets. The bottom line is that it's totally hollow, but still good rainy day viewing. Bronson has some lines that intentionally or not are totally p**s funny,there's some cool photography and some decent action scenes. However, the main reason to see this film is for the Roy Budd soundtrack, which despite not being quite in the league of "Get Carter" is still damn funky.