Mr. Majestyk

Mr. Majestyk (1974)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Richard Fleischer

Starring: Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Linda Cristal, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo

From: United Artists

Charles Bronson was one tough melon farmer.

It was about time I talked about this movie here, where Bronson plays the improbably-named Vince Majestyk, an ex-con and Vietnam vet who... has a watermelon farm. And this tale was written by Elmore Leonard!

The trouble starts when a punk tries to strong-arm his white crew to work on the farm and pick melons, instead of the Hispanic migrant workers that Vince hired. The punk is rebuked and he files charges. I was worried early on when I saw that there would be migrant workers as I was hoping there wouldn't be any politically incorrect moments, you know. I'll just say that Majestyk was happy to hire them and was not prejudiced against Hispanics.

Anyway, even more trouble happens when he crosses paths with brute hitman Al Lettieri. That guy is no nonsense and you better not act dumb or argue with him as he WILL yell at you. Likewise, you better not interrupt Majestyk's job of picking then hauling in those watermelons for sale, unless you want him to get extremely angry and lookin' for revenge. Considering the film's writer, it should be no surprise that there is plenty of dialogue both of the “humorous” and “tough guy” variety.


When there is action, it is a lot of fun; apparently, Vince's banana yellow Ford truck was mostly stock, so the beating it takes in the final act was quite impressive. The movie is a lot of fun, over the top in the right ways and featuring cool actors & actresses, a very catchy score from Charles Bernstein, despicable villains, Bronson being awesome as always, and he even has a love interest. For a premise that may sound a little peculiar, Mr. Majestyk was a lot of fun.