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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
In the latter half of the nineteen-eighties, CBS added another program in the long list of police procedural shows, The Equalizer. The premise was similar, but different to The A-Team, whilst both had fixers for hire. The central character of Robert McCall, was a lone agent, offering his service to those at risk in an effort to atone for his own past deeds. The show starred the late Edward Woodward, already a well respected multi award winning actor from his work on Callan, which ran on television from 1967 to 1972. He also had a successful film career, starring in, amongst other, The Wicker Man (1973), Who Dares Wins (1982), Breaker Morant (1980) and Hot Fuzz (2007). The Equalizer: Blood & Wine (1987) has been released to coincide with the advent of the new film, based on the television show. Although touted as a film in its own right, it is, in fact the first two episodes of season three mashed together, successfully so. It is a tale of redemption, McCall continues to do his private investigator work, not quite at arm’s length from his previous employer, allowing him greater resources than your usual PI as well as allowing him to be dragged into more complex cases. In this case he is contacted by a mother worried, having found a gun in the house, that her daughter, from whom she is semi-estranged, has a partner of dubious quality. Unfortunately, for the audience, American shows at this time had the terrible habit of précising the action with a montage before the show had already started; this was to act as an advert to how exciting the story was. The only real effect was to show you major plot points before the credits had even begun. There is no pretence that William Atherton isn’t the terrorist Alpha, as the show opens with his latest atrocity, the bombing of a particularly bad nightclub. Running parallel to McCall’s seemingly simple domestic investigation, the police department has called in the services of reformed terrorist and mentor to Alpha, Brother Joseph Heiden, played by Telly Savalas, who like McCall has turned to god as a way of atoning for his previous occupation. Soon, the two halves of the story join together, leading to a race to stop Alpha before he carries out his plan to kill thousands. The two episodes work surprisingly well as a stand-alone story, of course this is helped by having the two power house actors in Savalas and Woodward acting together, as well as well known character actor William Atherton as the creepy bad guy. Some of the best scenes are between the two principle actors, where the morality of their past occupations get blurred. McCall admits to Heiden that he was once sent to kill him and came very close to doing so until recalled back to the States, after which McCall's relative was sent on the same mission only to die in one of Heiden’s bombings. Given the show's high production qualities, I could have quite believed that this had once been a movie and if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth a look. The disc is clear, given the age of the show, but contains no extras. 7 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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