Two Tees and a free rental?
Major!
Major!
 Charles Bronson was a limited actor, though he was also a very reliable one, appearing in well over 100 movies and dozens of TV shows over the course of his 50-year career. As a pop culture phenomenon, he has much in common with the Ghanian movie posters, Jamaican dancehall records, and 70s giallo movies that count among Odd Obsession Movies video store owner Brian Chankin’s other obsessions. From Death Wish on, Bronson’s star vehicles were cheap, quickly made, and strove to give audiences a pulpy good time. But above all, they were plentiful. Like the other cultural figures that Chankin appreciates with scholarly interest, Bronson made so many movies that they developed into a subgenre of their own, with distinctive tropes and creative flourishes. This process reflects years of hard and steady work that cannot be faked, and the integrity shines through the kitschiness (and in some cases, the outright lousiness) of Bronson’s star vehicles. But the kitschiness can be lots of fun too. It makes sense that Bronson’s face wound up on so many of Odd Obsession’s advertisements--and, later, on the t-shirts designer Josh Brown created promoting Odd Obsession Movies. Bronson's tireless work ethic has a lot in common with Chankin’s, and his filmography covers many areas of film history that the store has come to specialize in: spaghetti westerns, downbeat American cop movies, genre films by underrated auteurs (like Don Siegel, Richard Fleischer, and Walter Hill), French crime films. And just as there are plenty of obscure art movies tucked away in the Odd Obsession shelves, Bronson’s filmography has plenty of surprisingly respectable entries: Pat & Mike, Samuel Fuller’s The Run of the Arrow, The Dirty Dozen, Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner, even Vincente Minnelli’s The Sandpiper (in which he plays a pompous academic!). The more we learn about movies, the more we find surprises like this, figures who crossed unexpectedly between trash and art and back again. Bronson did this, and he kicked lots of ass. I’m happy to wear his face on my chest (and on my back in the case of the new hoodies photographed below). Written by Ben Sachs.  Pseudo Slang showin' Odd Obsession some love in their video Rhymes4DaysAnd!
Owner Brian Chankin's collection of hand painted Ghanian Movie posters will be on display at Harold Washington College thru the end of the month!
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