Vigilante (1983)

Very disappointing...

good back-story, and good acting

Excellent adaptation.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

An outburst in court ironically lands a factory worker in prison while his son's killer walks free in this familiar tale of an upstanding citizen driven to vigilantism out of desperation. Appropriately grim and gritty, 'Vigilante' almost equals director William Lustig's prior 'Maniac' in atmosphere and Jay Chattaway's throbbing synthesiser music score does wonders for setting the mood. The violence is also quite graphic, with certain moments (particularly the son's grisly murder) still shocking by standards today. As a narrative though, the film has several shortfalls. The resemblance to 'Death Wish' is not problematic itself, but the formula is so simplified here that comparisons hurt. There is no gradual progression of Robert Forster's protagonist from passive to active, with being sent to prison offering a simple snap for him to join the local vigilante movement in his area. There are some strange, unresolved subplots too, such as Woody Strobe going out of his way to help Forster in prison. The film could have also benefited from spending more time debating the ethics of vigilantism, which the movie seems to promote as a flawless solution without really focusing on the corruption, red tape and politics that have driven a culture of vigilantism (a single corrupt lawyer and shady judge aside). Never to mind, the film survives fairly well purely on account of convincing performances, uncensored violence and an unshakable grim air. Suffice it to say, it is a hard to film to exit not feeling something, even if it is ambivalence towards an endorsement of vigilantism.

First and foremost I am still shocked this is an 80's movie, I genuinely thought this was a trashy 70's flick at first. OK in all honesty I kinda thought it was a blaxploitation movie because Fred Williamson was in it and the whole thing looks so grungy and cheap. Just look at the movie poster...it looks like an old video game advert. Kinda like a third rate advertisement for a Double Dragon clone or any other scrolling beat em up involving punks on the streets when the sun goes down.This is your standard revenge thriller, the type of movie that most probably influenced the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and led to the various slick revenge action thrillers today ('The Equalizer' and 'John Wick'). Eddie Marino (Forster) is a happily married man with a young son in New York. In a brief encounter with a violent gang, Marino's wife slaps a Che Guevara looking gang member across the face. Later that day the gang turns up at her door, breaks in, trashes the place, kills the young boy and stabs her badly. Unfortunately for Marino the law is corrupt, the system doesn't work and the gang member gets off, you know what happens next.This movie could only have been made in this era really, New York in the late 70's and early 80's was a dirty crime ridden place. You only have to look at the cities suburbs/locations whilst watching the film to see how different it was. Its quite interesting actually, seeing all these beat up cars running around, street trash, dilapidated buildings and stores on every corner, movies like 'Taxi Driver' and 'Serpico' back this up, its not movie magic. Noo Yawk was a hard dangerous place and the law enforcement was known to be...dodgy, this movie uses all of that to good effect.Yeah sure it seems a bit tame in places these days, the street gang looks ridiculous in their punk attire. God knows what some of them are wearing, the main bad guy seems to have some kind of native American thing going on with a headband and feathers...I think it was. All the other guys are decked out in typical biker duds and covered in shiny studs, badges and spikes. Most of them are black dudes and Latinos (Mexicans?) with big thick sideburns or tashes (naturally), and they have one blonde female in their ranks, basically your stereotypical street gang from the 80's.The violence is actually quite shocking and graphic, some stuff you see and some is implied yet still pretty horrific. The only sequence where you do see a lot of blood was the street gang shooting up a police car in a hail of silenced gunfire. The scene where Nick (Williamson) shoots an armed (baddie) female inside one gang members abode is pretty shocking to be honest, I knew he was gonna do it but the way she is flung back into the bath tub was quite unexpected to say the least. The most shocking scene by far is of course the murder of Marino's young son, you don't see it but you know exactly what happens. Again this did surprise me greatly as I did not expect it at tall, didn't think the punk would be so evil! The rest of the fisticuffs is pretty tame and quite amusing at times, especially seeing Forster naked in prison trying to fight off two other horny inmates.Yep that's right, Forster's character winds up in jail for thirty days because he tried to assault the judge after the gang member got let off the charges. The police, judges and lawyers are all dirty in this movie. If it wasn't for action man Woody Strode then Forster's character would have been the meat in an inmate sandwich. Actually most of the prison scenes are slightly amusing really, its all so clichéd as I'm sure you can guess and seeing old man Strode beat up this gigantic inmate is both awesome and hilarious.The one thing I don't get is these vigilantes that clean the streets of scum and eventually end up killing off some people including a corrupt member of the mayor's office, don't get caught. How on earth they manage to get away with killing these people is beyond me, I realise the theme of the movie is corruption with everyone looking out for themselves but it seems unrealistic. On the other hand we never actually find out what happens to every character so who knows. We don't even see what happens to the whole gang as only the two leaders are dealt with so...Nothing overly special these days but obviously back in the day this was pretty hardcore stuff. Its still entertaining, clearly a tad similar to a certain Bronson movie and its fun to see Williamson swing into action with his kung-fu. This most definitely still packs a punch.7/10

Vigilante is a grim and hard hitting revenge themed action flick in the vein of Deathwish. Robert Foster is father and husband who 's wife and son were victims in a home invasion . He looks to friend Fred Williamson for help in seeking revenge. Directed by William Lustig of Maniac fame. Vigilante is real nasty and ultraviolent. It also looks great and sound great with a score that is like a spaghetti western from hell. Acting performances are excellent across the board. Fred Williamson 's acting is the best I've seen from him .He is absolutely menacing and brutal here. Robert Foster is great also and shows a great range of emotions in this piece .Vigilante in tone is a very bleak film that is very well done and played serious . Expect little humor and watch Fred and company to take out the trash. Great cameo from Joe Spinell as sleazy, scumbag lawyer.Excellent.

Director William Lustig's stirring low-cost vigilante picture is something a little more than your exploitative gung-ho revenge story, as while the material is lank and far-fetched its still implodes with some minor goods. Honestly the first time I came across it, I was left under whelmed and this can be attributed to the direction it went. The story has two sub-plots running, which would eventually come together, but the focus on one over the other really destroyed what could have a lasting impression. On one side of the coin has a small group of local vigilante's led by Nick (an inspired Fred Williamson) cleaning up punks that the law doesn't seem to want to touch and on the other side of the coin follows that of Eddie Marino (Robert Forster), a working class New Yorker coming home to find his wife has been brutally beaten and toddler killed. He's approached by Nick to join their cause, but refuses to let the justice system hand out the law, but after those who were responsible for the attack is left off with nothing but a slap on the wrists. It sees Eddie take it upon himself to hand out the punishment.The constant shifts in the story seemed to get in the way of cooking any real sort of emotional hold. The cult actors do the best with what they got. Robert Forster's streamlined, if cold approach works and Fred Williamson's full-blooded bad-ass portrayal is nothing that's unexpected. Don Blakely and Willie Colon make for great, nasty pair of thugs. Also in the line-up are Richard Bright, Rutanya Alda, Joseph Carberry, Steve James and Carol Lynley. In brief, but welcoming inclusions are Woody Strode and Joe Spinell as a scummy lawyer.The material is quite heavy-handed in what it's got to say on a flawed justice system, as Williamson spits out speeches about not living in fear and eventually the line between right and wrong is blurred. In the end don't read too much in to it. Lustig's pacing is on the spot and direction suitably controlled, as while not overly explicit it manages to have a brutal and gritty pulse. There are some intense interplays, and a disturbing moment or two, but in the end it's not particularly gripping like I would have hoped. It's quite underplayed in that department. Jay Chattaway's thumping score has a blaring sting and harrowing cloud that effectively balances the moods.