Movie Review: Vigilante (1983)
posted October 27, 2009 - 10:51amIn November 2008, I was mugged. Four o'clock in the morning, in the middle of a big city. The mugger had a ski-mask and a knife. Fortunately my wallet was empty and he let me go.
What's interesting is that I wasn't very scared when it
happened, I was more ... annoyed. And can you guess what the first thing I did when I got back home was? I watched DIRTY HARRY (1971). The first one. And I enjoyed every single second of Clint Eastwood shooting creeps in San Francisco. I've seen DIRTY HARRY lots of times, at least 20, but this time it meant something to me. And it felt good. Just what the doctor ordered.
There's something deeply satisfying about watching vigilante movies, a very politically incorrect genre. Unscrupulous bad guys rule, the cops do nothing, and a resolute man does what you can't do in reality - pulling out your gun and taking out the trash on your own, that is.
In William Lustig's VIGILANTE, Robert Forster's wife is assaulted and their little son is killed by a ruthless and brutal gang in New York. Forster wants to solve all this legally, but the corrupt system (Beware Joe Spinell is a lawyer in this movie!) sets the killer free. Forster gets mad as hell, attacks the judge and jury and is himself thrown in the slammer.
When he's out again, he joins up with Fred Williamson and his gang of vigilantes, and then it's time to find the local, murdering gang. This means that there will be action - and plenty of it.
The cast of VIGILANTE is amazing, but the movie itself is unfortunately a bit sloppy and slovenly. It seems like the story doesn't really fit together, as if parts of the storyline are missing.
Too bad. To satisfy my bloodthirst, I guess I'll have to rewatch the funniest vigilante movie; DEATH WISH 3, in witch Charles Bronson and some pensioners are walking down the street, machine gunning down most of the punks who have taken over the neighborhood.
If you want more stuff like this, there's plenty out there. There are five DEATH WISH movies. Three movies about The Punisher, try to track down the first one, simply called THE PUNISHER (1989) since it's Dolph Lundgrens best movie, and there are ninjas in it.
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
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Comments
Yes they did. And then Lustig
Yes they did. And then Lustig teamed up with Larry Cohen on MANIAC COP and MANIAC COP 2 (and parts of MANIAC COP 3, which they both left midway through).
OOKABALLAKONGA!
Vigilante
I watched this movie 25 years ago. If I remember right, William Lustig and Joe Spinell also teamed up in Maniac.
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