Vigilante Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1983

Vigilante was another early 80's film that capitalized on the rampant crime running through major cities and the general fear from the populace that the animals would eventually take over. This low-budget exploitation/revenge flick is dark, dreary, pessimistic and violent… all the ingredients that should appeal to fans of vigilante films along the lines of Death Wish and The Exterminator.

When rape, murder and thievery have become so widespread in New York City that ordinary Americans are paralyzed in fear, a band of citizens join together under the leadership of Nick (Fred Williamson) to take back the streets. Rather than rely on an apathetic and sometimes corrupt justice system to protect them, this vigilante group acts as the judge, jury and executioner.

One day Eddie Marino (Robert Forster), a working class average Joe, finds his life turned upside down when his wife and son are brutally assaulted during a home invasion while he's away at work. The gang of thugs blows the son's head off with a shotgun, and the wife is repeatedly stabbed and left for dead. The wave of violence has claimed new victims.

Nick approaches the grieving Eddie and invites him to join the vigilante group, but Eddie declines. He still has faith that the justice system will prevail and bring the thugs to justice. After all, the leader of the gang is incarcerated and the District Attorney has vowed to throw the book at him.

When the vicious murderer is brought to trial, a sleazy defense attorney and an equally corrupt judge set it up so that the killer receives a light slap on the hand and is immediately set free. Aghast at the travesty of justice, Eddie erupts in fiery outrage and is charged with contempt of court. The killer walks free while the victim's husband is incarcerated.

Now Eddie is a powder keg ready to be set off. Once he is released from jail he will reconsider his invitation to join the vigilante group, and the blood of criminals will flow in the streets.

There really isn't a lot to be said of Vigilante – it doesn't bring anything particularly new to the revenge flick genre. Although it doesn't try to exploit the horrifying ordeal of rape to provide a gut punch to the audience as flicks like Death Wish II do, Vigilante is every bit as oppressive and dark as the aforementioned series. Perhaps even more so. From the bleak movie score to the depressive city cinematography, this movie paints a hellish world that none of us would care to enter.

But as gritty a condemnation on the state of crime as Vigilante was, it failed to really escape its B-movie roots and become a compelling statement. The acting by Robert Forster and Fred Williamson was tight enough, to be sure, but other B-movie legends such as Woody Strode felt out of place. Watching the elderly Strode beat down a thug with the frame of a gorilla was laughable at best.

I admit to being a fan of vigilante movies – it's great fun to watch society's miscreants get what's coming to them by fed up citizens – so I found myself enjoying the flick. I sure as heck wasn't drawn to it, and it's not a film I'd care to watch repeatedly, but even with its pedestrian roots Vigilante should satisfy most fans of the genre. It's average at best, but it still delivers the goods and remains a sign of the times when films reflected a growing unhappiness with the rampant spread of urban crime.

Movie rating: 5 stars

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