Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueA road warrior vigilante avenges his brother's death at the hands of a crazy motorist by using his souped-up pickup to apprehend drunken drivers and others who abuse their driving privileges... Tout lireA road warrior vigilante avenges his brother's death at the hands of a crazy motorist by using his souped-up pickup to apprehend drunken drivers and others who abuse their driving privileges.A road warrior vigilante avenges his brother's death at the hands of a crazy motorist by using his souped-up pickup to apprehend drunken drivers and others who abuse their driving privileges.
- Réalisation
- Scénario
- Casting principal
- Policeman #1
- (as Jose Flores)
Avis à la une
The poster and the plot summary sound like "can't lose" kind of idea. Anyone familiar with the end of THE EXTERMINATOR 2 or the real-life rampage by Marvin Heemeyer will see some comfortable familiarity in the scenario of a guy souping up his truck to exact righteous vengeance upon the wicked. Unfortunately this film squanders the premise largely out of adherence to the TV standards of the time.
For one, it's extremely cheap and lacking in any of the cold, calculating style of Ferrara's other 80's films. Additionally the script presents plenty of problems that make the premise seem much more ridiculous than it had to be. The movie takes great pains to make Ken Wahl's descent into vigilantism gradual and emotionally realistic, yet stretches credulity many times as he would not be able to get away with it so long and not be able to hide it from his friends and lover (Nancy Allen) who know him, know about his dead brother, and know about his fancy truck. Yes "The Gladiator" as he calls himself becomes something of a celebrity with the cops not-so-hot on his trail, but he puts effort into to trying to get people to pull over and adhere to a citizen's arrest rather than hurting or killing anyone. This leaves dozens of witnesses who could easily see his license plate, but it doesn't come to anything.
Personally I think the film would have been a lot better had they decided to make it more realistic, give us some tension with the authorities closing their net around him, or else to just gone all-out with the violence and mayhem. We could have seen Wahl start as a noble do-gooder turn into a monster just as bad as the one who created him. The film hints at this but never delivers. As it is, THE GLADIATOR unfortunately stands as an extremely unsatisfying yet fascinating window into the forgotten realm of 80's TV movies aimed at adults but safe enough for kids.
To say this was made on the cheap is an understatement.
It's sort of a PSA for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
We're missing half the story.
Who says that the baddie's car is called "The Skull Car?" It's not in the movie. That Skull Car attacks randomly? No, he just goes in for disproportionate revenge over petty actions (kinda like our "Hero" does). Is he insane? Well, maybe if the movie had bothered to give him even a single line of dialog, we might know that.
Instead we're just told that the black car driver is insane. Insane villains don't have motivations or back-stories.
1980s action heroes don't know the law about how citizen's arrests work.
Also, when are streets in LA ever that empty? Maybe in the 1920s?
The one thing that movies from the 1980s have that modern movies don't is that the cameras actually focus on the action (such as it is) so that you can see it clearly.
The end result is better than, say, any of the Halloween or Friday the 13th movies, but not by much.
It had the drunk on revenge main character....who soups up his truck to take down drunk drivers after his brother gets hurt by one. And not to mention the standoff automobile fight scene in the end that would make vaughn from crash, pass out in ecstasy.
did i mention that i loved able ferra movies before i even knew who he was?!
If you ever get a chance to see this vehicle vigilance movie. then do so. Other wise you will miss his really cool harpoon gun.
The film stars Ken Wahl as Rick Benton, a revenge fuelled vigilante. After the death of his brother to a crazed motorist that is in the midst of a murderous rampage. Benton takes to patrolling the roads of San Francisco in his modified pick up truck, using the call sign Gladiator. He does so to ensure the roads are kept safe from inept drivers, whilst simultaneously hunting for his brothers killer.
The Gladiator is essentially Death Wish on wheels, and nothing much else. The script is your typical vigilante drama, as the stoic Benton goes through every cliché known to man. That is until his inevitable showdown with his brothers killer. Usually this would bother me in most films of this ilk though Iv'e come to accept this macho style of film-making from Ferrara. Whilst the film is thin on characterisation, it's never regarded as the focus of the film.
There's something though about Ferrara's film-making that i can't quite put my finger on. It's no secret that his films don't look very good, and most of them have a televisual feel to them alongside, at times unintelligible audio. However they completely suck me into his world. All of his films have this underlying, stoic, brooding atmosphere, that i find intoxicating. Ferrara is able to bring his films to life in ways that few directors can. His night-shots, despite the poor, indie quality of the cameras, look beautiful, much like the work of Michael Mann or Katheryn Bigelow.
Nearly all his films are divisive and rough around the edges. This film is more straight forward, then most of his others films such-as: Bad Lieutenant, The Driller Killer etc. Whilst i respect and even at times admire his low budget, guerrilla style of film-making, it's not enough to save this film from it's poor, under-cooked screenplay, and bland characters.
Cast is worthy. The main character wants to empathize. The girlfriend of the main character Susan is also a very interesting character, it helps Rick cope with depression, she broadcaster, has commented on the development of the story in the course of the film. The movie is saturated dialogs and dramatic moments.
Soulful and entertaining film.
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesThe five 1969 Dodge Chargers used in this film were actual "General Lee's" from Shérif, fais-moi peur! (1979), sold by Warner Bros to this production. Out of the five, two survived in the hands of stunt driver George A. Sack Jr. They are now being restored for "Dukes" stunt coordinator Gary Baxley by Smith Bros. Restorations.
- Gaffes(at around 41 mins) Rick is driving through and there is a flashing red light for the crosswalk. He's looking for bad drivers but he runs straight through the crosswalk while a person is walking in front of him.
- Citations
Joe Barker: There's order to the chaos of the universe - as above, so below. I mean, even here, there's a natural order posed by me, because here: I am God.
- Versions alternativesAbel Ferrara had to cut approximately 11 minutes of footage from the final cut due to the restrictions imposed by New World Television on the running length. A scene where Rick (Ken Wahl) and Susan (Nancy Allen) go out for a meal and debate the motives behind the gladiator made up the majority of the cut footage; it is unknown whether future DVD releases will contain missing scenes to this date (May, 2007).
- ConnexionsReferenced in A Short Film About the Long Career of Abel Ferrara (2004)