Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle for Expression

This biased piece of filth attempts to excuse vandalism and breaking the law by those that have not been able to adapt to society and it's rules. There is no excuse for the viewpoint that they are attempting to promulgate, and they come off as amateurish and juvenile activists with no real cause to rally behind. The only people that they can find to support their narrative in this poor attempt at a documentary are other outcasts from civilization who don't share one mouthful of teeth among themselves. I WISH they would try their brand of visual activism on my property. They would quickly become familiar with a few of the amendments of the constitution that I hold near and dear.

This was an interesting watch, albeit an incoherent one. The pro/anti- graffiti debate is fascinating, but only if one goes deep into the question of opposing rights of different-minded people. Here, much time is spent on talking heads overstating the obvious: "some graffiti is pretty", "tagging requires skill", "wall-to-wall advertisement is more damaging to the city landscape than graffiti, etc." Most of the talking heads stuff is of that nature. Thankfully, a lot of it is illustrated with thoughtful animation.

More interesting is the portrait of the buffers ("remover of graffiti") themselves and their motivations. Their zealous desire to rid the city of graffiti turns them into bigger graffiters themselves, perhaps the most active of them all. The irony of the situation is not lost on the filmmakers, but somehow does not alter their discourse on graffiti.

But if buffers are taggers, and tagging is art, then why come down so hard on the buffers? Shouldn't the right of someone to spray silver paint over a graffiti be as protected as the right to create graffiti in the first place? Unfortunately, when the documentary encounters such ethical dilemmas, it prefers to avoid the issues and simply portray the buffers as near or complete lunatics with personal problems.

So - When it comes to the whole question of "graffiti" - Is it art? Is it an eyesore? Is it right? Is it wrong?.... And - Hey! What about this pressing matter of "self-expression"?

Anyway - These and many other such related questions are repeatedly brought up in this "Vigilante" documentary where its director, Max Good tries to evenly weigh-out both the pros, as well as the cons, concerning graffiti, as best he can.

So - If you, yourself, have formed any firm opinions about the usefulness (or uselessness) of graffiti, then, perhaps this 90-minute presentation will be of some relevant interest to you, too.

I was waiting to see this since it came out, the trailer made the movie and concept very appealing.

It is not!

The whole time it revolves about the same issue over and over and over again with nothing actually new to add to the things everybody knows already.

Wish i could get my minutes of life back, and the 3 euros i paid to rent this by VOD.