Violenza

A pack of hot-rodding idiots terrorize a neighborhood, causing mayhem. When Jim and Muriel Kiler (Robert Culp and Marilyn Mason) go the legal route to stop them, it only escalates the madness.

OUTRAGE does two things very well:

#1- It shows the helplessness that innocent, law-abiding citizens experience when dealing with lawless, psychopathic thugs.

#2- It allows Jim to undergo many indignities and injuries, and to exhaust every possible means within the law, while showing great patience, before lowering the boom, and allowing him to take out the trash.

The final act is sublime!

A superb made-for-TV movie. This is the best Robert Culp movie of all time!...

This made for TV film was remade in 1998. I haven't seen the newer version, so I cannot compare the two.

When the story begins, a group of punk teens are running amok in a nice California neighborhood--pouring loads of garbage into a lady's pool, nearly running over pedestrians, dogs and horses and acting like they are above the law. When one of the folks being menaced by them tries to be constructive and work to have speed bumps and more policing, Jim Kiler (Robert Culp) is attacked by the thugs and they nearly kill him. When the law seem either unable or unwilling to do much of anything, Kiler is backed against the wall and has no other choice but to approach the teens' parents...who don't seem to care in the least. So what is to happen next? Well, considering that the boys go essentially unpunished, you can only assume things will escalate! But Kiler STILL tries very hard to work within the system through much of the movie. Find the film on YouTube and find out for yourself what's next in this family's nightmarish lives.

While the plot might sound quite a bit like "Death Wish", this film came out a year earlier...plus it was set in the suburbs. Additionally, Kiler did NOT react like Bronson did in "Death Wish"-- he didn't go out at night shooting the boys...though considering how awful they were, you certainly wouldn't have blamed his character!

Overall, this is a very well made and exciting film. Culp did a very nice job in the film and it's not just some revenge picture. Plus, it's apparently based on a real case...which adds to the realism. Well worth seeing...and filled with all sorts of funky 70s music!

Outrage (1973)

*** (out of 4)

This made-for-TV gem features Robert Culp playing Jim Kiler, a man who grows tired of the teenage punks wrecking his small town. The police can't do anything because no witnesses step forward but after being ran over, Jim decides to press charges. The trial date is three months ago so the rich teenagers decide to harass Kiler and his family in countless ways, which finally pushes the man over the edge.

OUTRAGE came a year before DEATH WISH so the entire vigilante sub-genre hadn't been beaten to death yet. A movie like this is meant to entertain you for 74 minutes and there's no question that this one does that and there's also no doubt that you're blood is going to be boiling throughout the picture. This was based on a true story but as we all know things are often blown out of proportion or made to look worse than what really happened. I really hope that's true here because it's hard to believe that what we see here actually happened in the way it did because these teenagers and the town had to be without a question some of the dumbest in history.

With such a short running time there's no time for any character development so the reasons behind the teenagers doing this is never explained. I mean, most teens cause a little trouble here and there but what we see in this film is crazy as there's attempted murder, arson, violence towards animals and countless other scenes where they break the law. You have to wonder what they were thinking but as the viewer all of this just makes your blood boil and you hate them even more. The Kiler character is someone you can certainly root for and there's no doubt that he's put up against some great villains.

Culp is certainly entertaining in his role and although he does go over-the-top at times, this here just adds to the entertainment. Marlyn Mason is good as his wife and Beah Richards is great in her small role. The actors playing the punks in the film are all good and help sell their characters. OUTRAGE features a rather wild and over-the-top ending that's not 100% satisfying but there's no question that the movie does its job in keeping you entertained throughout.

This is a very good, made for TV film. It depicts trouble in suburbia circa 1970's and the sort of neighbors one certainly does not want to have around. The worst & most upsetting part of the film was when the punk teenagers killed the family dog. The teens do everything to annoy and harass this poor family. But boy!, does the lead character take vengeance on those punk teenagers in the end. The father/homeowner surely does not take all of the aggravation from the punk teens lightly and is quick to retaliate after lack of help from the police that is. He stands up to them and protects his home and his family. A very good actor..I might add.

I watched this on TV when I was like 8 or 9. I have never seen it again on TV and would like to. Definitely a good one! It's the sort of movie one may catch on a weekday night very late at night and can't stop watching or an afternoon film on a weekend. It's the kind they just don't show anymore.

It is definitely worth seeing!

Robert Culp (they call his character "doctor"...I think he's a vet or something) and family move to an affluent, low-tax, zero-law-enforcement suburb. Lantern-jawed Culp and his dog are nearly killed when some local idiot neighbor kids get drunk and "go cruising" through his front yard at 60mph. He presses charges, which arouses the kids' ire, and suddenly him and his family are the victims of a violent and disturbing prank campaign.

Marilyn Manson, er, Marlyn Mason rather, plays his fretful, boiled-celery wife, who urges him not to use violence against his sneering nemeses, and who really just wants to move somewhere with decent public services. But The System is getting Culp nowhere, and he's not about to leave his house because of some punk kids and their crazy rock and roll music. And we all know what movie people do when The System fails...(but this is based on a true story, which makes it even better).

It should be noted that while the villainous hooligans do have convenient '70s funk-o-matic "teenage" theme music that warns us when they're up to no good, this film actually ends up treating the age brackets even-handedly (really!). It doesn't make a big generational thing out of it. Kudos for that.

Anyway, if you like dogs (or at least believe in protecting their civil rights, like me), and you like justice, and you like fire, and you like justice for dogs by way of fire, and you think people who skitter nervously out of troubled communities are "too damn soft," then this flick's ethos is up your alley. No, it's not really "good," at least not in any widely recognized sense of the word. There's nothing subtle or understated or clever about it, it's just sort of a feature-length PSA for vigilantism. It does, however, capture the feeling of some memorable scenes in other, beloved works. Remember in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns when Batman leads the Mutants on horseback to reclaim Gotham City? Remember that scene in A Christmas Story where the kid pounds the bully's face in? Remember how cool that was? Or do you just really hate being looked at funny by your neighbors? Yeah, mon.

Unfortunately, this was a 1973 made-for-TV movie that I just happened to catch at 4am on my local WB affiliate, and it's probably not destined for DVD release. But after being inspired by this film, do you think I'm gonna just sit here and take it!?!