Os Vigilantes

I saw this for the first time recently n was pleasantly surprised. It is a good entertaining movie with a solid director n solid star cast. The film has bloody shootouts, a chase sequence much before the parkour craze, a car chase sequence, prison rape threats and a courtroom scene portraying the decay of the legal system. Law Abiding Citizen borrowed a lil bit from this movie too, the other one being Max Sydow's Night Visitor.

A rough, raw film with The Best opening scene/speech of all films I have seen. You gotta see it. Fred (with a manly beard) Williamson rebuking and motivating the apathetic and down-trodden souls. Man with a vision - a man of action.

The things I like about this movie are the raw realism - one can identify with the pain and suffering and initial reluctance on the part of the lead actor to join with the visionary vigilantes - until something happens to them personally.

The corruption and unrighteous judgments in the court system are legendary and this facet of life in America is not left out - to this film's credit and a rebuke to so many other movies that leave loose ends hanging around to do more damage.

A classic vigilante movie, actually better than Death Wish I think. Add it to your collection.

If like me you are an avid fan of sleazy and grubby looking flicks packed with sleazy and grubby looking characters, filmed in sleazy and grubby looking locations then this is the film for you. The film is essentially a revenge thriller, which tips an over sized Barbisio hat to the Italian Euro-Crime flicks of the 1970s: A bitter protagonist; middle-aged hoodlums(who should know better at their age); corrupt judges; a car chase(or three); clichéd dialogue; mindless- slaughter, and Fred "That Man Bolt" Williamson. The film stars Robert Forster playing an unremarkable factory worker whose life is suddenly beset by an inconceivable tragedy and (without giving too much of the plot away) he finds himself requiring little encouragement in joining a group of vigilantes led by his co-workers Williamson and two other colleagues. The film certainly doesn't pull any punches with the protagonists dispensing some reasonable savagery on any wrongdoers along the way. Some class acting from Forster and Williamson keeps the viewer interested throughout and the climactic fight scene at towards the end of the film, wouldn't look out of place in an Enzo Castellari or Umberto Lenzi flick. This is a well paced, well acted and thoroughly engrossing '80s exploitation film, with a compelling soundtrack and a nice little cameo from Italian director's favourite Woody Strode.

Watch at (almost) all costs!

Vigilante (1983) is a revenge flick in the style of 70's Italian Crime films (He even shot it in Scope). Robert Forester plays Marino, an average working joe who's family is attacked by an inner city street gang. When the justice system fails him, Marino can't take it anymore and with the help of his co-workers takes revenge on the street scum. Sophisticated trash from William Lustig (It looks and feels sleazy). The film has an all star cult film line up. Featuring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, Joe Spinell, Woody Strode, Carol Lynley, Frank Pesce and Rutyana Alda.

Highly Recommended.

Old school ultra violence, Lustig style.

Director William Lustig's stirring low-cost vigilante picture is something a little more than your exploitative gung-ho revenge story, as while the material is lank and far-fetched its still implodes with some minor goods. Honestly the first time I came across it, I was left under whelmed and this can be attributed to the direction it went. The story has two sub-plots running, which would eventually come together, but the focus on one over the other really destroyed what could have a lasting impression. On one side of the coin has a small group of local vigilante's led by Nick (an inspired Fred Williamson) cleaning up punks that the law doesn't seem to want to touch and on the other side of the coin follows that of Eddie Marino (Robert Forster), a working class New Yorker coming home to find his wife has been brutally beaten and toddler killed. He's approached by Nick to join their cause, but refuses to let the justice system hand out the law, but after those who were responsible for the attack is left off with nothing but a slap on the wrists. It sees Eddie take it upon himself to hand out the punishment.

The constant shifts in the story seemed to get in the way of cooking any real sort of emotional hold. The cult actors do the best with what they got. Robert Forster's streamlined, if cold approach works and Fred Williamson's full-blooded bad-ass portrayal is nothing that's unexpected. Don Blakely and Willie Colon make for great, nasty pair of thugs. Also in the line-up are Richard Bright, Rutanya Alda, Joseph Carberry, Steve James and Carol Lynley. In brief, but welcoming inclusions are Woody Strode and Joe Spinell as a scummy lawyer.

The material is quite heavy-handed in what it's got to say on a flawed justice system, as Williamson spits out speeches about not living in fear and eventually the line between right and wrong is blurred. In the end don't read too much in to it. Lustig's pacing is on the spot and direction suitably controlled, as while not overly explicit it manages to have a brutal and gritty pulse. There are some intense interplays, and a disturbing moment or two, but in the end it's not particularly gripping like I would have hoped. It's quite underplayed in that department. Jay Chattaway's thumping score has a blaring sting and harrowing cloud that effectively balances the moods.