Kid Vengeance

KID VENGEANCE (2 outta 5 stars) Cheaply-made and poorly-directed piece of western fluff starring Lee Van Cleef as one of the most vile villains he's ever played. This was during his later years when he was getting a bit long in the tooth to believably play those nasty, tough guy parts... but he is still the most interesting thing in this movie. He leads a bunch of bandits who rape and kill the mom and dad of young Leif Garrett and then kidnap his sister. Leif goes after them with "vengeance" on his mind. He begins to pick off the bandits one by one, using some pretty unconventional means (bow and arrow, rocks, scorpions, the old snake-in-the-saddlebag trick). He eventually teams up with a gold prospector (Jim Brown) whose life savings have been stolen by these men as well. The film starts off looking like a bad TV-movie... but once the raping and killing starts it becomes obvious that this was no "Movie Of The Week". You might be interested enough to sit through it once but this is no classic by any means.

Another matzoh ball-topped spag western featuring Lee Van Cleef and a very young Leif Garrett (before he became a teenage heart throb), who also "teamed" up in God's Gun which I have given a low rating, but this one rates even lower for worse acting, action and production. Tom Thurston (Leif Garrett) witnesses the brutal murder of his parents and the abduction of his elder sister by a mostly Mexican band of outlaws led by white man McClain (Van Cleef) who is the most un-western looking villain in a Western movie; with his greasy long hair, ornate headband and single earring, he looks like he wandered out of Woodstock Festival into a movie set by mistake and decided to stay there. On the spur of the moment, Tom is hellbent on revenge, pursuing the gang surreptitiously and surprisingly manages to whittle down their numbers in various ways, without being caught. And that's just the beginning of a long list of errors I can spot, in continuity and logic and others. And that's not even mentioning the passel of no-account lowlifes that try to rob the gold prospector Isaac (Jim Brown) of his hard-gained treasure, who are in my opinion the most moronic and incompetent bad guys I've ever come across in film. The climax and ending are simply unbelievable they're almost surreal. Watch the film and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I may be the only person in the universe that actually likes this movie. Of course the last time I saw this, I was 16, and not yet force-fed twaddle like Resnais, and being conditioned as to what to appreciate in cinema. Even so, this film was enough to make the great Lee Van Cleef hang up his six-guns forever, with the exception of riffing his cowboy image for Cheetos and Midas Muffler commercials. He is superbly slimy in this one, nonetheless-- with a big earring, bandana and goatee, his character McLain is outlandish, but in a good way. Despite the exploitative nature of the material, much of the film is otherworldly- the violence and the characters. Shot in orange hues and dreamy soft focus, Leif Garrett (yes... Leif Garrett) rides the trail of vengeance after Van Cleef's gang of slimeballs after they murder his family. He gets an ally in Jim Brown, who shares his thirst for revenge after Lee rips off his mine. The fact that some of the violence is ludicrous actually works- take for instance the scene with the scorpion, or when an outlaw has rocks dropped on his head in slow motion. The last half of this revenge western has a dream-like quality; perhaps it was meant to accentuate the state of mind of Garrett's character, and of a child at that. Dealing with such a loss and seeking retribution for it puts one in a strange state of consciousness-- how often have we felt after the death of a loved one that we are dreaming. or hoping that we will wake up soon? But at least, because this film is so bizarre, it is not your average revenge oater. It at least makes you think about you are watching. Isn't that what cinema art is supposed to do?

I have to grit my teeth (grit-grit) when I read the putdown of this movie. Sure, it is another vengeance adventure and, sure, there are goings-on that have gone on before, but the sum total is - it is some picture, and I mean that in a positive way.

The opening scene with the Easter bunny - well, I saw this on Maundy Thursday - was too realistic, as was the rape of the mother, viewed by the audience at a distance, but by her son as a close-up. He also witnessed the killing of his father, a combination that demanded, yes, demanded, retribution.

Said youngster was ex-heartthrob Leif Garrett who was excellent in a role that put him on screen most of the time. Lee Van Cleef was on the screen for a short period of time and was his usual brooding s.o.b. self. He was an expert.

His gang of heartless bad guys, and there was a gang of them, were, as they were supposed to be, totally obnoxious.

The other star, of course, was ex-footballer, Jim Brown (no stranger to westerns) doing a very fine job as the mad, brooding hero of the piece.

"Kid Vengeance" - no kidding - is a western - an Israeli western yet -- oy vay - that will keep your attention from beginning to end. Don't - er - passover (yuk-yuk) this one. And, fie (ancient Roman for foo, or fooey) to those who dismiss this item.

I know nothing of Lief Garrett's modern day goings on, but I'll tell you this: he can sure pick a grim film to star in! Not only was he great in Devil Times Five (aka Peopletoys), he's also good in this, as a kid out to get revenge on the low down scum who killed his parents! The leader of this gang? Lee Van Cleef, all bald and knife-brandishing.

Garrett fairly works his way through the evil gang, using snakes, scorpions, nooses, rocks and arrows in what amounts to almost a slasher-like Western. I didn't even think he needed the help of Jim Brown, but when Big Jim starts throwing dynamite at everyone, you're kind of signing up a winner right there! Big Jim also brings along his band of brothers he's been fighting with, just to complicate things up a bit.

This is your typical dark late-era Spaghetti Western, violent and pretty unrelenting, with a fairly high body count. Made in Isreal so I guess the term 'Spaghetti' might not be appropriate.