Vigilante Man

My unwatched VHS pile is even taller than my unwatched DVD pile so I thought I'd try and reduce the mountain a tad. I knelt down in front of my old player to check whether its slot had healed up and put in VIGILANTE (1983).

If the law won't get them... we will!

It's the early 1980's in crime ridden, graffiti covered New York City. Robert Forster plays Eddie Marino, a hard working average Joe, who has a wife and a young son.

Eddie's neighbourhood is a pretty rough, dirty place. Street crime is prevalent; Drug dealers, muggers and rapists are rampant. The under resourced NYPD ignore the pleas of the local community, often turning a blind eye.

Fred Williamson plays Nick, a local man who has had enough of the situation. He's formed a vigilante group with a few like minded citizens and they enforce their own form of justice outside of the law. Nick invites Eddie to join them in their quest to rid the streets of scumbags. Eddie however doesn't agree with their methods and believes that the Police and Judiciary are the people to turn to.

Eddie's wife is at gas station when some Latino gang members arrive and threaten the guy working there. She stands up to them and then police sirens make them leave. The gang follow her home, break into her house, violently stab her and shoot her son with a shotgun from close range. Eddie, on returning home from his day's work, finds his wife being rushed to hospital by ambulance and his son dead.

The gangleader, Rico, is known and arrested but when the case comes to court Rico is released with just a suspended sentence! Eddie is furious and for showing his outrage the (obviously corrupt) judge sends him to jail for 30 days for contempt of court. Can things get any worse for poor old Eddie? Queue an exploitation film mandatory scene - an attempted rape in the Prison showers! Fortunately he is saved by a seasoned inmate (the cool as f*ck Woody Strode). By the time of his release Eddie has decided that enough is enough; He wants revenge against the gang and the judge so he turns to vigilante group leader Nick for help...

Sure this all sounds a bit like a low rent Death Wish but that's OK. The story is good and the assembled cast is great. Apart from the aforementioned Forster, Williamson and Strode there's also the lovely Carol Lynley as the D.A. She's hopelessly miscast in the role but it's great to see her (I must admit to having a bit of a crush on her in the 70's and 80's when she appeared on countless TV shows).

I really liked Director William Lustig's Maniac, Maniac Cop and Relentless (all gritty independent exploitation movies) so naturally I was keen to see Vigilante. Somehow it must have got lost in my viewing priorities as DVD consumption took over from tape. Being a low budget film, shot and set in a scummy 80's New York City, it kind of feels right to watch Vigilante on VHS; A slick digital remastering for DVD might somehow provide a sheen that could detract from the film. I dunno though, I'm sure that if I can track down a DVD release, with a Lustig commentary, then I'd buy that too.