LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Phil Hubbs First and foremost I am still shocked this is an 80's movie, I genuinely thought this was a trashy 70's flick at first. OK in all honesty I kinda thought it was a blaxploitation movie because Fred Williamson was in it and the whole thing looks so grungy and cheap. Just look at the movie poster...it looks like an old video game advert. Kinda like a third rate advertisement for a Double Dragon clone or any other scrolling beat em up involving punks on the streets when the sun goes down.This is your standard revenge thriller, the type of movie that most probably influenced the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and led to the various slick revenge action thrillers today ('The Equalizer' and 'John Wick'). Eddie Marino (Forster) is a happily married man with a young son in New York. In a brief encounter with a violent gang, Marino's wife slaps a Che Guevara looking gang member across the face. Later that day the gang turns up at her door, breaks in, trashes the place, kills the young boy and stabs her badly. Unfortunately for Marino the law is corrupt, the system doesn't work and the gang member gets off, you know what happens next.This movie could only have been made in this era really, New York in the late 70's and early 80's was a dirty crime ridden place. You only have to look at the cities suburbs/locations whilst watching the film to see how different it was. Its quite interesting actually, seeing all these beat up cars running around, street trash, dilapidated buildings and stores on every corner, movies like 'Taxi Driver' and 'Serpico' back this up, its not movie magic. Noo Yawk was a hard dangerous place and the law enforcement was known to be...dodgy, this movie uses all of that to good effect.Yeah sure it seems a bit tame in places these days, the street gang looks ridiculous in their punk attire. God knows what some of them are wearing, the main bad guy seems to have some kind of native American thing going on with a headband and feathers...I think it was. All the other guys are decked out in typical biker duds and covered in shiny studs, badges and spikes. Most of them are black dudes and Latinos (Mexicans?) with big thick sideburns or tashes (naturally), and they have one blonde female in their ranks, basically your stereotypical street gang from the 80's.The violence is actually quite shocking and graphic, some stuff you see and some is implied yet still pretty horrific. The only sequence where you do see a lot of blood was the street gang shooting up a police car in a hail of silenced gunfire. The scene where Nick (Williamson) shoots an armed (baddie) female inside one gang members abode is pretty shocking to be honest, I knew he was gonna do it but the way she is flung back into the bath tub was quite unexpected to say the least. The most shocking scene by far is of course the murder of Marino's young son, you don't see it but you know exactly what happens. Again this did surprise me greatly as I did not expect it at tall, didn't think the punk would be so evil! The rest of the fisticuffs is pretty tame and quite amusing at times, especially seeing Forster naked in prison trying to fight off two other horny inmates.Yep that's right, Forster's character winds up in jail for thirty days because he tried to assault the judge after the gang member got let off the charges. The police, judges and lawyers are all dirty in this movie. If it wasn't for action man Woody Strode then Forster's character would have been the meat in an inmate sandwich. Actually most of the prison scenes are slightly amusing really, its all so clichéd as I'm sure you can guess and seeing old man Strode beat up this gigantic inmate is both awesome and hilarious.The one thing I don't get is these vigilantes that clean the streets of scum and eventually end up killing off some people including a corrupt member of the mayor's office, don't get caught. How on earth they manage to get away with killing these people is beyond me, I realise the theme of the movie is corruption with everyone looking out for themselves but it seems unrealistic. On the other hand we never actually find out what happens to every character so who knows. We don't even see what happens to the whole gang as only the two leaders are dealt with so...Nothing overly special these days but obviously back in the day this was pretty hardcore stuff. Its still entertaining, clearly a tad similar to a certain Bronson movie and its fun to see Williamson swing into action with his kung-fu. This most definitely still packs a punch.7/10

dworldeater Vigilante is a grim and hard hitting revenge themed action flick in the vein of Deathwish. Robert Foster is father and husband who 's wife and son were victims in a home invasion . He looks to friend Fred Williamson for help in seeking revenge. Directed by William Lustig of Maniac fame. Vigilante is real nasty and ultraviolent. It also looks great and sound great with a score that is like a spaghetti western from hell. Acting performances are excellent across the board. Fred Williamson 's acting is the best I've seen from him .He is absolutely menacing and brutal here. Robert Foster is great also and shows a great range of emotions in this piece .Vigilante in tone is a very bleak film that is very well done and played serious . Expect little humor and watch Fred and company to take out the trash. Great cameo from Joe Spinell as sleazy, scumbag lawyer.Excellent.

Michael_Elliott Vigilante (1983) *** (out of 4) Working class Eddie Marino (Robert Forster) has his child killed and wife severely beaten by a group of thugs. He believes in the law so he allows the courts to handle it but the criminal gets off without any time so Eddie joins a vigilante group led by his friend (Fred Williamson) and goes out for revenge. It's funny but when DEATH WISH was released we got countless exploitation films about vigilantes and it must have felt like deja vu when DEATH WISH II made a ton of cash at the box office and then more rips came. I think it's same to say this movie was inspired by the DEATH WISH films but also various Italian crime movies from the 70s. If you're looking for art then I'd recommend staying away from this but if you like "B" exploitation movies and are a fan of the vigilante genre then you should eat this one up. This was Lustig's first movie after MANIAC so I was a little surprised to see how non-violent this thing was. Sure, we've got some blood and some shootings but the movie is pretty tame in terms of the violence and DEATH WISH II is a lot more graphic. The attack sequence here contains one big jump sequence that works extremely well and Lustig's direction handles it perfectly and builds up some nice suspense. Lustig's direction also works perfectly in the scenes inside the courtroom where we're witnessing the bad guy getting away with the crime. The way he gets away with it and how big of a jerk the judge is are both overblown to a point but the emotion is still there and effective. The film isn't one with a message and I don't think it's trying to say anything too deep. We've got a bunch of scumbags and Forster and Williamson are here to kill them. That's pretty much all the film offers and that's more than enough as both actors are good here in their roles. Forster is more laid back and calm but it mixes well with the tougher, more vocal Williamson. The supporting cast includes some familiar faces including Richard Bright (THE GODFATHER), Don Blakely (BRUBAKER) and Joe Spinell as the crooked lawyer. We even get Wood Strode is a very memorable and tough part. The film has a lot of weak points, including some very silly dialogue, but people aren't coming to this film and expecting CITIZEN KANE. They're expecting light entertainment and Lustig and company deliver just that. It's a fun way to kill 90-minutes so fans of the genre should enjoy it.

theskulI42 "Vigilante" (1983, William Lustig) Ah, the vigilante thriller. I'm a bit critically underqualified to speak on this sort of film. I haven't seen "Death Wish", nor any of its sequels. But here is a film that is so upfront with its intentions that it doesn't even come up with a title. It named itself after the genre, equivalent to a film coming out called "Slasher" or "Romantic Comedy" and somehow not being an ironic joke/spoof on said films."Vigilante" is a film far more honest than much of its revenge thriller brethren in that it doesn't attempt to make any grand statement about the plight of modern life. It's not functioning as social criticism, and it's not trying to defend its actions (It does have a marvelous opening monologue by Fred Williamson, and there's a har-har scene about a pimp complaining about the recession and the plight of the working man, but that's all). It's simply presenting a tale of a bad guy falling through the cracks, and a man making sure he catches him, but it doesn't want you to think. It just needs an excuse to begin the bloodshed.Amazingly for a film so honest about its desire for bloodlust, it's remarkably restrained and intelligent about its kills. It doesn't just have death after squib after murder, it knows the definition of tension and building, and it spaces them out to marvelous effect. The shotgun murder of Foster's son is brutal even for this sort of film, and the way it's shot frames it for maximum effect without being uncomfortable or direct. There's only about seven kills in the entire film, but they come along at perfect distances, and as filmed in lovely slow-motion, with the squibs here being filled to the brim, and it's just damn satisfying.There are some wonderfully framed shots, and the car chase late in the film is great fun, but on the whole, the direction is sort of choppy and the film feels strangely empty, and doesn't end where it really should. Acting-wise, Forster is mostly a blank slate, with most of the juicy dialogue going to Fred Williamson. The rest of the cast is a great who's who of NY ethnic hood stereotypes, but it's fun. Another thing working for the film is the insane John Carpenter's "Halloween" score. I imagine it would work better in an actual horror film, but it's definitely got the over-the-top '80s synths working overtime. The synth is versatile though, switching to triumphant '80s glory when Forster just ain't takin' sh-t anymore.By the way, I wonder if Dave Chappelle saw this film, because not only does the pimp's scene bring to mind the Wayne Brady sketch from "Chappelle's Show", but the prison scenes with Robert Forster have an eerie resemblance to similar scenes in "Half Baked", including its own Nasty Nate that attempts to accost our hero in both the cafeteria and showers, and its own Squirrel Master spiritual guru. Tarantino ain't the only one. {By the way, this was nominally for the Tarantino Quest, but I've learned that if the reference isn't obvious, it probably isn't there (and it wasn't). I just wanted to watch the film regardless.} Overall, a surprisingly restrained yet satisfying film, and although I am far from being well-versed in the genre, I don't know that I'll ever find a better vigilante thriller than "Vigilante".{Grade: 7.75/10 (B/B-) / #15 (of 25) of 1983}