Wonderful character development!

A different way of telling a story

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Charles Bronson, mired in crappy B action flicks in the 1980's, decided to take this made-for-HBO flick to stretch his acting chops. He should have just made another "Death Wish" movie, instead. Based on a true story set in 1969, Bronson plays United Mine Workers union official Jock Yablonski. He fawns over union president Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley), who is made out to be a ruthless crook immediately. As Jock and his wife Margaret (Ellen Burstyn) coast through life, a mine accident claims the lives of eighty people. Boyle arrives in the grieving West Virginia town and defends the coal company over the miners.Yablonski is almost run out of town, and decides he has had enough. He announces his candidacy for the union presidency, and begins campaigning. Boyle then orders a hit on his former friend.The film shifts gears and introduces us to Paul (Robert Schenkkan), a house painter with a lot of guns and a huge ego. Paul is married to the oversexed Annette (Ellen Barkin), who is probably carrying on behind Paul's back. Annette's father Silous (Hoyt Axton) comes to Paul with a job- kill Yablonski and collect ten thousand dollars. Annette uses her feminine wiles to convince Paul, and he hires local petty criminal Claude (Maury Chaykin) to help.With the campaign in full swing, both sides are confident about victory. Boyle's side is more confident since he has stuffed the ballot box, winning in a landslide. Yablonski decides to challenge the election, and his death becomes more important to Boyle and his gang. Paul hires another killer Buddy (Keanu Reeves), and the trio decide to carry out their plan.With a good cast and confident direction, this film really should have hit its mark. Unfortunately, it never seems to get momentum going, as the central plot about the campaign takes a back seat to the killers' subplot.The staged campaign speeches are, well, stagey. The crowd scenes never move, and Boyle is so evil right away, the election's outcome is never in doubt. Bronson tries, but his dramatic scenes are just like other action films he has done, except he does not pull out a gun. Burstyn is wasted in the dutiful wife role, I have a feeling stronger writing would have bolstered her part.The best performance here? Writer/actor Robert Schenkkan as Paul. He turns Paul into such a desperate loser, he would be pitiful if his actions were not so despicable. One creepy scene has him humping a sleeping Annette to calm his urges, and Annette obviously knows what a little oral sex will do to better her station in life.Claude and Buddy are also disgusting creatures, there are plenty of opportunities to kill Yablonski but Claude chickens out. Claude and Paul make the trip to the Yablonski's country house so often, they know where to stop for gas.Claude, Paul, and Buddy eventually cross over into "funny" territory, and that is where the film finally lost me. The final violent scenes show the trio bumbling like the unfunny "I Love You to Death," but the humor is completely wrong here. Barely an hour and a half, "Act of Vengeance," a generic name that could serve as a "Death Wish" subtitle, never grabs its audience and proves to be an exercise in predictability, despite the excellent work of Robert Schenkkan. (* *) out of five stars.

In 1969, Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski (Charles Bronson) is finally tipped over the edge when a coal mine disaster is brushed over by the corrupt United Coal Miners Union he firmly believed in. Deciding to run against head man Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley) for president of the Union, Yablonski soon becomes the target of a sinister murder plot.It's a TV movie so it hardly has the production value to really do this "based on a true story" movie complete justice. However, with Bronson and Brimley giving very committed performances, and who in turn are backed up by the excellent Ellen Burstyn as Yablonski's loyal wife, there's humanistic qualities here that make this more than a time filler.The murky political intrigue ticks away nicely, the characterisations of the assassins is afforded relative time, and the culmination of the picture strikes both the heart and the head. Yes it is hardly high end film making, and those turned off by dialogue heavy political posturing should probably stay away, but this is a story well worth knowing.It got me to read up on the Boyle/Yablonski case, such was the interest born out by this HBO production. Proof positive that TV movies once had something viable to offer the mature film watching public. 7/10

I grew up in Pennsylvania, and although we were far from coal country, some news was so big, it got around. The Yablonski killings were all over the western end of the state when they happened, but we didn't really understand what was happening behind them. I'm sure some liberties were taken in collapsing events, but this film does a great job of putting the times, the relationships between Big Unions and Big Business in context, and the power of the common man to make, or try to make, things better. The cinematography really caught the gritty world of coal mining, and the areas in which is happens. This was one of the first roles I saw Charles Bronson in, and I thought he was terrific, probably bringing a much deeper sensibility to the part as a former coal miner and, as I understand, a card-carrying member of the United Mine Workers throughout his life. His campaign stops even had some very funny one liners you wouldn't think would work coming out of Il Bruto. I actually checked out some of his other films after seeing this one. The gang that couldn't shoot straight, but obviously eventually did, were such complete idiots you were surprised they managed not to shoot themselves, and were able to kill Yablonski only with Keanu Reeves' help. This film is probably only available at a library, or maybe a video store that doesn't clear out stock once a year. But it's definitely worth watching.

In 1985, in the city of Toronto Canada, I was a movie extra in "Act of Vengeance". Although the weather was very hot,Charles Bronson and Wilfred Brimley did an outstanding acting job in this HBO film. I watched as both Wilfred and Charles concentrated on their lines while the director made ready the scenes they were to act in. There were very little retakes as the words flowed out of their mouths with no mistakes. Both were very professional actors. I was honoured, while on the set by Mr. Bronson for doing a good job as an extra. He picked up a poster used as a backdrop in one of the scenes and signed his name to it and handed it to me. It was a black and white picture of Charles with the words "For Democracy...Vote Yablonski". I still treasure it in my home. I viewed the film after it came out and found it sad that such an act could have been committed in the USA. The story told here happened in real life, so I was told while on the set of this film. I found that all who were in this film did an outstanding job making it come to life on the big screen, showing the evil lurking and hidden behind politics of those who hold high positions and just how hard the little man must fight for recognition and what he or she needs to be safe in the common work place. Since my first viewing I have watched it many times and will watch it many more. It's a superb film in my eyes, and yes, I have seen myself in the film and am proud to be part of it. I might also add, that part of this film was also filmed in a small town called Waterdown Ontario, Located between Hamilton, and Toronto. It was while in Waterdown filming, that Charles signed my backdrop picture.