How sad is this?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Gritty '80s exploitation revenge movie. Fred Williamson plays Nick, a factory worker who was so fed up with criminals getting away with hurting people that he formed his own vigilante group to do what the law couldn't or wouldn't. Robert Forster plays his friend Eddie who wants nothing to do with vigilantism, even after his young son is killed by a street gang led by Puerto Rican tough guy Rico (Willie Colón). Eddie believes the justice system will take care of the men responsible. When it fails to do so, he realizes the only way to get justice is to take the law into his own hands.Movies like this were all over the '70s and '80s, most notably with Charles Bronson's Death Wish series. The point of these movies was to remind us that the cities were overrun by multicultural gangs of rapists and killers. This one isn't quite as visceral and shocking as some of them but it has its moments. Forster's fine but Williamson really steals the show. Nice appearance by Woody Strode as a prison inmate who looks after Forster during his brief prison stay. Carol Lynley plays a well-meaning but ineffectual district attorney. Nice score, particularly in the last half when business picks up. Unlike the Death Wish series, which has some "so bad it's good" qualities beyond the first movie, this one is deadly serious and that works against it in a way. It also meanders in the middle in order to drag out a simple revenge plot. It's worth a look but fans of cheesy guilty pleasure actioners might feel a little disappointed.

Kinda sad to see Forster's roots in a flick like this.The script is terribly heavy handed and the direction may have tried to compensate, but failed. You might demur that it is, after all, a little action flick snack, but the film won't let you get away with that: You can't have it both ways.It obviously attempts to cop some fire from the "hard" reality of urban crime. You can't make a feint toward that end, then trivialize it with lousy scenario work, acting, and direction, and then expect to hide behind a defensive claim that the viewer made the mistake of taking it too seriously.It's a fine example of a flick that fails to manage its "tone" correctly. It feels like a movie made by grown-up teenaged boys.Interesting comparison: Check out Forester in Jackie Brown. Thank the Good Load Aboff, Forster got to work out in a flick that set its sights on a story and stealthily took great strides of scenario, acting, and direction to make that story blossom like a fine and beautiful flower in our minds.Anyway... who is going to watch Vigilante now? I would highly recommend it for a film class, for subsequent group analysis to try to nail down the contours of its failure to deliver something artistically meritorious.

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.

I imagine when the movie was released, back before Disney opened a store in Times Square, the movie hit pretty hard. Today it just comes off sensationalistic and exploitative but that is to be expected. It's still a great flick, especially for those who like the Bronson DEATHW WISH series or that other vigilante film from the same period that fell into obscurity, THE EXTERMINATOR.The film suffers a bit from the liberal lie syndrome, otherwise known as the transparent, rapidly dying cult of "political correctness." It tries to represent the street trash who go around wreaking havoc as some kind of equal opportunity delinquents: one is black, the other is white, the other is Asian. Yeah, like you see multicultural gangs of roving sociopaths every day. I was wondering why they didn't go all the way: have one native American in full head gear, an Eskimo, a midget...you know, just so we don't inadvertently single anyone out. Much more realistic would have been to have made the gang all black with a few Mexicans, that would've been the real world of early '80s crime-ridden New York City but, as we all know, we are supposed to pretend the so-called "civil rights" movement that ended segregation and brought a black wave of crime on the heads of every white American was a GOOD thing.Aside from this typical silliness, the movie is great. Recommended!