| Vigilante (1983) Cast:Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Richard Bright, Joe Spinell,Woody Strode After losing his family to viscous thugs, Robert Forster is appalled when justice turns a blind eye and actually sends him to Jail. Out of the cooler, Forster joins a vigilante group to wipe out the scum that has taken over the city and turned it into a cesspool of drugs, crime and murder. Vigilante is every bit as fascinating as Death Wish and works almost as well in that vein. This film succeeds where many films of this type fail, because it has no question in its morals that what needs to be done, is to join forces with your neighbor and exterminate the scum. Vigilante is no different than Death Wish or Dirty Harry, because the politics are the same. I think the most fascinating movies are the right wing takes on urban crime, where as the more liberal films such as the dreadful Fighting Back, labor to explain the weaknesses of vigilante justice, these films see such issues as black and white and hence the movies of this time are often mean spirited and hold up real well. I think the most striking thing about Vigilante, are the scenes where Williamson and co. chase after a drugdealer and beat him within one inch of his life. Williamson also says things that have added weight because he's black where he says "So we go and hide from the trash out there, but what do we do, when we have nowhere left to run?" It's a common theme in the blaxploitation film, that the message is that blacks have no choice but poverty or a life of crime, Williamson and his multi-racial group actually chasing down drug dealers, killing corrupt judges and shooting anyone that gets off on a technicality adds an interesting sway to the vigilante theme. If it seems weird to play the race card, it's mainly because I think the voice of the film is that blacks are just as fed up with crime and in the end makes the film fascinating. This was also Fred Williamson's best movie of the 80s. D.William Lustig***1/2 |