Vigilante

1982
R
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:41

3 Videos

99+ Photos

Action Crime Thriller

After his wife and son got brutalized by a street gang, and a corrupt criminal justice system puts the perpetrators back on the street, a NYC factory worker teams up with a vigilante group t... Read allAfter his wife and son got brutalized by a street gang, and a corrupt criminal justice system puts the perpetrators back on the street, a NYC factory worker teams up with a vigilante group to find some measure of bloody justice.After his wife and son got brutalized by a street gang, and a corrupt criminal justice system puts the perpetrators back on the street, a NYC factory worker teams up with a vigilante group to find some measure of bloody justice.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos3

Photos121

+ 117

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Um Dia Negro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Joe Spinell, who played the title character in William Lustig's Maniac, was cast in the small role of the corrupt lawyer Eisenberg. During the filming of the courtroom scene, Lustig recalled that Spinell's escalating alcohol and drug abuse was becoming a problem as Spinell would often show up late for filming and often drunk or stoned or both which slowed production. One morning, Spinell did not show up at all which led Lustig to shut down filming for half the day while his producer partner, Andrew Garroni, had to go looking for Spinell on the streets from various bars to hotels where he might be. The scene where Eisenberg arrives late in the courtroom after speaking with Prago was filmed in late afternoon on that day that Spinell did not show up that morning for filming.

Goofs
Prago's stunt driving double during the car chase is Caucasian but Prago is African-American.

Quotes
[first lines]
Nick: Hey, I don't know about you guys, but me... I've had it up to here. There are some 40-odd homicides a day on our streets. There are over two million illegal guns in this city. Man, that's enough guns to invade a whole damn country with. They shoot a cop in our city without thinking twice about it. Aw, come on. You guys ride the subway. How much more of this grief are we gonna stand for? How many more locks we gotta put on our goddamn doors? Now, we ain't got the police, the prosecutors, the courts or the prisons. I mean, it's over. The books don't balance. We are a statistic. Now, I'm tellin' ya, when you can't go to the corner store and buy a pack of cigarettes after dark... because you know the punks and scum are out there on the streets when the sun goes down, and our own government can't protect its own people, then I say this, pal: you got a moral obligation, the right of self-preservation. Now, you can run, you can hide, or you can start to live like human beings again. This is our Waterloo, baby! You want your city back? You gotta take it. Dig it? Take it!

Alternate versions
The film was cut by MPAA before the film was released in 1983, for graphic violence and in particular the pier scene where crooked politician and his lookout are killed with blood splatter lasting a bit longer and also the scene where the two patrol cops in their car are ambushed and killed underneath the underpass which filled with more blood splatter. This is the version that appeared on home video on the Vestron Home Video label and cable television.

Connections
Featured in Assassin(s) (1997)

Soundtracks
Vigilante
(Willie Colón (as Willie Colon))
Arranged by Hector Garrido
Produced by Willie Colón (as Willie Colon)
Executive Producer Jerry Masucci

User reviews69

Review

Featured review

8/10

Sleazy Lover!

If like me you are an avid fan of sleazy and grubby looking flicks packed with sleazy and grubby looking characters, filmed in sleazy and grubby looking locations then this is the film for you. The film is essentially a revenge thriller, which tips an over sized Barbisio hat to the Italian Euro-Crime flicks of the 1970s: A bitter protagonist; middle-aged hoodlums(who should know better at their age); corrupt judges; a car chase(or three); clichéd dialogue; mindless- slaughter, and Fred "That Man Bolt" Williamson. The film stars Robert Forster playing an unremarkable factory worker whose life is suddenly beset by an inconceivable tragedy and (without giving too much of the plot away) he finds himself requiring little encouragement in joining a group of vigilantes led by his co-workers Williamson and two other colleagues. The film certainly doesn't pull any punches with the protagonists dispensing some reasonable savagery on any wrongdoers along the way. Some class acting from Forster and Williamson keeps the viewer interested throughout and the climactic fight scene at towards the end of the film, wouldn't look out of place in an Enzo Castellari or Umberto Lenzi flick. This is a well paced, well acted and thoroughly engrossing '80s exploitation film, with a compelling soundtrack and a nice little cameo from Italian director's favourite Woody Strode.

Watch at (almost) all costs!