George Armitage’s Vigilante Force is a rad little action flick. Released in 1976, this is the story of a little California town that discovers oil and is soon overrun by the oil-field workers who are quite the rambunctious group. Essentially Armitage created a modern western for the time. I found it to be a bit reminiscent of the Death Wish series, most notably my personal favorite Death Wish III. If you’ve seen Death Wish III you know just how crazy and ridiculous that movie is. Vigilante Force is like that in a lot of ways, but does tend to play it a little more serious at times.
After the town is completely taken over and the police force is whittled down to just police chief Harry Lee (Judson Pratt) and four deputies, some of the townsfolk come together to figure out how to get their little town back. The plan is to recruit Aaron Arnold (Kris Kristofferson) and have him serve up some vigilante justice. Aaron grew up in the town and even though he was a notorious troublemaker he has since gone off to fight in Vietnam where he became a decorated war hero. The thought process is that becoming a war hero may have changed Aaron and for the right price he’d be willing to come back home and help his former neighbors out. Plus Aaron’s little brother Ben (Jan-Michael Vincent) is going to lead the recruiting committee and how can Aaron possibly turn down his little brother?
It doesn’t take much to convince Aaron. He’s thrilled to get the money and the power. He gathers up a team of mercenaries, all of whom have some type of police or military background, and heads off to save the day. Things start off really well. It doesn’t take long for Aaron and gang do restore peace. The police chief doesn’t really care for their methods, but he can’t argue with the results. Unfortunately Aaron has not changed. He’s the same troublemaker he always was and he still hates that town. The difference is that he now has power and authority. Once the oil-field workers are either run out of town or placed into check, Aaron and his gang begin to terrorize the place. They start to run their own shady operations with the hopes of bringing in lots of cash and keeping the town at their mercy. The town’s only hope for survival is Ben, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes even if it means a showdown with his very own brother.
Vigilante Force starts off a bit slow. There’s a little action here and there, but I was a bit worried it was going to end up being a 70’s melodrama that was advertised to be rougher than it really was. There was a little bit of cheesy humor and it felt like the tone was maybe going to lead to a finish that was a little more heartfelt and to be quite honest that’s not what I want with a movie called Vigilante Force. Luckily George Armitage didn’t want to hear any of that noise either. At about the twenty minute mark or so things really begin to pick up. And once it started going, everything just sort of began to snowball out of control.
Aaron is just a cold, ruthless killer. At one point he breaks up an illegal cock fight by shooting both chickens dead. Then he gathers all the money that was up for grabs on the fight. When one of the participates confronts him, he coldly shoots him square in the chest. This is a very public event. There’s tons of people around and Aaron could care less. It means nothing to him to take a life. The longer he is in power the more callous he gets. There’s a few things he does that actually made my jaw drop. I couldn’t believe it.
There’s a character named Little Dee (Bernadette Peters) who just wants to be a singer. She performs at the makeshift casino where Dick Miller, in a nice cameo, serves as her piano player. The man who runs this casino treats her like trash. She doesn’t let it phase her however, and has no problem speaking her mind. She’s such an interesting character. The whole movie she looks completely stoned out of her mind. She just has this blank stare on her face. Yet when she talks she seems quite knowledgeable and very smart.
The western influence in Vigilante Force is very strong. The last 10 minutes or so of the movie is complete madness as a shootout between Aaron’s gang and the gang Ben forms breaks out. This is all takes place during the town’s big 4th of July parade, which is extra big because they are celebrating the 200th birthday of America. The battle rages all over the town and finally concludes in a section of town that actually looks like the Old West. This is a part of the town that I did not remember seeing anywhere else in the movie. It’s like they brought it in specifically to go out with a full fledge western style bang. And boy do they! I can’t tell you how many explosions or deaths occurred during this exciting finale but it was a ton and they were bloody and they were violent.
The transfer on the Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber is actually a bit mixed. At times it looks great with vivid colors that pop but at other times things are a little rough. It’s mostly scenes that take place at night and especially those that takes place at night and indoors. During these scenes there’s just a lot of grain. It doesn’t ruin the movie or anything, I just don’t expect to see this much grain on a Blu-ray. The day scenes with a lot of bright sunlight look fantastic and there’s definitely a lot more of those than there is the dark night scenes, so the good does far out weight the bad.
If you’re a fan of Death Wish III or William Lustig’s Vigilante I would definitely expect you to enjoy Vigilante Force. It’s got a lot of action and Kris Kristofferson. Honestly, what more do you need?
Vigilante Force is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.