Rough Justice

Citizen Vigilante
Directed by Uwe Boll
Event Film

Time will tell if Citizen Vigilante will be seen as prophetic or simply another violent revenge movie. Set in modern day Europe, this morally repugnant, shallow and fascistic movie sets out to show what happens when government and the legal system favor and indulge immigrant criminals over law abiding natives. Citizen Vigilante is, in effect, one long howl of anger at the establishment for failing to protect its own citizens.

The one citizen who fights back is an American, known in the movie as Sanders (Arnie Hammer). He inherits his father’s business in Europe which he manages while, in his spare time, carrying out a one-man campaign against violent rapists and criminals. The movie has a clear political agenda - to draw attention to injustice and encourage citizens to take up arms. 

Sanders is in the movie almost the whole time and we see the world through his eyes. He is a ruthless killer who administers justice through the barrel of a gun. Emotionless and self-contained, this dark angel of vengeance nevertheless possesses a selective sense of right and wrong. When three thugs board a bus and refuse to pay the fare, Sanders pays it on their behalf and then lectures them about the consequences of their actions. Later, when he comes upon the three of them beating up a kid in the park, he throws two of them to the ground and stamps repeatedly on their hands.

Arnie Hammer plays the vigilante with chilling intensity. There is no love in the movie, only hatred and vengeance. The violence in Citizen Vigilante is graphic and sickening (I had to look away several times.) The character of Sanders doesn’t change at all, which is one of the weaknesses of the movie. There is no real plot. The scene where the armed police squad storm the house is one of the silliest I have ever seen. There is also a needless and graphic sex scene. 

What Citizen Vigilante has going for it is its topicality, which is why it has been banned in Germany. It cleverly combines the übermensch fantasies of movies like Sisu and Nobody with the everyman vigilantism of Death Wish. It is the kind of movie that is no longer made in left-leaning Hollywood. In some ways, Citizen Vigilante is the right-wing analogue of the similarly trashy One Battle After Another.

One scene that stands out is when Sanders visits a rape victim in hospital. He asks her, “What do you want to happen to the men who did this to you?” She replies that she wants the perpetrators to go to jail for the rest of their lives. After describing the long and potentially traumatic legal trial, Sanders fixes her with his steely eyes and asks, “do you want justice?” As he takes her hand and squeezes it, she and the audience are left in no doubt that justice will be done his way.

There is a subtext to the movie about the fading power of the Boomer generation to deal effectively with rapid changes to society. When he visits the offices of his business, Sanders looks at the staff and observes that “it smells like a nursing home in here.” He tells the office manager, “Let’s get some fresh blood.” The subtext is that the world the boomers have bequeathed is no longer functioning properly- it’s time to move on and let the new generation take over.

Most boomers in the USA won’t be aware that many commentators in Britain and Europe today are predicting civil war within the next few years. When people are ignored and suppressed, they are often pushed to the extremes, leading to political instability. Is Citizen Vigilante a crude, unlikeable political movie that will be forgotten in ten years’ time, or a warning of real dangers to come in the near future? 

David Beresford