Saw that it was revenge-themed and had to watch it.
Now assume that all the fears about immigrants and their seemingly concerted project to pollute and raze Western Civilization are true. Assume that a small, imported minority are indeed responsible for over half of unspeakable crimes. Assume that Europe does need a long and hard look at the quality and quantity of the people it permits across its borders1.
Assume all these things are true. Assume that a vast majority of Europeans are just tired of this but are muzzled by The Left, that there is this abject need for a bold artist to bring these issues to light.
This ain’t it. It is an irredeemably shit statement about all these concerns and is no Death Wish. The script, background score, acting, cinematography, action sequences, pacing, editing, everything: it is laughably bad. If UATX offered a BFA in Film, this would be a hastily cobbled senior project2.
Spoiler: The protagonist guns down an entire immigrant family for a ghastly crime committed by one of its members as ‘justice’. The director thinks this is just shock value, artistic flourish. All bad people are immigrants. There isn’t a single decent one. And lest you think this is a racist rampage, he murders a white ‘woke’ judge too.
Now the very fact that this strange and hateful pile of shit was panned and banned means two things:
- It must contain Truth and Beauty. At least to the “Help! I’m being repressed!” types.
- It will be promoted by the world’s biggest edgelord and saddest human being.
Speaking of protagonist. He may be an illegal immigrant himself. But he’s wealthy, white, handsome, and pursues extralegal justice in a black turtleneck so he’s cool. Adapting a popular quote with online parlour firebrands: “He who saves his Country Civilization does not violate any Law.” Other reactions to the movie include lovely sentiments like “This is a checklist” and bumper stickers like “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent” which I imagine one places right under that totally badass America/Punisher logo. You will hear him offer every single ultra-right xenophobic talking point in a monotone because he is dispassionate and ‘stoic’ and this manly, ubermensch Howard Roark-type.
He is portrayed by Armie Hammer who plays a dude who murders people immigrants for the exact thing he was accused of in real life:
In the 2021 scandal, Hammer, 39, was accused of psychological and sexual abuse by multiple women, some of whom shared messages attributed to Hammer detailing cannibalistic fantasies. One woman, with whom he had an alleged four-year affair while married to his now ex-wife, Elizabeth Chambers, accused him of rape. Hammer denied all the allegations and was never charged.
We live in a simulation. I wondered how they roped him in for the main role. As that article explains, he appears to have done this out of desperation:
Hammer himself touched upon this in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he only received a 50-page script after being approached to star in Citizen Vigilante.
“I was like, ‘Where’s the rest?’” he said, before impersonating Boll’s response: “‘No, no, no! Ve just go and shoot and have fun. Ve vant you to be great!’”
He also said in the same interview that he was so desperate to get back into acting, he “would have done a fucking cat food commercial.”
and expresses regret in that same article:
[…] A source within Hammer’s team claimed that the actor cried when he first saw the film in full.
“The first time he saw it, he was in tears,” they told Belloni. “He called me and said, ‘Fuck. This is hateful, disgusting.’”
but, the good American that he is:
[…] Hammer was paid approximately $250,000 for the role. Despite being unhappy about the final results, the source indicated that Hammer would reprise his role for the sequel – if the price is right.