Walking The Edge/Vigilante

Walking the Edge (1983, not 1985 like IMDb claims)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Norbert Meisel

Starring: Robert Forster, Nancy Kwan, Joe Spinell, A Martinez

From: Cinema Overseas & Marketing Film

Vigilante (1983)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: William Lustig

Starring: Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Richard Bright, Rutanya Alda, Willie Colon

From: Magnum Motion Pictures

Here's two similar movies I watched in the past 24 hours, in the order I saw them in. First, I'll talk about Walking the Edge then the more widely known film with several similarities, Vigilante. Onto the Letterboxd review...

What if I were to tell you that I saw a 1983 film starring Robert Forster and featuring Joe Spinell and a Jay Chattaway soundtrack, and tells a tale involving vigilantism? You'd of course think that I'd be talking about William Lustig's Vigilante, and that would be a correct answer... but not the only one.

There's also this film, which I did not even know of until Tuesday night when I was randomly looking at Spinell's filmography and noticed this film. What I heard about it here on Letterboxd, it sounded like something I needed to see, and nevermind how but I found a copy to watch. Lord, what a film!

The film is set in Los Angeles and deals with a taxi cab driver/collector for the mob (Forster) who unwittingly gets involved with a lady (Nancy Kwan) who is looking for revenge on the man (Spinell... not that I likely needed to clarify that with his involvement he'd be the villain) who murdered her husband and son. A Martinez is also there.

There are some incredibly wacky moments while I'll recap in a moment but I heard this movie described as “gritty” and it is a gritty exploitation film, with a lot of scummy lowlife characters and Forster is a flawed protagonist. He's an ex-baseball player who allegedly didn't make it because “he had no balls”, and he even has the sort of trouble in the bedroom that Viagra would fix. He helps Kwan but they don't always get along.

Along with the wacky moments there's also some gruesome ones. It's not light-hearted cheese. The plot, the performances and yes the odd moments all worked together in making me decide to give this 3 and a half stars.

The rest of the review will be along the line of spoilers so if you want to see this and don't want anything ruined, feel free to skip below to the other review. Now, let me list some highlights:

* The opening, where Nancy Kwan's family gets gunned down by Joe Spinell and his goons... well, the goons are buffoons who can't get along. They argue with each other and for some reason, they recite the old children's ditty of “Beans beans, the magical fruit; the more you eat the more you toot”! After Nancy escapes, they try looking for her but are unsuccessful; they also think it's a good time to start smoking joints. Two of them also have a homoerotic relationship with each other. Oh, and why is there an old refrigerator in someone's backyard by their fence?

* The movie has some rather colorful dialogue. The examples I can list include “piss-brain”, “wheelbarrow-sized tits”, and a woman saying “burly black ass”.

* Several scenes are set in a punk club.

* A scene of driving where you see giant billboards advertising Paul Mazursky's Tempest, Creepshow, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Rocky III. Awesome.

* Boy are there some cartoony characters and situations. The crazy old lady who lives in Forster's apartment complex is the most obvious example of this.

* Two characters have a dinner of McDonald's, wine and a blue can of Dr. Pepper.

* There's also a side story of Forster looking for money for his mob job. It does factor into the main plot.

* Joe Spinell ends up at a batting cage. He actually tries to bat. He beats someone up then utters the phrase, “Tree frogs are green!”, which sounds hilarious out of context and and is like Storm's infamous line from X-Men; do I even need to clarify which line I'm talking about?

As I've said before Letterboxd is great in that since I've joined early last year I've found out about some previously unknown films I have enjoyed.

Now, onto Vigilante, a film from William Lustig that has a cult audience. As one of the many Death Wish clones out there, I understand why. Now, onto my Letterboxd review:

As last night I reviewed a movie which I noted had several similarities to Vigilante, I figured it'd make most sense to tonight watch Vigilante, one of several cult favorites from director William Lustig. I knew that this tale would be audience-manipulating, and well, I was right... but that's OK.

With a story about a blue collar dad (Robert Forster) who teams up with his vigilante pals (led by Fred Williamson) to enact some personal justice after corruption and other factors fail to properly punish the people responsible for murdering his son and incapacitating his wife, I knew what to expect and while I understand those that aren't comfortable with a vigilantism message, me I am fine with it and in fact I can understand those feelings; even in recent times in the United States many people feel they can't trust the courts or police officers so of course they are sympathetic to the idea of “people like them” enforcing the laws on their own.

The reason why I rate it this way is the story and how it's directed by Lustig; it's always entertaining and never boring. There's plenty of bloody violence to see and an awesome score from Jay Chattaway. Forster, Williamson and Woody Strode in his small role all do great jobs. But, I do appreciate how the movie also looks at the impact vigilantism has on a person and how some have regrets doing so, even if it's against scummy people in the sleazy New York City of old.

I had a feeling I'd dig it right from the start and I saw the impassioned speech that The Hammer delivered about why people should become vigilantes, and then later I saw Williamson kick a lot of ass and generally be pretty awesome... stuff like this makes me happy.

I'll return tomorrow night.