Uwe Boll’s latest effort,Citizen Vigilante, was originally titled ‘The Dark Knight’, which I sincerely think is a better title, though of course it was doomed to see a lawsuit.
(c) Quiver Distribution, Event Film Distribution, Borvel Film
Callum Berry.
Full Spoilers Review.
Uwe Boll first came onto my radar when I was in high-school, with his 2003 movie House of the Dead, an adaptation of the famous video-game franchise. I found it underwhelming and poorly-written. But that’s okay, it was fun-ish.
Citizen Vigilante stars Armie Hammer, some media outlets have been describing the movie as Hammer’s ‘comeback’ film, but Hammer seems to have had steady screen-work (though most of it since his abuse allegations were bought to light) was outside of the Hollywood sphere.
Citizen Vigilante is a touchy subject for a lot of viewers and media-outlets; it covers subjects that I would label as controversial and overly-politicised in today’s environment. In-fact, the movie was apparently unrated in Germany, and as such effectively banned. The reason that the movie has had such a reactionary backlash is that the screenplay is deeply cynical of immigration from third-world countries, with Boll’s thesis essentially boiling down to third-world crime stemming from cultural norms that are largely incompatible with western values. Boll’s stance is one that is out of lock-step with most filmmakers and commentators active today, and as such I feel like most people don’t really know how to respond. It’s certainly an area that I’m not an expert in, and it’s very complicated.
That being said, let’s cover some ground: Hammer plays ‘Sanders’, an ex-military landlord who is residing illegally in an undisclosed European city (principal photography was shot in Croatia) who is tired of seeing migrant crime go unpunished, feeling like there is an undemocratic invasion of migrants who come to live free off of the state and inflict violence on the law-abiding citizens of the state. The film opens with a random attack on a white woman by a man later identified as an illegal immigrant, the woman passes away from her injuries which sets the stage Sanders’ vigilante actions — things only escalate after a particularly vicious rape by a gang of youths. Hammer’s character essentially becomers the Punisher, with a vendetta against migrants, some of which are in the country legally.
The screenplay is not very well written, with a lot of the dialogue having all of the subtlety and nuance of a car-crash. Sanders makes a few monologues highlighting the failure of the state to look after its citizens, leaving them at the mercy of what Sanders perceives as hordes of murderous barbarians. Sanders has no qualms killing the innocent as well as the guilty. In one scene Sanders kills a squadron of ‘swat’-style soldiers after his location is tracked by Interpol (I will add that this scene has some of the best gore-effects I’ve seen in a while).
Sanders is a stand-in for what I personally would describe as the libertarian ideal; a man who goes where he pleases, is a landlord, and is very firmly on the right-side of politics with a healthy reverence for guns and taking matters into his own hands. The irony of the man being in the country illegally and committing crimes against several people who are white European citizens of the miscellaneous country the story is set in is not lost on me, I hope it’s not lost on Uwe Boll.
Having Sanders be a landlord gives him a sense of responsibility, so as to show the viewer ‘this is what a custodian looks like’, and this theme is echoed through some of Sanders’ monologues where he states ‘I’m doing this for you, until you learn to do it for yourselves’, which in the context of the film is a straight-up call for violence against immigrants.
The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that there are genuine underlying issues at play in the real European continent that are very difficult to discuss in the very divided political landscape which we currently have underpinning our democracies. It’s an uncomfortable truth that there have been in the last few years several high-profile cases of violence which were dealt with by the judiciary in a manner that left some elements of the general populace feeling that justice was not sufficiently served. I’m personally on the left-side of politics, but It does seem like news networks go to great pains to keep all of these matters as apolitical and as neutral as Humanly possible, and it does seem that the courts have a capacity for great mercy for those with complicated backgrounds, which doesn’t always sit well with locals. What doesn’t help matters is that there are online commentators who use every incident and attack to add fuel to the anti-immigration agenda.
Like I said, I’m not qualified to get too deep into this topic, and I don’t have any answers, and in my personal opinion neither does anyone else on the left-side of politics if I’m being honest. I believe in immigration and helping those seeking a better life find-one, but there does seem to be structural issues at work that have allowed Uwe Boll to tap into themes for his screenplay which are unfortunately relevant in the times we live, whether we want to talk about them or not. I would go so far as to say that if we did have a better way of talking and thinking these issues through, this movie might not even exist. The movie provokes almost a feeling of helplessness in me, on further reflection I feel like Citizen Vigilante is going to become a cult-classic in racist circles, and Boll may find himself a new audience whether he wants them or not.
Boll’s brash and extreme screenplay doesn’t do it itself any favours, as we see Sanders basically a kill a motorist in cold blood to prove a point to a kidnapped judge (who Sanders believes give rapists a second-chance because they basically didn’t know any better) about the natural of people. Sanders entire world-view boils down to the notion that third-world morals are completely incompatible with European morals, which most people should know is at-best a gross oversimplification of a complicated subject and at worst outright racist. Having Sanders kill innocents (including parents who technically didn’t do anything wrong but raise a criminal) undoes any genuine nuance the character might otherwise have had. It’s hard to take the ‘high-road’ when you’re a murderous maniac yourself — Sanders has little emotive response to taking life, including the lives of the wholly innocent.
Boll’s film-craft is typically bad, with the score being forgettable, the editing being frankly awful, with unnecessary quick-cuts, repetition of shots and scenes which drag out the pacing of what should have been a quick moment of action on-screen, turning certain sequences into time-dilated messes. The narrative itself isn’t told particularly well, with Sanders responding to what seems to be police-inquiries, but the circumstances of how he ended up in that position remain a mystery (I’m presuming they’re a part of a longer sequence which didn’t make the final cut of the movie).
As a piece of political incitement, the movie does its job. As an actual film, it’s not great, but in terms of basic film-craft it’s far from being Uwe Boll’s worst movie. I wouldn’t recommend it.
1.5/5.
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