Vigilante Force

Vigilante Force

United States - 1976

Director - George Armitage

I don't know much about this film apart from the synopses I've read various places. Sounds like a reactionary film with a vengeance. Vietnam Vet Kristofferson (a role he will reprise) recruits his bored combat vet buddies to crack down on some liberal labor types. This turns out to be largely unsubstantiated as virtually none of the characters are given any development with the exception of the three leads, Kristofferson Jan Michael Vincent and Bernadette Peters, so we get virtually no explanation of who or why.

The top poster is from Wrong Side of the Art,

this one is from IMP Awards.

I haven't been able to find Vigilante Force on DVD or VHS, but at the moment you can watch the whole movie at IMDB which is what I did. Reviews there and elsewhere describe it as exceptionally harsh and unforgiving, and Kristofferson's Aaron character as ruthless and brutal. I found none of the above to be true. It seemed like an hour and a half long episode of The Dukes of Hazzard with a little more violence and no shitty comedy. If like me you're a Vietnam completist, this might be worth watching for Kristofferson's villainized veteran, but otherwise, the posters are the best part.

Millenium

Millenium

United States - 1989

Director - Michael Anderson

Avid Home Entertainment, 1990, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 48 minutes

Trouble In Mind

Trouble In Mind

United States - 1985

Director - Alan Rudolph

Charter Home Entertainment, 1986, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 51 minutes

There is an interesting result that comes about from the combination of the science fiction and noir genres. The future-noir or tech-noir, is more about atmosphere than plot, though this certainly doesn’t preclude the latter. There are certain visual elements that are largely indispensable to general expectations of noir and science fiction film individually. A gritty darkness and mystery on the one hand, and broadly plausible future technology and fashion on the other can each predictably invoke the feelings respective of their genres. The tropes of each enforce a narrative restraint on the other, allowing neither to stray too far into fantasy, and giving the film a subdued dreamlike and depressing quality. The future in these cases is never as wonderful and amazing as you want it to be, for the past keeps dogging its step.

No wonder they filmed it in Seattle. With the addition of a few old cars, what was once the site of the 1962 World’s Fair serves once again as the backdrop of this never-to-come future. This time, instead of Elvis’s gambling debts hounding him, we have Kris Kristofferson’s ex-cop just out of prison with his guilt hounding him.
My initial expectation from reading the box was that this was a low budget Blade Runner spinoff, starring Kris, Keith Carradine and Divine out of drag. But it has lacks the profound existential questions and emotional struggle. Nor is the rainy urban squalor very crowded or futuristic, and it’s quickly intercut with a drippy evergreen forest and secondary hippie characters.

Here the mix of the two genres winds up being much closer to the alternate present of Streets of Fire. Where that film made the 80’s seem like the future because it was combined with a gritty fantasy past, Trouble’s 1980's future goes largely undeveloped and relegated to a few odd hairstyles. It ends up being much more of a movie about an unsympathetic worn out old cop clutching at a last-ditch chance for happiness. Crouched under the grimy skies and decrepit optimism of "Rain City" (an actual nickname for Seattle), makes it even more depressing. Nevertheless it is that non sequitur ending that makes it a little intriguing. Doesn’t it?

Flashpoint

Flashpoint

United States - 1984

Director- William Tannen

Thorn EMI Video, 1984, VHS

Director Tannen hasn't done ass in the way of film since this, his debut. Probably 90% of his films are ass, but admittedly I've only seen two of the other films he directed, both of them among Chuck Norris's worst films. In that context anyway, Flashpoint should seem pretty good, and I think William Tannen would agree.

Ernie (Treat Williams) and Bobby (Kris Kristofferson) kick it off as two unruly Texas Border Patrol agents, a thankless job just made thankless-er by the announcement that the department is making some personnel cutbacks. And to add insult to injury, they themselves have to install the geo-sensors that will monitor the border instead of them. The first half of this movie is all pretty straightforward, at least when compared to the second half, but now it definitely warrants a second viewing, when I'm actually paying close attention. Let's just hope this convoluted political conspiracy trick doesn't rub thin too fast.

In the bush, Bobby accidentally discovers a jeep buried in the sand, and after digging it out finds among the contents a sketeton, a scoped rifle and 80,000 bucks. Seeing it as his and his buddy Ernie's chance to get lost, he lets him in on the find. Despite his fiery temper, Ernie is scared of getting caught and hems and haws, dragging his feet along the way. Their jerk boss assigns them to stake out a remote airstrip where drug shipments are arriving from Mexico, but they must cooperate with some super shady federal agents led by the icy Agent Carson. When the plane lands it's clear that the Feds have something up their sleeves when the bust is foiled by aberrant gunfire. All this business is a little weird, but it's set to get weirder as soon as Ernie and Bobby start to trace the info in the skeletons wallet. Some disconnected phone numbers in Washington DC, and a license plate. The Fed exceeds the friendly groping demarcation line and gets altogether too friendly. E & B's plan starts to unravel.

Once all the serious "conspiratorial cover-up" starts flying, I'm still not sure where the "flash-point" is, but everybody gets distinctly more hostile towards each other. The interaction between the characters throughout the entire film has almost been a wonderful dream, but the final resolution, despite the setting, is historically abrupt. In the final dial up, the ultimate reveal concedes at least one of two unfortunate facts, either:

a.) you have a working knowledge of JFK conspiracy theories, and figured this movie out in the first 5 minutes.

b.) you didn't pick up on that connection in the first hour and 20 minutes but will, in the last 5 minutes, accept and be convinced by a flashing crosscut shot of a JFK death newspaper article, and a desperate morality monologue.

This movie doesn't rock, but it tries hard, and it's worth sticking around through the stellar dialogue even if the payoff is barely worth the money.