Uwe Boll, director of the soon-to-open Citizen Vigilante (Quiver, 6.19), got in touch last week and suggested we could possibly do a podcast about the film. I wanted to do it right away because CV reps the first starring role that Armie Hammer has snagged since he got rolled and raw-dealed by wokesters over sexual behavior. I really want to see Armie back on the stick. But of course I told Uwe I needed to see the film first.
I was sent a link several hours later. I’m sorry but I didn’t care for it. It certainly leaves a deep imprint but…
Driven by furious anti-immigration emotions, Citizen Vigilante is coolly, crudely impactful but — this is important — it lacks the personal engagement aspect of Michael Winner‘s Death Wish as well as (sorry) basic cinematic finesse.
Hammer plays Sanders, a grim-faced vigilante who’s sick to death of immigrant street thugs and what he sees as a general decline of social decency. His hardcore reactions to immigrant hooligans results in his becoming something of a heroic public figure.
There’s no question that Boll’s film is about “enough already!” sentiments as far as the scourge of allegedly coarse ruffian immigrants is concerned. This is obviously a real thing. Angry residents of Belfast will confirm this. I don’t have an argument with a vigilante film espousing angry feelings. I do, however, have a problem with a film that isn’t very well made.
HE to Boll, sent last week: Thanks for reaching out, Uwe, and offering to possibly record a Citizen Vigilante podcast together.
It is with a heavy heart and compassion for poor Armie Hammer that I must respectfully decline to join the promotional bandwagon for Citizen Vigilante. I’m very sorry but I can’t board this train.
I was earnestly hoping that the film would convey some of the fascinating dark-knight vibe of that brilliant one-sheet with the glowing crucifix. Alas…
I feel so badly for Armie as the film is so blunt and crude and more or less brimming with hate against “the immigrant other”, and lacking in setting up a believable context and a social realism backdrop…lacking even in terms of basic screenwriting craft and rudimentary filmmaking chops.
I was hoping for Armie’s sake that Citizen Vigilante would be at least semi-tolerable or decent enough. But it basically struck me as an anti-immigrant, anti-insect, kill-em-all riff on Michael Winner’s original Death Wish, and while it has a certain aggressive hardcore tabloid vibe, all I mainly felt was embarassment for poor Armie, whose career, I thought, was in recovery mode.
I thought Armie had presented a persuasive case that his career was unfairly killed over the sexual cannibal thing, and that he was gradually putting things back together, image-wise.
But Citizen Vigilante, no offense, does him no favors. The third-act scene in which Armie cold-bloodedly murders an entire family of Middle Easterners (and some of the teenage son’s bros) crosses the decency line. Armie plays it rigid and frosty as a social vengeance figure, but why was he told to perform a superfluous sex scene? My heart breaks for the poor guy.
Due respect but I can’t get involved. I’m very sorry. I know how tremendously difficult it is to shoot and edit even a problematic film. Best to you, Uwe, and let’s stay in touch. I hope things work out for Citizen Vigilante financially.
Boll’s reply to HE “Dear Jeff: Okay but as the filmmaker I see this subject totally differently. I make political movies that hurt because the put a finger in the wound. Germany had 2467 rapes in the year 2000…in 2024 statistics showed a total of 13,320 cases of rape and sexual assault — an increase of 9.3% compared to the previous year.
“Of the 11,329 suspects identified in such crimes, 6,892 were German citizens and just over a third, 4,437, were non-German suspects. The same with knife stabbings…same or similar numbers prevail all over France and in the UK.
“In a fiction film we can be more radical than in a documentary, and my film is the only one shot in Europe that is bringing up migrant crimes as a subject. If I had made a film about five neo-Nazis raping a migrant girl it would [do quite well] in Germany. But now my movie is banned instead because I made a movie about the reality.
“The woke left in Europe ignores the facts, which is that Islamic culture has no tolerance for gays, LGBTQ or other callings.
“In the very end we will have two choices: reduce Islamic migrants or not, and if not (because they’re birthing per average 4 kids) they will take over in around 30 years and then will start killing everybody who is not a convert to Islam.
“I will happily have a very frank discussion with you about these facts, but I’m also okay with not [doing this]. Of course I disagree also as the writer and director that the filmmaking is bad.
“But still all the best and let’s stay in contact. I suspect you’ll like my film Run with Amanda Plummer…it’s on Paramount+, Showtime etc.”