Vigilante Force *** (1976, Kris Kristofferson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Victoria Principal, Bernadette Peters, Brad Dexter, Judson Prat) – Classic Movie Review 6740

The Seventies low-budget American satirical action film Vigilante Force (1976) is written and directed by George Armitage, who says producer Gene Corman came to him with just the title and he did the rest. ‘It was a good shoot, but it was rough. It was 30 days, it was 108 degrees in the Simi Valley [California], but we worked through it, finished on time and under budget.’

Jan-Michael Vincent stars as Ben Arnold, a young man who has had enough of the violent crime from the out-of-control oil-field workers in his small California town after oil is found and the local factory shut down. So he calls in his older brother, Vietnam War veteran Aaron Arnold (Kris Kristofferson) and his buddies, and hires them for protection and to clean up the streets. But then they try to take over the town.

Armitage recalled: ‘What I was really doing there was Vietnam. What would it be like if people took over your town, as we had been doing to the hamlets of Vietnam? What if we brought Vietnam back to America, what would that be like?’

Kristofferson and Vincent do well to be convincing, and Armitage’s script and direction have conviction too. Stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker achieves high-quality stunts, Roger George does a great job on special effects and Jack Fisk does little marvels on production design. Sissy Spacek is assistant art director.

Also in the cast are Victoria Principal as Linda Christopher, Bernadette Peters as singer Little Dee, Brad Dexter as Mayor Bradford, Judson Pratt as Harry Lee, David Doyle as Homer Arno, Antony Carbone as Freddie Howe, Andrew Stevens as Paul Sinton, Shelly Novack, Paul Gleason, John Steadman, Lilyan McBride, Jimmy Lydon and Peter Coe.

Vigilante Force runs 89 minutes and is distributed by United Artists. The cinematography is William Cronjager and the score is by Gerald Fried.

The main characters are named after Revolutionary War characters in Bicentennial year.

The main street and most exteriors were filmed on the backlot at Desilu Studios, 9336 West Washington Blvd, Culver City, California. It was the last production filmed there, ending the 49 years of the RKO and then Desilu backlot.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6740

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