So I watched Citizen Vigilante yesterday...

I had never heard of Citizen Vigilante, Uwe Boll's new film starring Armie Hammer, until a few days ago.  That's when I read that this movie has been effectively banned in Germany and the United Kingdom.  Something about it encouraging violence against migrants.

But then Elon Musk made Citizen Vigilante available to watch for free on his X (formerly Twitter) platform.  Something that would avoid the censorious thought police and let the people see and decide on their own.  Which only made the German and British governments even more furious.

Rush Limbaugh called it the "Streisand Effect": trying to keep people from watching a thing, makes people want to watch it even more.  Suddenly I found myself curious enough to check out Citizen Vigilante.  That's what I spent part of the afternoon yesterday doing.

What did I think?

It's a far shot from being award-worthy.  There have been other films - I'm especially thinking of the original Death Wish and also Harry Brown - that deal with vigilantism much better than does Citizen Vigilante.  There are some things about this movie that should have been left on the editing room floor (the brothel scene was especially cringe-worthy).  The entire movie looks like it was shot on an iPhone with no color correction or other tweaking.  I could tick off a few more things that are problematic with this movie...

But those things aside, I do believe that this is a film as relevant as any other during this particular time in modern history.

Citizen Vigilante is a movie that dares to acknowledge something that too many corrupt officials in all the wrong places would rather not have the people thinking about.  Namely, how out-of-control immigration that allows any so-called "refugee" into the civilized countries of the western world.  And with those "migrants", who refuse to assimilate into proper society, has come obscene levels of violent crime. Including rape and murder.

The officials in government don't dare touch the issue, they're that afraid of looking "racist" and "bigoted".  A lot of judges have been letting the migrant defendants - whenever they can be brought to court - off with easy sentences.  Their rationale: that migrant youth "don't know any better" and are even simply "misbehaving".

Meanwhile the actual citizens of those countries must live with two-tier law enforcement that places migrants above them.  To raise the issue and dare challenge it is to invite condemnation from the government.  Indeed, it's now a punishable offense in England to post criticisms of the migrants on the Internet.  Do so and you're going to get the constables banging on your door to take you down to the hoosegow.  The real citizens are treated much more harshly than the illegal aliens.  Everybody knows it's happening.

Citizen Vigilante in inspired by that radical disparity across Europe between law for citizens and "law" for migrants.  It's a very rough movie but there is no doubting the central message: that increasingly people are having to fend for themselves because the government refuses to help them.  If there is a breakdown of the law and the duly-appointed officers cannot or will not intervene, then it becomes the duty of the people to address it themselves.  And that is what Armie Hammer's character Michael Sanders does.  He's taking out the bad guys, including the judges who are much too lenient, in order to drive the people into taking charge on their own.

This is a very, very brusque film.  Not a spectacular film, and it won't win any prestigious awards.  But it will get people talking.  If they cannot readily see it because of their "democratic" governments refusing them access to it, they're going to want to watch it.  I suspect that there might be a thriving underground commerce for Citizen Vigilante across Europe (is The Pirate Bay website still functioning?).  It's going to make a lot of people think... and be moved to act.  I doubt - and I really do want to doubt - that this movie is going to entice sane people into doing some of the things that Sanders does in his war against out of control migrants who refuse to like civilized folks.  But it will anger them enough to take the bull by the horns and bring their governments back under their control.

My advice: go watch Citizen Vigilante, however it is that you can find it.  Don't expect a pretty and easily palatable story.  But you will find a very timely one.

EDIT 03:16 AM EST: I just checked and The Pirate Bay Is indeed still online.  And yes, Citizen Vigilante can be found there.  Disclaimer: I don't advise piracy of anything in any form.  But if governments like the British and German ones continue to try to keep this movie from being seen by their own people, I'm almost tempted to say that downloading and distributing this movie might be a moral and ethical thing to do after all.

 

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The one blogger who'll defend Uwe Boll

Are people really this hostile toward their fellow man, without caring about how cruel they are?

Please don't answer that, 'kay?

So earlier this evening I read about filmmaker Uwe Boll, director of House of the Dead, BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege and other movies that have endured lackluster performance at the box office. Boll has said that in light of how ill-received his work is, that he will retire from filmmaking if a petition calling for him to quit garners 1 million signatures.

So this being the Internet there is now a massive drive to do exactly that, in order to compel Uwe Boll to make good on his word.

I took a look in the past little while at the animosity toward Boll in this petition drive. And even though I've never really cared much for Boll's work, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy after seeing all the scorn and loathing directed at him.

This "one million signatures to stop Uwe Boll" petition is a petty and shallow thing. If you don't like his movies, then just don't go watch them! You still have enough freedom to choose not to pay to see movies that you don't want to see. Nobody is being strapped into a chair in a theater with their eyes pried open like Alex in A Clockwork Orange and forced to watch Postal.

But what bothers me most is how little regard so many people in this world seem to have for others. It almost borders on passing a judgment on another's entire life, without regard for anything or anyone beyond our own narcissism. Even if you don't like Uwe Boll's movies, that should not deduct all all from appreciation of the fact that this is still an individual we are talking about, who apparently does love his work and wants to find satisfaction in it.

Well, who are you or me or anyone else to try to deny him that?

Think about it: Would you appreciate it at all if a million people told you to stop doing something that you enjoyed, if it wasn't seriously hurting you or anyone else to do it? Would you want a mob of people telling you that you don't deserve to pursue your own happiness?

That's what Uwe Boll is doing, folks: following his dream. Whether his movies make a handsome profit or not, at least he's taking more initiative than most people do in this day and age. I like to think that's what he's doing, anyway: just trying to do the best he can with a craft that he loves. And if it's not "commercially successful" in our eyes... so what? Does it impinge on your own happiness? 'Cuz if it does, you've got far bigger problems than any online petition will remedy.

I'm of the school that believes that each person has the right to make the most of his or her time on this Earth, which includes the right to do everything in their power, if they so wish, to leave behind something - be it art or invention or whatever - that will endure after they have left this life.Everyone deserves that chance, including those that we don't necessarily agree with. So long as that other person is not trying to stifle others from their own happiness, we should let them be. Hell, we should encourage them, even. Just as we would want to be encouraged.

This is why I believe that all legitimate films (and as I've said before, I don't include porno flicks in that reckoning) deserve to be preserved for posterity, because each film does represent the vision and passion of our fellow man (and woman). At Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 this past December, we saw movies that were real stinkers. But the very last thing I would want is either for those movies to be taken away forever, or for their creators to stop making movies at all.

Because when we do that, we are imposing a judgment on that filmmaker that he or she cannot grow and improve in their trade. And again, who are any of us to make that kind of call against anyone?

So Uwe Boll, if you ever read this: Maybe your movies so far have been bombs. And that's okay! If you believe in yourself enough to keep making your movies, and if this is a source of happiness for you... then dude, seriously, stick with it! Don't let a million people tell you to quit. Don't let ten million people tell you to quit! You shouldn't feel obligated to have to answer to them, anyway.

You deserve to answer to your own happiness, Mr. Boll. And that goes for everyone else who might read this, too.

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