By Lee Pfeiffer
I'm always amazed at the transition between the New York City of many years ago and the Gotham of today. Few major urban areas have seen such a successful renaissance of safety and civility. In the 1960s-early 1990s, the city was plagued by crime waves, largely fueled by the increasing activity in drugs. Today, Gotham still hasn't reached the point of being an urban Shangri-la, but crime statistics have dropped to their lowest point since the early 1960s. Thus, it's interesting to revisit films made during those bad old days that depict New York as a wasteland of crime, corruption and murder. Things were never that bad, of course, but these films did tap into a popular discontent with the way crime was escalating and how helpless the average man and woman felt in terms of doing anything about it. It was not surprising that films reflected the fantasy of one man standing up to the cretins of the streets and bringing about law and order through vigilantiism. Ironically, the great improvement in Gotham life came about through stricter penalties for criminals and a major resassessment of policing strategies, not uprisings of everyday citizens (Bernard Goetz, the "Subway Vigilante" aside). However, these methods would be rather unexciting to protray on screen. Thus, the enduring popularity of the vigilante films.
The first and most influential of these movies depicting a righteous avenger was Michael Winner's original 1974 film Death Wish. The movie ultimately spawned so many cartoon-like sequels that it's easy to forget the impact the original had on audiences. Director William Friedkin once told me the audience reaction he witnessed was the most visceral he had ever experienced. Soon, every studio in the world was jumping on the vigilante bandwagon. Among the films churned out of the mill was Defiance, a 1980 production directed by John Flynn (who helmed the far superior thriller The Outfit). Jan Michael Vincent stars as a laid off merchant marine who has to spend several months in a Bronx tenement while awaiting his next job. He soon realizes that the entire neighorhood is terrorized by a brutal street gang whose leader Angel (Rudy Ramos) excercises dictator-like power. Store merchants are menaced, church functions are robbed and women are brutalized. The police seem to be able to do nothing but fill out reports (the impotence of law enforcement is a common and necessary ingredient to this genre.)
It will not ruin any surprising elements of the story to tell you that Defiance follows a virtual check-list of plot ingredients that appear in most vigilante films:
- He meets cute with a neighborhood chick, in this case Theresa Saldana.
- He initially refuses to help his neighbors because the crimes are none of his business
- He befriends a stock company of charming but helpless characters: the prerequisite ethnic grocer (Art Carney in lovable Jewish mode), a young, pre-teen street-wise kid, and a punch drunk one-time boxer (Lenny Montana, Luca Brasi of The Godfather).
- Almost by rote, each of these individuals is the victim of the gang's terror, which leads our hero to take up arms in a one-man crusade to rid the neighborhood of its scummiest element.
- A benign group of once-proud guys from the neighborhood are inspired to regain their mojo and come to the aid of the hero when it appears his luck has run out.
There is another common element to most vigilante movies that is a bit more disturbing: raciism. The producers always go to absurd lengths to cast racially mixed villains as gang members, but tossing in a couple of token white bad guys in the South Bronx or Harlem just comes across as blatant politically correct pandering. (Some films, such as the Death Wish sequels, carry this notion to extremes, making it appear as though the urban ghetto areas are being terrorized by waves of malevoent Norwegians.) There are also a few token blacks and hispanics tossed in on the other side to help the good guy, but in the end, these stories always come down to the unsettling premise of a white guy coming to town to save the minority population from their own worst elements.
Having said all of that, Defiance is one of the better examples of the vigilante genre. Until it goes over the top during its predictable conclusion, there are some fine peformances evident, particularly from Saldana, who manages to be sexy without looking like she just stepped out of a Beverly Hills health spa. Vincent is perfectly competent in the lead role, but one can't view his work today without being aware of the self-imposed tragedy of his life and career. Carried away by his own excesses, Vincent has become a mere punch line to sick jokes. This film reminds us that his great looks and not inconsiderable acting talent would have ensured a long career and his sad decline is one of the industry's most sobering tragedies. Director Flynn punctuates the action with some reasonably engaging character development and his preference for using actual locations to studio sets gives the film an air of authenticity and immediacy. (There are some key scenes set on rooftops that afford wonderful distant views of midtown Manhattan, including the World Trade Center looming as a doomed icon of Gotham life.) There is also a good supporting performance by Danny Aiello, as a former street gang leader trying to regain his courage.
Defiance isn't high art, but it doesn't pretend to be. It is, however, reasonably entertaining and rises to be one of the better films of the vigilante genre.
The DVD contains the original trailer.
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