The characters are a bit of a caricature. The plot is bare and lacking in depth, as are the dialogues. It is a typical film of the 80s: only violence and little talk.

An alternate title for this movie might have been "Big City Bad-- Buy A Gun!"

In the same vein, it also would've been a perfect advertisement for the National Rifle Association, again for the same reason-- drumming up support for the U.S. Second Amendment through fear. Now, I happen to support said Amendment, but I consider myself a moderate. We've clearly failed as a society when the proposed "solution" to violent crime is to arm every citizen.

Okay, so enough of the soapbox. I gave this movie a view last night because Robert Forster is a favorite actor of mine, and I wanted to check him out in a revenger. I didn't even know of his role in this movie (I'll not call this a film) until recently. As far as what the role called for, he played the part well: a husband and father whose family is brutalized, who decides to "take it to the streets" and eliminate the criminals who did him wrong. Very formulaic and predictable.

I am going to give Mr. Forster some props here-- he did a full nude scene (in a prison shower), something uncommon for male actors to do in the first place, and even more uncommon for a male actor many would consider on the A-list. The usual reason given for such scarcity of male nudity is that the male-dominated movie industry (not so dominant, now, but certainly back in the 1980s when "Vigilante" was made) just doesn't want to put naked guys on film. And while this is certainly true, there is another reason: male actors who choose to do "full nude" often risk their careers-- and, oddly, it seems the greatest risk is the potential ridicule and disgust from the male audience. Female actors also face similar risk when doing nude scenes, but of a different nature: the potential negative of being type-cast, and never being able to advance to more "respectable" roles (see my mention of this in the unfortunate case of Rona de Ricci, on the TMDB board for the 1991 version of "The Pit and the Pendulum").

So again, credit is due to Mr. Forster for taking on such a scene. Otherwise, as I've said, nothing particularly surprising about "Vigilante": violent, bloody, gritty, the good guy gets his revenge, very formulaic. Nothing particularly "deep" or intellectual, unlike revengers such as 1971's "Straw Dogs" or 2005's "A History of Violence", among others.

"Vigilante": a 5 out of 10 from me, this one's not going in the collection.