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possible spoilers....
I'd only like to point out how this could have been a wonderful social horror about absurdity of written law and dangers of vigilantism. As it happens it only scratched the surface of the issue worse than "Magnum Force" did ten years earlier.
It starts really well in painting pictures on how a young judge Hardin gets sick of a legal system in which he has to set heavy offenders free on the grounds of mere technicalities. At the same time parallel story unfolds of a secret judging panel that keeps an eye on Hardin as its potential new member. The horror is at its full when another false trial produces real catastrophe and Hardin, on his free will, finally gets introduced to the panel and we learn that judges have their own idea of fighting crime on basis of vigilantism. No lawyer's tricks, no technicalities, just crimes, verdicts and a silent assassin to execute offenders.
This is where the story begins to dissolve. Just when we are about convinced of absurdity of the system and possibility that its carriers are willing to bent it, the main character gets second thoughts about what he got into and is now equally willing to bring the whole thing down for the sake of morality. This was something that totally missed the point and led directly to a flawed ending of a movie.
Hardin now gets in the position of trying to salvage criminals he first condemned as he finds out they were not guilty of the alleged crime after all. He also learns that his fellow vigilantes aren't as willing to correct the mistake as he is, because they know there are other crimes those villains did commit. Nevermind they will later be proved right, the vigilantes are now rendered enemies in Hardin's (and viewer's) eyes.
Since the assassin is already well on his way and needs to be stopped (by no other than Hardin) the movie gains an unnecessary action momentum. A character of a police investigator is also added to the plot only to help Hardin bring about everybody to justice.
I would like the movie to have gone the other way, with vigilante society intact and the character of Hardin matured into their worthy member (after learning a valuable lesson of living with one's mistakes). Even the police investigator could have been revealed as another vigilante executor. This would really have been mind provoking as we would have never known how far the conspiracy went.
What we got instead is a pale copy of Dirty Harry flick Magnum Force, with Hal Holbrook even repeating his role of a vigilante leader.
score 6/10
CherryBlossomBoy 9 December 2004
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0977711/ |
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23-2-2021 18:05:13