Citizen vigilante, the vigilant citizen. The title alone says a lot about the film. We imagine it as a renewed proposal of Avenger of the nightin which the legendary Charles Bronson personally settled scores with some evildoers after suffering a serious family loss. In the case of Citizen vigilante there is no particular cinematic merit, yet it is talked about, and a lot, in Germany and beyond.
Its director, the German Uwe Boll, is known for having directed some of the worst films in the entire world in the past and even in this case he does not deny himself. The violence in his feature films is generally in bad taste and unnecessary for the action, and this latest “masterpiece” remains in the wake of his modest production. So why are we talking about it?
The plot provides us with some excellent clues: in an unspecified European city Michael Sanders (played by Armie Hammer, with blond hair and blue eyes not by chance), a former US army officer, exasperated by the ineffectiveness of the police and by a judicial system incapable of protecting citizens, decides to set himself up as judge and executioner of the misdeeds of others: assuming the identity of the “Vigilante”, he organizes patrols against petty crime, patrols the streets and brutally eliminates robbers, drug dealers and gang members. A bit of do-it-yourself justice, in short, which at the moment can also please the victims. Coincidentally, the crimes he gets involved in are committed by immigrant people, who are the villains of the story. And when he opposed the construction of a reception center for migrants, Sanders gained a huge following on social networks, amplifying his notoriety.
The trend of the film does not require further investigation, nor does its Manichean morality (the white man is always good, the black immigrant is always bad). It was a matter of course for the FSK, the German film self-regulatory body, block the distribution of the film in Germany as it incites violence and racial hatred, as well as openly promoting summary justice: therefore, no screening in cinemas, no inclusion in the catalogs of streaming platforms, no advertising in public places or places open to the public.
The controversial German director Uwe Boll (EPA).
Heavens open: director Boll, waiting for nothing else, talks about “deliberate political censorship” and the conscious choice of institutions to hide crimes related to immigration in Europe. The German far right follows closely and fuels it, until the controversy crosses the Rhine and lands across the Atlanticwhere Elon Musk – already an outspoken supporter of Alternatives for Germanythe far-right German party – takes the issue to heart by publishing Citizen Vigilante on his X (Twitter) profile, making it available for free for a couple of days to his 240 million followers. Musk’s decision was greeted with enthusiasm by far-right circles internationally and now a low-budget, xenophobic film got the publicity boost it never would have had if there had not been censorship in Germany.
We will hear more about Citizen Vigilante? Will it be visible in Italy? True cinema lovers miss the times of another “citizen”, Citizen Kanethat Fourth power by Orson Welles in which the rich tycoon, overbearing and obnoxious as you want, realizes at the end of his life that all he wanted was actually Rosebud, that sleigh companion of his best years, and that lost childhood that all the money in the world couldn’t restore to him. Bad tempora currunt.
