Act of Vengeance (1986)

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Charles Bronson, mired in crappy B action flicks in the 1980's, decided to take this made-for-HBO flick to stretch his acting chops. He should have just made another "Death Wish" movie, instead. Based on a true story set in 1969, Bronson plays United Mine Workers union official Jock Yablonski. He fawns over union president Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley), who is made out to be a ruthless crook immediately. As Jock and his wife Margaret (Ellen Burstyn) coast through life, a mine accident claims the lives of eighty people. Boyle arrives in the grieving West Virginia town and defends the coal company over the miners.Yablonski is almost run out of town, and decides he has had enough. He announces his candidacy for the union presidency, and begins campaigning. Boyle then orders a hit on his former friend.The film shifts gears and introduces us to Paul (Robert Schenkkan), a house painter with a lot of guns and a huge ego. Paul is married to the oversexed Annette (Ellen Barkin), who is probably carrying on behind Paul's back. Annette's father Silous (Hoyt Axton) comes to Paul with a job- kill Yablonski and collect ten thousand dollars. Annette uses her feminine wiles to convince Paul, and he hires local petty criminal Claude (Maury Chaykin) to help.With the campaign in full swing, both sides are confident about victory. Boyle's side is more confident since he has stuffed the ballot box, winning in a landslide. Yablonski decides to challenge the election, and his death becomes more important to Boyle and his gang. Paul hires another killer Buddy (Keanu Reeves), and the trio decide to carry out their plan.With a good cast and confident direction, this film really should have hit its mark. Unfortunately, it never seems to get momentum going, as the central plot about the campaign takes a back seat to the killers' subplot.The staged campaign speeches are, well, stagey. The crowd scenes never move, and Boyle is so evil right away, the election's outcome is never in doubt. Bronson tries, but his dramatic scenes are just like other action films he has done, except he does not pull out a gun. Burstyn is wasted in the dutiful wife role, I have a feeling stronger writing would have bolstered her part.The best performance here? Writer/actor Robert Schenkkan as Paul. He turns Paul into such a desperate loser, he would be pitiful if his actions were not so despicable. One creepy scene has him humping a sleeping Annette to calm his urges, and Annette obviously knows what a little oral sex will do to better her station in life.Claude and Buddy are also disgusting creatures, there are plenty of opportunities to kill Yablonski but Claude chickens out. Claude and Paul make the trip to the Yablonski's country house so often, they know where to stop for gas.Claude, Paul, and Buddy eventually cross over into "funny" territory, and that is where the film finally lost me. The final violent scenes show the trio bumbling like the unfunny "I Love You to Death," but the humor is completely wrong here. Barely an hour and a half, "Act of Vengeance," a generic name that could serve as a "Death Wish" subtitle, never grabs its audience and proves to be an exercise in predictability, despite the excellent work of Robert Schenkkan. (* *) out of five stars.

In 1969, Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski (Charles Bronson) is finally tipped over the edge when a coal mine disaster is brushed over by the corrupt United Coal Miners Union he firmly believed in. Deciding to run against head man Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley) for president of the Union, Yablonski soon becomes the target of a sinister murder plot.It's a TV movie so it hardly has the production value to really do this "based on a true story" movie complete justice. However, with Bronson and Brimley giving very committed performances, and who in turn are backed up by the excellent Ellen Burstyn as Yablonski's loyal wife, there's humanistic qualities here that make this more than a time filler.The murky political intrigue ticks away nicely, the characterisations of the assassins is afforded relative time, and the culmination of the picture strikes both the heart and the head. Yes it is hardly high end film making, and those turned off by dialogue heavy political posturing should probably stay away, but this is a story well worth knowing.It got me to read up on the Boyle/Yablonski case, such was the interest born out by this HBO production. Proof positive that TV movies once had something viable to offer the mature film watching public. 7/10

I grew up in Pennsylvania, and although we were far from coal country, some news was so big, it got around. The Yablonski killings were all over the western end of the state when they happened, but we didn't really understand what was happening behind them. I'm sure some liberties were taken in collapsing events, but this film does a great job of putting the times, the relationships between Big Unions and Big Business in context, and the power of the common man to make, or try to make, things better. The cinematography really caught the gritty world of coal mining, and the areas in which is happens. This was one of the first roles I saw Charles Bronson in, and I thought he was terrific, probably bringing a much deeper sensibility to the part as a former coal miner and, as I understand, a card-carrying member of the United Mine Workers throughout his life. His campaign stops even had some very funny one liners you wouldn't think would work coming out of Il Bruto. I actually checked out some of his other films after seeing this one. The gang that couldn't shoot straight, but obviously eventually did, were such complete idiots you were surprised they managed not to shoot themselves, and were able to kill Yablonski only with Keanu Reeves' help. This film is probably only available at a library, or maybe a video store that doesn't clear out stock once a year. But it's definitely worth watching.

The world of politics can be a dangerous place, and no one knows this more than real life union-activist Jock Yablonski (Charles Bronson). After successfully defeating the long-standing president of the United Mine Workers in a 1969 election, Yablonski and two of his immediate family members were murdered at night while they slept. Rather than focus on the murders themselves, director Mackenzie tells the story of everyone involved with the crime in three separate, but intertwining stories. We follow the campaign trail of Yablonski, the desperation of Tony Boyle and his cronies, and the hired assassins, getting an eagle eye's view into their lives. Done effectively, this is a very powerful tool in helping the audience associate with the characters, and the situations they find themselves in. Whether it was because of the confines of a made for TV movie or just bad direction I'm not sure, but Mackenzie was not successful in representing all sides evenly, and it was glaringly apparent where his biases lie. All of the acting was solid, with Bronson and Ellen Burstyn playing a very convincing married couple. Wilford Brimley turned in another great performance as the racist, corrupt, and all around dirty president of the Mine Workers' Union, and Keanu acted just as Keanu does, albeit without much screen time. If you're fiercely interested in American politics I would say it's worth checking out. If not, don't bother: go outside and take a walk, or learn how to make a new dish, this is not worth your time. Rating: 21/40