A VIGILANTE
US, 2018, 91 minutes, Colour.
Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector.
Directed by Sarah Daggar- Nickson.
A Vigilantes is a demanding film to watch. This is a film about domestic abuse and the consequences? It doesn’t pull punches – rather lands them!
Olivia Wilde gives a powerful performance as a battered wife whose husband has been responsible for the death of their son. She has left him, joined a group of similar battered women, sharing stories. She is challenged to do something about her situation, not just retreating from the world. She finds a book, engages in martial arts training (a powerful opening sequence where she is boxing and relentlessly pounding for a long time). The audience sees her go out and challenge a respectable husband who is a wife basher, force him to make over finance for his wife, physically hurting him as he attacks, his wife ousting him from the house. She then goes to another house where the children are locked in, challenges their slatternly mother.
Only gradually is her own story revealed, her motivation for her vigilante defence of battered women.
The last part of the film shows her going in pursuit of her absent husband, tracking him down in the wilderness, his overpowering her, her getting loose, and a final confrontation where she violently destroys him, and touches of his misogynistic personality and touch of cowardice.
Vigilante films always confront the audience concerning their sympathies for victims, the exercise of violence in revenge and compensation.
1. The title? Expectations? American vigilante films? This time the central character being female?
2. The female perspective? Domestic abuse of women? Children? The portrait of abusive men? Abusive mothers? The abused wives, children? A plea against domestic abuse?
3. The city, homes, groups meeting? The wilderness, the forests, huts, abandoned buildings? The musical score?
4. The introduction to Sadie, Olivia Wilde’s performance? The boxing opening, the continuous pounding? Sadie and the make up, contact lenses, the wig? The puzzle about who she was?
5. Sadie going out on mission, and the confrontation of the man in his house, seemingly respectable, her accusations, demands, his attack, her brutal treatment of him? The wife with a broken arm? His being ousted from the house, making the financial arrangements? The gratitude of the wife?
6. The contrast with Sadie going to the home, the children locked, in squalor, the slatternly mother, her attack? Sadie protecting the children, their affectionate response?
7. The gradual explanation of Sadie’s background, her going to the group meetings? The stories told by the women – seeming authentic rather than performed? The challenge to Sadie, her initial grief, being alone, the death of her son, the drawings, the books? Her being asked to go out and do something rather than pining away?
8. The martial arts, her training, her skills?
9. In the background of her story, 10 years with her husband, her sad narration, the son, the demands, going camping, the son and his father, the son’s death? Sadie’s leaving, the father’s disappearance, the issue of insurance, his not being declared dead?
10. Sadie, going to find him, in the forest, the map and her search? His finding her, imprisoning her, binding her, his sad story, the taunts? His hunting? His philosophy of life, misogyny? Not taking the blame for their son’s death?
11. Sadie getting free, waiting with the knife, his brutal overpowering her, the axe? Her arm?
12. Her escape, through the snow, into the building, the darkness, the variety of rooms? Her husband’s pursuit? Her decision to face him? The empty pool? His declarations, saying he loved her, her going to get revenge on him? The pathos, the touch of cowardice? Sadie choking him?
13. Sadie and her lawyer, the issue of the insurance, the police finding the body, her alibi, his being a felon and the police not inclined to pursue his death?
14. Audience response to Sadie, compassion, reaction to her vigilante behaviour, the death of her husband? Her future?
