Apr '14 *
Urban Fear - 1974-1985
Movieland has had a long and fruitful relationship with the kids on the wrong side of the tracks. In the ‘50s and ‘60s they were rebels, they were bikers, they were greasers, and they were wanderers. They were hip cats, Daddy-O, and they would jive talk you soon as look at you. If they weren’t too busy dancing at each other, that is…
Often the focus of these films was the delinquents themselves – whether they were contemporary to the times, or filtered with a couple of decades of nostalgia. We saw their high-school rivalries, their reasons for rebelling, and their angst at the older generation - parents, teachers, cops… you know, squares! They weren’t so bad – they were just misunderstood. And, when things did escalate, when feuds got serious, like as not things would be settled like men – either with a drag race, or a good old fashioned rumble!
Then, sometime in the ‘70s, something changed. The threat posed by gangs of youths spilled over into ‘normal’ society. Wanton violence, vandalism, rape and murder became common. Gone were the good old days of greased back hair, and summer lovin’ songs. These gangs would rob you, rape you, and kill you, just for fun – and often in the comfort of your own home. No-one was safe. Not even the children.
And, for (a little over) ten glorious years, these hoods were faceless (masked or painted), amoral scumbags. Out to terrorise good hard-working folks, and stick it to the man. They did what they wanted, to who they wanted, whenever they wanted. And some of them would start to get organised. They may have looked like they were auditioning for Fame (1980), but they ruled the streets and back alleys. They were the armies of the night!
There was an early wake-up call in 1974, when Paul Kersey went all one man army on NYC’s rising crime rates – Michael Winner and Charles Bronson’s first team up unleashing a Death Wish (1974) on the world. After the warning shot came the barrage.
John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) showed us that even the cops were helpless against the gang-bangers, as Street Thunder – an blood-brotherly, cholo wielding gang of silent terrors silently terrorised the inhabitants of a closed down police station, and in Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979)– Coney Island’s very own Warriors, a rare protagonist gang, had to bop their way from the Bronx all the way back to Coney, framed for a crime they didn’t commit. These two, among the few, hinted as to what an army of united gangs could do if they turned on society – with only a small group of fighters and survivors caught in the middle.
If the gangs won, and ruled our streets it would make for a bleak future – as sci-fi movies took the gangbanger ball and ran with it - Mad Max (1979) & II (1981), Escape from New York (1981), 1990: Bronx Warriors (1982), Escape 2000 (1983), and Streets of Fire (1984), showed us feral gangs which roamed (mostly) free. It was survival of the fittest, baby! And the one with the biggest Mohawk, and sharpest spikes on their be-leathered shoulders would reign supreme!
So, to avoid these dire future premonitions, someone would have to take back the streets and alleys of the urban battleground, and make them safe for the general populations. But who could stand up to these denizens of the darkness, these soldiers of the streets?
Cowboy cops were a good start…
…but a lone wolf, who’s turned in his gun and badge…
…could only do so much.
But, surely, the regular cops could handle a bunch of thugs in face paint and gang colours?
Hmmm, perhaps not…
So it turned out that the only protection against the hoods was a concerned citizen with a .45 (or a .475 Wildey Magnum…). It was time for the meek, and the scared to fight back. The worm had turned. The Vigilante Man’s time had come…
And he was taking back the streets one gang at a time.
Naturally, the success of the Death Wish series prompted a lot of copy cats and imitators – each, wielding their own vengeance inspiring title as they dispensed brutal justice to the streets. As well as a Death Wish (1974), II (1982), III (1985), IV (1987), and V (1994) , we had The Exterminator (1980) & II (1984), Fighting Back (1980), Defiance (1980), Ms .45 (1981), Class of 1984 (1982), Vigilante (1983), Savage Streets (1984), Tenement (1985), Enemy Territory (1987), to name but a few.
Of course, the Vigilante Man is working outside the law, and the cops can’t let that slide – even when he’s doin’ the man’s work for him, and our earnest keeper of the streets must watch his back, and be ever mindful of the fact that he doesn’t become what he set out to prevent – look not into the abyss, and all that… Even cowboy cops don’t like the Vigilante Man!
By the mid-late ‘80s, the street gangs had become less of a threat, and the vigilantes had their final victory in the fight. Death Wish III (1985) saw Kersey’s actions end up in all out urban warfare, and signalled the death knell for the street gang.
This swansong saw the Vigilante Man step back into the shadows, as he (and the cowboy cops) moved on to more bigger fish. Real gangsters – the Mob, terrorists, corrupt cops, and did his bit in the war on drugs. Death Wish IV (1987) & V (1994) see Paul Kersey go up against organised crime, The Punisher (1989) took on Italian mob and Yakuza, and Batman (1989) fought a mobbed up Joker.
And in a few short years the streets were lost again. This time, though, a different breed of gang was to the fore. The Gangstas. The Bloods and the Crips moved in, and these guys came with guns, a new set of beefs, and a new style of music. Vigilante Man – though still around, wasn’t quite as effective on these mean streets. From Colors (1988), Boyz n the Hood (1991), and Clockers (1995) to, Training Day (2001), and End of Watch (2012), the gangstas have prevailed. They have now become synonymous with the urban gang image – red and blue replacing the bandanas, denim flares and patched jackets of the ‘70s. The old gangs lost this turf war – a switchblade and a baseball bat no match for a Desert Eagle and an AK47.
So, there’s my brief, and undoubtedly incomplete view of ‘urban fear’. For a bright and shining (little-over-a) decade they stole our hearts. But why? Obviously, in Movieland, success breeds imitation. Death Wish was the leader in the field, and blueprint for many, but what made those stories capture our minds at that time?
Well, partly there was real life. Crime rates in the ‘70s and ‘80s, particularly in New York, were on the increase. Violent crime in particular had more than tripled since the mid ‘60s. Citizens were attacked, people were scared, and people wanted action, and their city, seemingly, could not control it. The criminal justice system wasn’t to be trusted. The streets and the subways were seen to be unsafe. High profile real life cases, such as Bernie Goetz, the “Subway Vigilante”, who, in 1984, shot four black youths on the Subway who he alleged were trying to rob him,
and groups like Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels (founded in 1977 as the Magnificent 13, and still around today), originally organised to combat widespread crime in the New York City Subways, stole the news headlines, and whipped up a media storm of supporters and detractors.
It’s no great surprise, then, that the Vigilante Man, bursting through the celluloid into this milieu of fear and anger, with his .475 Wildley blasting away the muggers and rapists, was so popular. He was the saviour. The audience proxy. The surrogate avenger who did everything we wished we could have done to those who frightened and threatened us - realising many a revenge fantasy. And here he was – larger than life – at a cinema near you!
How we’ve missed him!
But never fear, he hasn’t been too far away. He’s just been hiding in the shadows, biding his time.
And what’s this I see making an increasing comeback in the news? Chavs, hoodies, killer kids. Gangs of youths, with no moral compass attacking right minded folks with impunity. Organised crime rampant on the streets. Drugs, pushers, addicts, meth, bath-salts, rape, kidnapping, drive-bys, home invasions… The list of urban fear gets longer and longer, and so back comes our Vigilante Man.
Oh he’s back alright. The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-12), Death Sentence (2007), The Brave One (2007), Gran Torino (2008), Harry Brown (2009), Law Abiding Citizen (2009), Kick-Ass (2010) & II (2013), Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), etc. The look and feel might be a bit different, but he’s back…
Warriors, Baseball Furies, Riffs, Punks and Rogues, Souls, Street Thunder… Man, we miss you guys, but you had it comin’.
Vigilante Man, I salute you.
Movieland has had a long and fruitful relationship with the kids on the wrong side of the tracks. In the ‘50s and ‘60s they were rebels, they were bikers, they were greasers, and they were wanderers. They were hip cats, Daddy-O, and they would jive talk you soon as look at you. If they weren’t too busy dancing at each other, that is…
Often the focus of these films was the delinquents themselves – whether they were contemporary to the times, or filtered with a couple of decades of nostalgia. We saw their high-school rivalries, their reasons for rebelling, and their angst at the older generation - parents, teachers, cops… you know, squares! They weren’t so bad – they were just misunderstood. And, when things did escalate, when feuds got serious, like as not things would be settled like men – either with a drag race, or a good old fashioned rumble!
Then, sometime in the ‘70s, something changed. The threat posed by gangs of youths spilled over into ‘normal’ society. Wanton violence, vandalism, rape and murder became common. Gone were the good old days of greased back hair, and summer lovin’ songs. These gangs would rob you, rape you, and kill you, just for fun – and often in the comfort of your own home. No-one was safe. Not even the children.
And, for (a little over) ten glorious years, these hoods were faceless (masked or painted), amoral scumbags. Out to terrorise good hard-working folks, and stick it to the man. They did what they wanted, to who they wanted, whenever they wanted. And some of them would start to get organised. They may have looked like they were auditioning for Fame (1980), but they ruled the streets and back alleys. They were the armies of the night!
There was an early wake-up call in 1974, when Paul Kersey went all one man army on NYC’s rising crime rates – Michael Winner and Charles Bronson’s first team up unleashing a Death Wish (1974) on the world. After the warning shot came the barrage.John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) showed us that even the cops were helpless against the gang-bangers, as Street Thunder – an blood-brotherly, cholo wielding gang of silent terrors silently terrorised the inhabitants of a closed down police station, and in Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979)– Coney Island’s very own Warriors, a rare protagonist gang, had to bop their way from the Bronx all the way back to Coney, framed for a crime they didn’t commit. These two, among the few, hinted as to what an army of united gangs could do if they turned on society – with only a small group of fighters and survivors caught in the middle.
If the gangs won, and ruled our streets it would make for a bleak future – as sci-fi movies took the gangbanger ball and ran with it - Mad Max (1979) & II (1981), Escape from New York (1981), 1990: Bronx Warriors (1982), Escape 2000 (1983), and Streets of Fire (1984), showed us feral gangs which roamed (mostly) free. It was survival of the fittest, baby! And the one with the biggest Mohawk, and sharpest spikes on their be-leathered shoulders would reign supreme!
So, to avoid these dire future premonitions, someone would have to take back the streets and alleys of the urban battleground, and make them safe for the general populations. But who could stand up to these denizens of the darkness, these soldiers of the streets?
Cowboy cops were a good start…
…but a lone wolf, who’s turned in his gun and badge…
…could only do so much.
But, surely, the regular cops could handle a bunch of thugs in face paint and gang colours?
Hmmm, perhaps not…
So it turned out that the only protection against the hoods was a concerned citizen with a .45 (or a .475 Wildey Magnum…). It was time for the meek, and the scared to fight back. The worm had turned. The Vigilante Man’s time had come…
And he was taking back the streets one gang at a time.
Naturally, the success of the Death Wish series prompted a lot of copy cats and imitators – each, wielding their own vengeance inspiring title as they dispensed brutal justice to the streets. As well as a Death Wish (1974), II (1982), III (1985), IV (1987), and V (1994) , we had The Exterminator (1980) & II (1984), Fighting Back (1980), Defiance (1980), Ms .45 (1981), Class of 1984 (1982), Vigilante (1983), Savage Streets (1984), Tenement (1985), Enemy Territory (1987), to name but a few.
Of course, the Vigilante Man is working outside the law, and the cops can’t let that slide – even when he’s doin’ the man’s work for him, and our earnest keeper of the streets must watch his back, and be ever mindful of the fact that he doesn’t become what he set out to prevent – look not into the abyss, and all that… Even cowboy cops don’t like the Vigilante Man!
By the mid-late ‘80s, the street gangs had become less of a threat, and the vigilantes had their final victory in the fight. Death Wish III (1985) saw Kersey’s actions end up in all out urban warfare, and signalled the death knell for the street gang.
This swansong saw the Vigilante Man step back into the shadows, as he (and the cowboy cops) moved on to more bigger fish. Real gangsters – the Mob, terrorists, corrupt cops, and did his bit in the war on drugs. Death Wish IV (1987) & V (1994) see Paul Kersey go up against organised crime, The Punisher (1989) took on Italian mob and Yakuza, and Batman (1989) fought a mobbed up Joker.
And in a few short years the streets were lost again. This time, though, a different breed of gang was to the fore. The Gangstas. The Bloods and the Crips moved in, and these guys came with guns, a new set of beefs, and a new style of music. Vigilante Man – though still around, wasn’t quite as effective on these mean streets. From Colors (1988), Boyz n the Hood (1991), and Clockers (1995) to, Training Day (2001), and End of Watch (2012), the gangstas have prevailed. They have now become synonymous with the urban gang image – red and blue replacing the bandanas, denim flares and patched jackets of the ‘70s. The old gangs lost this turf war – a switchblade and a baseball bat no match for a Desert Eagle and an AK47.
So, there’s my brief, and undoubtedly incomplete view of ‘urban fear’. For a bright and shining (little-over-a) decade they stole our hearts. But why? Obviously, in Movieland, success breeds imitation. Death Wish was the leader in the field, and blueprint for many, but what made those stories capture our minds at that time?
Well, partly there was real life. Crime rates in the ‘70s and ‘80s, particularly in New York, were on the increase. Violent crime in particular had more than tripled since the mid ‘60s. Citizens were attacked, people were scared, and people wanted action, and their city, seemingly, could not control it. The criminal justice system wasn’t to be trusted. The streets and the subways were seen to be unsafe. High profile real life cases, such as Bernie Goetz, the “Subway Vigilante”, who, in 1984, shot four black youths on the Subway who he alleged were trying to rob him,
and groups like Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels (founded in 1977 as the Magnificent 13, and still around today), originally organised to combat widespread crime in the New York City Subways, stole the news headlines, and whipped up a media storm of supporters and detractors.
It’s no great surprise, then, that the Vigilante Man, bursting through the celluloid into this milieu of fear and anger, with his .475 Wildley blasting away the muggers and rapists, was so popular. He was the saviour. The audience proxy. The surrogate avenger who did everything we wished we could have done to those who frightened and threatened us - realising many a revenge fantasy. And here he was – larger than life – at a cinema near you!
How we’ve missed him!
But never fear, he hasn’t been too far away. He’s just been hiding in the shadows, biding his time.
And what’s this I see making an increasing comeback in the news? Chavs, hoodies, killer kids. Gangs of youths, with no moral compass attacking right minded folks with impunity. Organised crime rampant on the streets. Drugs, pushers, addicts, meth, bath-salts, rape, kidnapping, drive-bys, home invasions… The list of urban fear gets longer and longer, and so back comes our Vigilante Man.
Oh he’s back alright. The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-12), Death Sentence (2007), The Brave One (2007), Gran Torino (2008), Harry Brown (2009), Law Abiding Citizen (2009), Kick-Ass (2010) & II (2013), Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), etc. The look and feel might be a bit different, but he’s back…
Warriors, Baseball Furies, Riffs, Punks and Rogues, Souls, Street Thunder… Man, we miss you guys, but you had it comin’.
Vigilante Man, I salute you.
