Ulu Grosbard
Vigilato speciale

There is an opportunity. There is a betrayal. So, there is a revenge.

Max Dembo is a lonely man when he gets out of prison. He probably feels like the loneliest man in the world. After six years spent behind bars, he has decided to make peace with society. He finds a shelter, gets a job, and finds Jenny, who will stay by his side for a long time. He provides his contact information to the parole officer overseeing his release. But the officer betrays him and leaves him in a cell for three weeks over a trifle. Those in power must exercise it to suppress any urge to rebel in their subordinates. If you don’t crush, you get crushed. Finally, however, when the officer lets him out, Dembo takes his revenge.

There is another opportunity. And there is another betrayal. Finally, there is another revenge.

Max Dembo is now a criminal. He has robbed a convenience store. He has robbed a pawn shop. He has robbed a bank. To rob a jewelry store, Max brings along trusty Jerry, who takes care of the staff and customers, and Willy, his close friend, who waits in the car. At least, he should. While Max and Jerry are inside the jewelry store, Willy disappears. The robbery succeeds, but it costs Jerry and a police officer their lives. Dembo becomes a highly wanted man, but before he leaves the city, he takes his revenge.

Ulu Grosbard’s film starts from Edward Bunker's novel Come una bestia feroce, from which the screenwriters, together with the book’s author, cut, summarize, and alter the story, removing and overlapping characters, leaving out themes and thoughts, giving life to this Straight time or Vigilato speciale (1978). It lacks the inner conflict, the tragic dilemma that oppresses the book’s protagonist, and the error that leads to the catastrophic “fratricidio”.

The film, instead, keeps the city of Los Angeles in the foreground and shows us its streets; and then the cheap restaurants and diners, nightclubs and illegal gambling halls, hotels and shacks, bus stations and police stations.

It maintains the theme of violence: in the dialectic between the protagonist and the institutions, violence quickly takes the place of the words that Dembo tries to use to keep his past at bay. He speaks honestly, expresses himself with diplomacy, seeks mediation. But in that world, those in power do not negotiate; they exercise their power to suppress any urge to rebel in their subordinates, and the logic of oppression leaves no room for attempts at mediation or understanding the individual beyond the social label. If you don't crush, you get crushed.

There is the music: light-hearted, but with heroic tones, the film’s theme composed by David Shire that accompanies us from the beginning to the end. And finally, there is the excellence of the actors: apart from Dustin Hoffman, performer of some of the most iconic anti-heroes of the new Hollywood and the face of Max Dembo, there are the notable performances of Theresa Russell, whose Jenny somewhat anticipates Tracy from Manhattan (1979), and M. Emmet Walsh, who gives depth and ambiguity to the magistrate’s cruelty.

A beautiful film: a must for those who love quel cinema di quegli anni, it will leave everyone who dedicates two hours of their time to it with more than just something in return.