Excellent, Without a doubt!!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

If anyone is wondering if "Vigilante Force" is going to be worth a viewing, just look at three things: 1) Jan Michael-Vincent; 2) Kris Kristofferson, and 3) made in 1976. Now that is the formula for a great time! The plot is simple: Kris and his war buddies are recruited by the town to clean it up, but then rule it with an iron fist (and guns, and even a bazooka). His bro Jan doesn't take kindly to this, and it all leads up the the proverbial Big Showdown.Now, when a film starts off with goofy redneck music while scenes of violence are happening, you know it's the 70's and you know you're in for a good time. There's tons of gunfire and fighting as well as bar brawls and heck, even a rootin' tootin' cockfight.The girls are absolutely gorgeous - Bernadette Peters and Victoria Principal are at their hottest.As for the cast - this is a flick with tons of familiar 70's faces, just when you think you've seen them all, another one pops up. I mean heck, even Dick freaking Miller is in this for a few seconds! And plenty of others you don't know the names of but who you definitely will recognize.Kristofferson is an actor of limited talent, playing every role he gets pretty much the exact same way, but it's all good because he's always fun to watch. Jan is always ready to mix it up, and is also a blast to watch. "Vigilante Force" is definitely a great movie to eat half a pizza to.

I was in elementary school when I last read it, but "Vigilante Force" actually reminded me of the classic biblical story of Cain and Abel; the harsh and bloody battle between the strong and treacherous brother versus the physically weaker but forthright brother. George Armitage, the hugely underrated cult director of "Gross Pointe Blank" and "Miami Blues", transferred this basic given from the Biblical era to the trashy 70's and a small Californian town setting. When the previously dormant oil deposits nearby are re-opened again, the charming little town of Elk Hills all of a sudden becomes a lawless boom town. The local authorities instruct the town's mechanic Ben Arnold to call in his elderly brother Aaron for help. Aaron is a Vietnam veteran as well as a local legend, so they draft him and a handful of his Tour of Duty buddies to come and restore the law and order in Elk Hills. Aaron and C° quickly rid the town of all the scum, but then subsequently take over all the illegal activities themselves. The alleged heroes start up a felonious gambling network in town and even force the local merchants to participate in mafia practices. It takes the town of Elk Hills, and particularly younger brother Ben, a very long time to realize their new deputies are bigger criminals than they dealt with before and even longer to stand up against them. "Vigilante Force" is an interesting albeit heavily flawed mixture between urban western, guerrilla action and family melodrama. The tone of the film is very uneven, as Armitage interchanges wild & virulent bar fights (the absence of a Buddy Holly record in the jukebox is enough to drive these hicks insane, apparently) with overlong and dull morality speeches. Luckily there are a couple of powerful and memorable moments, like the cowardly assassination of a pivot character and the extremely explosive climax, to help "Vigilante Force" qualify as precious drive-in exploitation heritage. And the catchy banjo soundtrack helps a great deal as well to achieve this, of course. The best performances are given by Kris Kristofferson as the corrupt and totally unreliable anti-hero Aaron and Bernadette Peeters as a cocky but down-on-her-luck barroom singer. Personally I'm a tremendously big fan of Jan-Michael Vincent, especially of the cult hits he made around that era like "Shadow of the Hawk" and "White Line Fever", but here in this film he mainly just drives around town. Seriously, his red pick-up trucks deserves top-billing as well. For the seekers of hidden cult accomplishments

The title sums it up. Vigilante --- yes experienced hired man to clean up a town. Force --- they become a powerful opponent that succumbs to own personal gain. "Anybody having a good time. Gotta be breaking the law. Let's bust them". This is what they were cracking out during the period, as "Vigilante Force" is purely a rough and ready exploitation slice out of the 70s drive-in market. A small rural Californian town is skyrocketed by crime and violence due the boom of their nearby oil reserve. Ben Arnold turns to his war-hero brother Aaron (who doesn't have a great past with the town's folk) to lead a vigilante force to rid this problem by restoring law and order. At first this is what he does, but soon his back to his old ways as he abuses his power and becomes what he was their to rid. Ben shakes it off at first thinking that the town's folk aren't giving Aaron a fair go, but eventually they come to blows when Ben finally realises what Aaron is really up to. Typical fodder, but accommodatingly well done and shining through its material is a traditional old-west build-up with an operatic closing between the brothers. Lined up is a bang-up cast of Kris Kristofferson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Bernadette Peters, Victoria Principal, Brad Dexter and David Doyle. Kristofferson ideally fits in the role as Aaron, rugged but with a dark underlining and Vincent is sympathetic as the well-meaning, clean-cut Ben. A doll face Peter is charmingly angelic as Aaron's squeeze and Principal is spirited as Ben's flame. Andrew Stevens shows up, as well as Charles Cyphers and Dick Millar appears in a throwaway cameo. Director / writer George Armitage's sufficiently tight and hardy handling keeps it moving at a fast clip, where the sharply bright narrative (it's all politics -- involving greed) is always busy (maybe a little too so at times with its tit for tat and scheming with a touch of corruption) and the intense action is nothing but brutal and chaotic. It really does get outrageous towards the dying stages. It's war! Bullets, explosions and leaping stunts galore… where it does go out on a bang. Just can't get enough fire power. The lean photography likes to invoke that guerrilla style when it wants to get up and personal, but also it establishes the sunbaked backdrop accordingly too.

I wonder if this mid 70s drive-in actioner is still on the Bernadette Peters CV? near Sunday IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE? Perhaps MGM saw this and decided she HAD to be in PENNIES FROM HEAVEN....perhaps the Broadway casting office for her recent role in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN designed posters that read: "Bernadette (VIGILANTE FORCE) Peters now on Broadway in Irving Berlin's greatest musical triumph....." it's all as valid as "Stephen Boyd, star of BEN HUR now in his biggest film: JUMBO"............ anyway...In the mid 70s, wasn't Jan Michael Vincent a major star! There was legions of action fans ready to roll up to the drive in and not molest their girlfriends because they would actually watch all the film! VIGILANTE FORCE is quite a brutal 70s action thriller and has some astonishing stunt fights with the added horror of baseball bats as weapons. I personally was really shocked by these wild fights and found them really upsetting. I think today this film deserves re appraisal for capturing the feel of tough nasty rural town lawlessness and drunken lout rule ...and all in a fantastic 70s time. The look of this film alone would get a big willing audience. Today these films don't exist instead we get disgusting mutilation crap like THE DEVILS REJECTS or WOLF CREEK. In the 70s this action drive in movie was a real action movie, a modern western with trucks and Jack Daniel bars and chicks in teeny weeny denim hotpants. Great fun. Occasionally thumping but not horrible. There is an unforgettable early scene in this film where the boys screech to town in their pickup truck and spin into the main street... it is a jamboree of hooter'n and holler'n and dust and yellin and screamin..all in camera crane sweep.. a whole street of wild Friday afternoon drinkin and crashing! What a stunt vista! unforgettable after 30 years...and a great way to establish what we are in for. DUKES OF HAZZARD meets BUCKTOWN. Hell then breaks loose even more...and poor Miss Peters has to dodge the baseball bats while trying to have a relationship. VIGILANTE FORCE was part of a great series of films - often most with JMV as well - like THE STREETFIGHTER, or BITE THE BULLET or WHITE LINE FEVER., BABY BLUE MARINE, BUSTER AND BILLIE, ALL THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN etc...all well worth seeing again for their purity in presentation...as lean as a Republic serial and as compelling. In the 50s there was a film called THE PHENIX CITY STORY made by Allied Artists as a noir drama. It too has similar themes in an urban setting, and is distinguished by it's tough ideology for the time.