Bullet Points: Act of Vengeance (1986)

Director Don Siegel revealed in his book, A Siegel Film: An Autobiography, that he asked Charles Bronson to shave off his mustache for 1977’s Telefon. Bronson’s response… “No mustache, no Bronson”.

But it wasn’t a deal breaker nine years later, when Bronson would lose his trademark mustache for the HBO Premiere Film, Act of Vengeance. Act of Vengeance was based on Trevor Armbrister’s novel about the real life murders of Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his family…

• They Say It’s Your Birthday: The movie begins with Jock Yablonski (Charles Bronson, Death Wish) and his wife Margaret (Ellen Burstyn, The Exorcist) returning from the movies where Jock just had to endure a Swedish film that did not have his name written all over it… but this night out was merely a diversion so Jock’s friends and family could gather at his home and throw him a surprise birthday party! Jock, an administrator with the United Coal Miners Union, finds himself talking shop with his loved ones who still can’t believe that Jock was not selected as union president, but Tony Boyle was. Jock shrugs it off and says Tony’s not that bad…

• Boyling Point: But Jock was being kind, Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…) is that bad. First, Tony asks Jock to do some creative accounting to help make up for some shortages in the union’s pension fund. But that’s nothing compared to what follows… 80 miners are killed in a tragic accident in West Virginia. Tony arrives to address the press and the families of the miners and he offers very little sympathy, instead hypes up the union and talks about how the miners knew what they were getting into when they took the job and deflects any criticism that the mine may have been unsafe. This gets Jock’s blood boiling and after he is tasked with representing the union at the funeral for the men who died in the mine, he decides the United Coal Miners Union needs to be cleaned up and he’s the man to do it.
• The Campaign Trail: Tony Boyle is none too happy about Jock Yablonski running against him and trying to unseat him as the union president… even hurling some ethnic jokes in Jock’s direction. But at first Boyle looks at Jock’s aspirations as nothing more than a nuisance, but when it becomes apparent that Jock may actually be a threat to his office, Tony Boyle starts making plans to eliminate Jock. Boyle calls Albert Pass (Alan North, The Long Kiss Goodnight), Pass meets up with Silous Huddleston (Hoyt Axton, Gremlins), who suggests his daughter’s loser husband Paul and some of his lowlife friends for the job.

• You Get What You Pay For: Paul and his “friends” aren’t exactly professional assassins and they fail miserably time and time again… especially Claude (Maury Chaykin, Iron Eagle II). Claude was completely useless.. which made Maury Chaykin a perfect casting choice. But eventually Paul and Claude bring in Buddy Martin (Keanu Reeves, Speed) and Buddy ends up being the catalyst they need to get the job done. After staking out the Yablonski home, they move in, in the dark of night and then it happens, Keanu’s Buddy Martin shoots Bronson’s Jock Yablonski dead in his home… Jock’s wife Margaret and daughter Charlotte are also shot so there are no witnesses. When I first saw this movie years ago it didn’t really dawn on me that I basically saw John Wick take out Paul Kersey… and honestly that may be one of the only characters I could believe would have the ability to take out Paul Kersey, but I digress.
• Closure: The movie obviously doesn’t end on a high note, but again the movie was based on a true story and the Yablonski family actually were murdered as depicted. But there is some solace that those that conspired to kill Jock and his family were caught and brought to justice and we learn what happened to each of the conspirators before the end credits roll.

With a name like Act of Vengeance (and misleading cover art like above) it would be easy to expect another in the long line of Charles Bronson revenge films. But Act of Vengeance looks nothing like Bronson’s other 80s offerings and I am not saying that because Bronson shaved off his mustache (which I assume he agreed to since the real life Jock Yablonski was clean shaven). The action is minimal and very little of it involves Bronson. Bronson probably has more lines in Act of Vengeance than two or three of his Cannon movies combined allowing him to flex his dramatic action muscles.

Wilford Brimley, who also worked with Bronson in 10 to Midnight and Borderline, made for a surprisingly good antagonist. Seeing a young Keanu Reeves in one of his earliest film roles was fun. And one could argue that the rest of the supporting cast was a step above from your typical Bronson film of the era.

Are these Bonus Bullet Points a step above?

• AKA: Act of Vengeance was released as Local 323 in West Germany.
• Words to Live By: “My next birthday, take me to see a picture with a lot of action!” – Jock Yablonski
• Familiar Face: Ellen Barkin, who plays Annette Gilly, the daughter of Silous Huddleston, who uses her feminine wiles to convince her sad sack husband into agreeing to kill Jock Yablonski. I’ll always remember Barkin from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.
• Disturbing Quote: “The fucking day John L. Lewis handed me this union, I saw a bug in your ass.” – Tony Boyle
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Maury Chaykin lose his shit during target practice, then Act of Vengeance is the movie for you.
• That Stinks: “You smell like diarrhea or something.” – Paul Gilly