LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN

US, 2009, 109 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Bruce Mc Gill, Colm Meaney, Viola Davis.
Directed by F. Gary Gray.

'Disturbing' is probably the word I would settle on to describe the effect of Law Abiding Citizen. It is also unbelievable (though in these days of terrorist attacks and the availability of destructive technology to wreak havoc has to be kept in mind). And, by way of warning for an audience which may be interested in the theme of crime, vengeance, law and justice, another word to describe some murder sequences is 'horrible'. Two of them, in particular, could be upsettingly macabre and blood-soaked.

This is another citizen vengeance film (a long way from Death Wish). It also contrasts with the more local and, in comparison, restrained violence of the British revenge and justice drama with Michael Caine, Harry Brown, released at the same time as this film.

We are in no doubt from the beginning that revenge is in store with the very brutal killing of an engineer's wife and daughter. When the prosecutor makes a deal with one of the accused (the brutal one) to testify against the other. The engineer objects to doing deals with murderers, especially the star prosecutor who is highly ambitious and arrogant. The engineer goes off broken and smouldering, leading to a deranged mind that targets the whole justice system and its failures. But, ten years pass.

When the engineer begins his revenge, he does it, as we say, with a vengeance – and that is an understatement. It all becomes mysterious as he does not conceal what he does and lands in jail, abusing the judge in a bail hearing case and confining himself to prison where he makes deals with the prosecutor which, when broken, lead to brutal deaths. The mayor is bluntly and dominatingly angry and closes down the city. How can the killer be stopped?

If that is intriguing, by all means see the film and how it works out, allowing for the aforementioned cautions and for the always ambiguous responses elicited by stories where an individual, a law abiding citizen, goes out to singlehandedly wreak execution on those who seem to have escaped the justice system. One of the reasons for seeing it, despite the increasingly incredible plot developments (and probable impossibilities), is that it is very well made and tests audience sympathies for the engineer and also for the prosecutor – and fighting against time limits and impositions.

They are played, rather quietly and in a softly-spoken way, very effectively by Gerard Butler as the engineer and Jamie Foxx as the prosecutor. A very strong supporting cast includes Bruce Mc Gill as the DA, Colm Meaney as an old-style detective and Viola Davis in a cameo as the more-than-no-nonsense mayor.

F. Gary Gray uses Philadelphia as a character in the film. It looks striking – with reminders of the founding fathers' establishing of the justice system there. And the pace is quite intense, moving quickly over the plot improbabilities and testing the audience responses to the arrogance of each character.

'Disturbing' is the word used at the beginning of this review. 'Frightening' is the word for the end. The fact that such destruction could be wrought by an individual taps into fears of terrorism these days – and the fear that authorities and threatened individuals never know when and where they could be killed.


1. The title and expectations: law, justice?

2. The American film tradition, Death Wish, Avengers? The popularity of such films as the Saw series, punishments, torture and revenge, madness?

3. The Philadelphia settings, the aerial photographs of the city, the historical buildings, the War of Independence, the Declaration? American principles?

4. The film as a critique of ambition and the law, loopholes, corruption in the system?

5. The prologue: Clyde at home, playing with his daughter, his wife, the family? A strong man? Derby and his accomplice, entry, violence, deaths?

6. Derby and his accomplice, his malice, the weakness of the accomplice, his being sentenced? The deal with Nick? Prison, out? Clyde following him, trapping him, the warehouse, the torture, the vicious man killed viciously?

7. Clyde, his background, the CIA, ten years planning his revenge? His ingenuity? The technology?

8. Nick, the ambitious lawyer, his deal, the lack of evidence, dealing with the criminal, the injustice to the ordinary citizen, the courts failing? The judge, Derby and his sentence?

9. Nick and the intervening ten years, his work, district attorney, the investigators?

10. Clyde and his brutality, the contraptions, his traps, torture? The gory deaths and the visuals? The effect on him?

11. Clyde, the killing of Derby, his signed confession, the meetings with Nick, the discussions, going to prison?

12. Clyde in prison, his violence towards his cellmate and killing him? His demands for comfort, amenities, the dinner? In return for information?

13. His bargains, the information, the defence lawyer, his being buried alive?

14. The judge, hard, death by phone? The carpark, the workers and investigators, the explosions and deaths?

15. Clyde, unrepentant, the discovery of the tunnels, his getting in and out, the information for his killings, the precise set-ups? The remote control?

16. The police staff, the lawyers, the investigators? Their particular characters and interactions? District attorney, leading detective? Following the clues, finding the corpses? Their attitudes?

17. Nick, in the cell, waiting for Clyde, confronting him? Planting the bomb, the explosion?

18. The mayor, her tough attitudes, her demands?

19. The frightening technology in the 21st century?

20. The use of the torture tradition in film to critique inadequacies of social justice and the law?