| Act of Vengeance | |
|---|---|
 Official VHS cover | |
| Genre | Biography Crime Drama |
| Written by | Trevor Armbrister Scott Spencer |
| Directed by | John Mackenzie |
| Starring | Charles Bronson Ellen Burstyn Wilford Brimley |
| Theme music composer | Frankie Miller |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Frank Konigsberg Larry Sanitsky |
| Producers | Anthony Kramreither Jack Clements Iris Sawyer |
| Production locations | Nemacolin, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Toronto |
| Cinematography | Phil Meheux |
| Editors | Malcolm Cooke Steve Singleton |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Production companies | Frank Konigsberg Productions Lorimar Telepictures HBO Premiere Films Telepictures Productions Telepix Canada Corp. |
| Original release | |
| Network | HBO |
| Release | April 20, 1986 (1986-04-20) |
Act of Vengeance is a 1986television movie starringCharles Bronson,Ellen Burstyn,Wilford Brimley, andKeanu Reeves in an early role.[1]
The movie is based on the book,Act of Vengeance by Trevor Armbrister, a fact-based story about the corruption that occurred during theUnited Mine Workers' presidential elections in 1969.[2] The film also portrayed the murder ofJoseph "Jock" Yablonski.[3]
For theHBO television film, Bronson acted against type and said "it's a complete departure for me, I'm not wearing a moustache, and I'm not carrying a gun. I don't perform any violence in this film."[4] He also explained since he didn't act for television in a long time, he had to think a lot about it before accepting which he did partly because of his background in mining.[5] For his commitment on this project, Bronson dropped out of a lead role inThe Delta Force (1986).[6]
It premiered on April 20, 1986 onHBO.[7] The film was released on VHS byHBO/Cannon Video.[8] However, it has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray byWarner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Greg Burliuk of theKingston Whig-Standard said it is "a crackling good thriller". Furthermore he praised the actors and the direction.[9]
Robert DiMatteo ofThe Advocate-Messenger praised Bronson acting against type. He felt that Mackenzie's direction was especially good when handling the antagonists by saying "he brings out a disturbing comic cretenism in his villains".[10]
Michael Walch ofThe Province felt that the movie didn't have a good balance between the Yablonski and Paul Gilly's story and was out of focus. He thought Bronson was miscast, and characters that surround Paul Gilly reduced the quality of the performance of actorRobert Schenkkan.[11]
Joel Pisetzner ofThe Record said "it is not a bad movie, merely an incredible underachiever." He felt that Mackenzie made Yablonski too much of a Saint instead of a man hence his story is less interesting than the one of his killer Paul Gilly. While praising the acting, especially of Barkin and Brimley, he also felt many elements of the story were unexplored.[12]
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