Whither the Vietnam vet? A staple of ‘70s and ‘80s action movies, the bloodthirsty ex-POW has all but disappeared from today’s cinema landscape. There are a few reasons for this- for example, improved PTSD treatment and greater public support have given troops (slightly) less to be angry about in the Iraq era. That’s a good thing, but you might still get nostalgic for the bad old days when you see 1981’s The Exterminator (content coming soon), new on DVD from our friends at Synapse Films.
Made just before home video started to put 42nd street on the defensive, the best word for this movie is “rough.”- The language is rough, the violence (if not necessarily the gore) is rough, and, perhaps most importantly, the setting is rough. This movie was shot on the mean streets of New York back when those streets were actually mean, especially the dark, depraved recesses of the Deuce. Times Square is practically a character in The Exterminator, with some knockout location shooting; you can practically smell the jizz rags in scenes shot in real flophouses, peep shows, and fifty-cent brothels.
The hero of this tawdry tale is weak-chinned schmuck John Eastland (Robert Ginty). John is a Vietnam vet who works at a slaughterhouse (of course), and after his best friend is beaten into a coma by thugs, he decides to use his prolific professional killing skills to get revenge first on the gang who nearly killed his friend, and then the criminal element generally. Ginty is a pretty nondescript guy, which we think actually brings an interesting dimension to his action-hero character. But the way the movie handles his transformation from common man to larger-than-life badass The Exterminator sometimes stretched our suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. Hey, kinda like The Exterminator!
The Exterminator mows down everyone he even suspects of being a criminal, a sort of “head for an eye” approach that walks a fine line between psychopath and Wile E. Coyote. For example, in one sequence, a group of teen thugs beats up an old lady and receives death by blowtorch from The Exterminator. In another, The Exterminator kidnaps a mob boss and sends him through an industrial meat grinder. Are we supposed to laugh? Cheer? Be horrified? Depends on where you’re coming from, I guess.
The cops, the rich, the government- all authority figures who returning ‘Nam veterans felt betrayed and abandoned them- are painted as cartoon villains. The only “good people” in this movie are the vets and the little people they protect; we wouldn’t be surprised to find out the writer/director was a veteran himself, as the movie reflects all the values (kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out) and fixations (like the fetishistic scenes of guns being assembled) of the stereotypical Vietnam vet. “Look, New York is a war zone,” the movie seems to be saying, “and in war, you do what you have to do.” But if you’re not a soldier, it can be tough to take this at face value, and thus to take the movie seriously. At the same time, it’s too much of a “roughie” to sit back, pound a few brews, and have a laugh.
In terms of nudity, The Exterminator starts off with some gang moll mams 20 minutes in when a girl takes her shirt off at a pot party, and gets way, way seedier from there. A hooker clad in fanny-tastic green satin hot pants is roughed up by a detective, and streetwalking angel Vonnabelle Roocke is burnt by a sautering iron in a “chickenhawk” den when she refuses to join in on molesting a teenage boy. Seedy enough for ya? Then you’ll like this movie.
The Exterminator comes from an interesting perspective and a very interesting (and lost) time and place, making great use of its ‘70s Times Square location. A time capsule in many ways, The Exterminator has been lovingly restored by Synapse, which (as always) has loaded up the DVD/Blu-ray combo pack with extras. Highly recommended if you’re already interested in ‘70s New York exploitation and/or "roughies" and vigilante flicks, but otherwise- well, The Exterminator is a movie for hawks. Doves need not apply.
