Act of Vengeance (1986)

ACT OF VENGEANCE is a 1986 TV movie, based on the true story of a man who stood up to a coal miner's union in 1969, accusing them of corruption and becoming the new president in the process. Unfortunately, his stand against his former colleagues made him plenty of enemies, some of whom decided to have him eliminated.For the most part, this film plays out exactly as you'd expected a television movie to. It's not an action film at all - Bronson is more of a political figure than a hero here - but it doesn't really cut it as a thriller or drama either. I appreciate that it's a true story - that's the only thing it has going for it - but as a film it's pretty much a failure, with the story particularly lacking interest.The story starts out well but around the halfway mark it really starts to plod. There's way too much of the drawn-out, back-and-forth scenes of the would-be assassins attempting to complete their job. Such moments are quickly tiresome as is the unusual way that some of the scenes involving these murky murderers are played for laughs. The worst parts of the movie are a couple of ill-advised and excruciating sex scenes between a youthful Ellen Barkin and the guy playing her husband. The producers do well to cast recognisable and reliable faces in supporting roles (including Wilford Brimley, Ellen Burstyn, Hoyt Axton, Maury Chaykin, and a young Keanu Reeves) but this is nevertheless one of Bronson's worst.

I can only imagine how perplexed fans of Charles Bronson were, after seeing at their video store the title of this movie and the box cover art, and discovering when bringing the movie home that the movie is far from an action movie. It's instead a serious drama based on a true story, with Bronson playing a determined (and non violent) man struggling to bring change. And Bronson does pretty well in this serious role - you can believe that this person really cares and is passionate about his quest to bring change. His performance compensates for the fact that the role isn't quite fully written - the character of Jack Yablonski isn't given quite enough time to explain his feelings or motivations. But the movie is well crafted in other areas. The period detail is fine, Wilford Brimley makes for a slimy (but believable) Tony Boyle, and there isn't a boring or tedious moment anywhere in the movie. Though I suspect a book telling of this true life incident would be a lot more informative, the movie is acceptable for those who have a mild interest in the United Mine Workers' Union going-ons in the 1960s.

This is based on real events and follows the story of the union for coal miners and the politics, greed, and dishonesty involved. When a mine explodes in West Virginia and many miners are killed the president of the union goes down and makes a speech about how it wasn't the unions fault. One of his men gets fed up with his lack of humanity for the miners and he runs against him for president so he can once again give the union back to the workers. The president of course is crooked and hires a young man to kill him. The young man hires a couple of thugs and goes out to complete his mission, and the politics of the game all come back and catch up with these crooks in the end.I really love Charles Bronson and had never seen this movie before. It is a different style of acting for Bronson and there is no gun in his hand. He is actually a sweet innocent man in this film. This movie had a great story based on real events. It is hard to pull such a movie off and most times they are never perfect to watch. You cant really add juicy events that didn't happen and you can never tell the whole story and do it justice. This story and the truths behind these events are great and this movie couldn't pack in all the details into a feature film. They did a great job none the less.I must say I loved the cast which featured heavyweights Bronson, Wilford Brimley (playing a bad guy - the crooked union president), Ellen Burnstyn as Bronsons wife and Hoyt Anxton and Ellen Barkin playing smaller roles and also a very young Keanu Reeves in one of his earliest roles, perhaps his first I am not sure.I hated the song the movie started out with, that was one of the worst things, and I admit it was hard to accept the ending, even though it was based on real events, it still wasn't the ending I wanted. It was one of those movies that spends the last five minutes making you read what happened to everyone, and you kind of wanted to see some of it happen.I liked the film quite a bit, its a good little drama...I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

What a wonderful surprise, Charles Bronsonn actually acts a little in this fine HBO film as union rebel Jock Yablonski whose wish to change the UMW cost him his life. Ellen Burstyn is wonderful as his doomed wife and Wilford Brimley is sinister as corrupt union President Tony Boyle. The guys who killed Yablonski and his family were first class idiots who were immediately arrested. They were the dumbest assassins you can imagine.