Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes

“Beauty belongs to the sphere of the simple, the ordinary, whilst ugliness is something extraordinary, and there is no question but that every ardent imagination prefers in lubricity, the extraordinary to the commonplace”[i]– Marquis de Sade

In a bizarre series of events, a film by the schlock maestro Uwe Boll is topping streaming charts and has somehow garnered a 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[ii] There are many, notably Elon Musk, in the conservative elite who are promoting the film, hailing it as a perfect symbol of public anger with the Western political class and their lax approach on mass migration.

Boll’s Citizen Vigilante follows Michael Sanders, an ex-soldier and landlord who decides to go on a crusade against migrants, mainly Muslim migrants, culminating in him slaughtering the entire family of a rapist. This clip went viral on social media and Musk retweeted it. After the film was banned in Germany (it was not given an age rating, meaning that it cannot be shown in theaters, so it technically it was not banned), and with the blessing of Boll, he shared the full movie on X.[iii]

The film has all sorts of problems, however, contrary to what many on the Left or in the illiberal liberal class are raving about, its messaging and politics are not on the top of the list. Movies with noxious politics or ideas are not inherently irredeemable or unworthy of being taken seriously. Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom is a brutal yet potent film.[iv] Although it changes the setting of the story to the Italian Social Republic, controlled by fascists at the time, it is a faithful adaptation of Marque de Sade’s ideas of exploitation and testing the levels of brutality the viewers can accept. It was banned in many countries, including Australia, Britain, and New Zealand, though it was eventually unbanned. Many film critics refused to watch it, even after it was added to the Criterion Collection in 1993. Roger Ebert said that he owned a copy of the film, but that he would never watch it.[v]

Martyrs is a French film (though it was later remade in America, stripping it of what made it interesting) that depicts a ‘secret society’ which tortures women to ready them for a transcendental state to experience and learn about the afterlife.[vi] We see Anna, who, after taking revenge on a family who had tortured a friend she made at an orphanage year prior, discovers a torture chamber in the house. She is subsequently kidnapped and becomes a subject for the group. After making it to the end, she is flayed and in a state of what the group perceives to be an ecstasy that symbolizes the connection to the next world, she whispers something to Mademoiselle, the group’s leader, who then rushes to the rest of the group, who are eagerly awaiting a discovery from the world beyond. Mademoiselle instead shoots herself, and the film ends. As extreme as the violence is in this film, there are at least interesting ideas underpinning it and there is a point to it. Extremity has a place in all art. It just needs a reason for being. This is difficult to pull off, and a filmmaker like Boll, who is barely an artist, is evidently unable to do this.

Boll has been considered a filmmaker of the people before. He often references himself as one. There is only one adequate response to this absurd claim- what people? People from Mars? People who have never seen a film before? There have been myriad examples of filmmakers working outside the bounds of Hollywood and the mainstream who have importantly, shown talent and ability when it comes to making films. Boll has been at it for decades, and seemingly has not improved at anything, from writing to camerawork. Citizen Vigilante is plagued by many of the same issues that plague his earlier works; filler shots and sequences, pointless shots and plot points, and stock characters coupled with wooden acting that make it even more astounding that some on the right are grasping onto this film and pretending that it is revolutionary and is voicing the rage of many in countries like the UK and Hungary. It is absurd and inept from the start, where we are treated to a view of a nameless cityscape that is emblazoned with the title ‘Europe’, as if one could pick any city in Europe on a map at random and it would fit the setting for this film. Budapest is nothing like Paris.

This movie’s biggest problem is that is offensively boring, just like his other films. There is so much space wasted on zooming out and meandering conversations that do nothing to advance the plot, if there is one. For example, in the opening scene, a lot of time is spent following a mother and her son buying groceries and then, as they leave, watching her get stabbed in the neck by a migrant, with her bleeding to death as her son watches in horror. Opening a film like this, with the message that is conveying, is perfectly fine. It could even have been enrapturing. Horror movies often open with the titular monster slaying an unwitting person. However, Boll decides to spend endless time watching him beg for chocolate, then more food, to which his mother says no, we see her hand him her bag so she can find the cash to pay. She pays, they leave with their groceries and walk around and along the sidewalk, and then the migrant pops up and attacks her. After she is stabbed and as she is bleeding out, her son is weeping and it cuts to a news station, reporting on the attack and declaring that there is a flood of criminal migrants sweeping the streets of ‘Europe’. Most of this scene should never have been shot in the first place, let alone left on the cutting room floor.

Boll does this in all his films. In House of the Dead, based on the famous first-person shooter arcade game.[vii] The first part of the film explains how a rave was interrupted by a swarm of zombies. We follow a set of characters going to the rave, who we are introduced to in ridiculous fashion. The film is also often disrupted by bizarre, flashy clips of the original arcade game. In this first part of the film, nothing of interest happens. No conflict or story is even introduced. We simply follow a group of bland, wooden characters taking a boat trip to a mysterious island to go to a rave, which, as we see earlier, was far from popular or crowded. There are a few entertaining scenes at the end of the film, simply because they are so horrible, especially the cemetery shootout, but overall, there is so much time spent on nothing. Earlier in the film, as they are walking through the woods, we see a zombie spying on them from the trees. This amounts to nothing, as this zombie is never seen again. Ample time is spent following characters walking around, instead of just cutting to their arrival at a destination. The amount of filler, if cut, would make this a short film, if that, and judging by his interviews about this and his other films, his ego will forever prevent him from improving as a filmmaker.

There are many problems with the inherent message of Citizen Vigilante, however, before even getting into them, it is impossible to evade the film’s awfulness. The notion that it is controversial, buoyed by its being banned/censored in Germany, is inane and there have been myriad controversial films in the past that, even if they do not stand alone as timeless or classic, at least have an edge or point of interest. For example, I Spit on Your Grave is incredibly violent and gratuitous throughout, as it follows a woman who is raped and then proceeds to take revenge on her attackers.[viii] The film opens with her attack. It is a hellish, overly long scene that is unnecessary and its length does not add to the ultimate point of the film, however, the woman enacts retribution on her attackers one by one, in grotesque fashion, killing one by cutting off his genitals and leaving him to bleed out in a bathtub. In these acts of revenge, there is a semblance of an overarching idea and a story- a tale of violent revenge.

Other films have done a much better job of this theme since. A good example would be Law Abiding Citizen, in which a former CIA agent, Clyde Shelton, witnesses his wife and child get killed by two men, Rupert Ames and Clarence Darby.[ix] Ames is sentences to death by lethal injection, however, after seeing Clarence Darby escape justice in a courtroom, he kidnaps, poisons, and tortures him, capturing the spectacle of his dismemberment on video and sending it to the lawyer, Nick Rice, who got the killer off. His daughter watches the film thinking it’s the video of her dance recital. The rest of the movie is a game of cat and mouse between Clyde and Nick, in which he is taking revenge on not just the people who killed his family, but the entire system that he perceives as irreparably corrupt and unjust. Law Abiding Citizen has similar ideas to Citizen Vigilante, but it is far smarter, tighter, and it does not in any way glorify the man’s actions, nor does it outright defend the system that Nick represents (Other than Ebert and a few other critics, it has a very low score on Rotten Tomatoes) Had Boll taken the same idea, pent up rage at a system that he and other people feel is not just and is not protecting them from what they see as a migrant invasion, and composed a well written, compact and story driven film, then it could have been compelling or at the very least, it could have had the seeds that filmmakers could have taken and bloomed into better works. In essence, even if it did not work as well as Law Abiding Citizen, or other films about vigilantism like Boondock Saints or Death Wish, it could have been among films like I Spit on Your Grave that, though overall is a grotesque film, has the seedlings of a revenge film.

Unlike Medhi Hasan and others, my issue with Boll’s film is not its treatment of Muslims or migrants, as artists should have no limits on what they can create or depict, it is with his blatant incompetency and lack of interest in improving.[x] In the past, he has challenged his harshest critics to boxing matches, and some have taken him up on this.[xi] It may make for a flashy spectacle and entertainment, but it proves his pathetic inability to take criticism and consider that his critics may have some good points on his failings. He, strangely, often argues that because prominent film critics regard his work with utter disdain, he somehow has a claim to being a populist filmmaker, a brave man who makes films that represent the people, whether its people who hate Wall Street or who love video games like Bloodrayne and House of the Dead.[xii] He seems to feel that he is equal to filmmakers like Michael Bay or Paul W.S. Anderson, who are similarly mocked by most critics and derided as creators of schlock that are, despite this, popular and wildly entertaining. Boll is not like these two at all. He has made no movies that are remotely close to The Rock, Armageddon, Event Horizon, or even the entire Resident Evil series, which, although the films are not thought provoking or deep, are incredibly entertaining and it is a very successful franchise.

It is nauseating to watch clowns like Patrick Bet David, Lauren Chen, and especially Musk to promote a rubbish film by a pompous, entitled, ignorant, insipid film director and not realize that they are prompting a man who does not have a creative bone in his body.[xiii] All the people pushing this film should be forced to watch, in the style of Clockwork Orange, all his other films in succession. Only then might they understand the creative void they are championing.

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[i] Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom (Wilder Publications, 2008).

[ii] Rotten Tomatoes, “Citizen Vigilante | Rotten Tomatoes,” Movie Review Compiler, Rotten Tomatoes, 2026, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/citizen_vigilante.

[iii] Andrew Pulver and Ben Quinn, “Elon Musk Promotes ‘Anti-Migrant’ Armie Hammer Film with Free Download on X,” Film, The Guardian, June 30, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/30/elon-musk-anti-migrant-armie-hammer-film-free-download-citizen-vigilante.

[iv] Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini (United Artists, 1975).

[v] David Haglund, “Salo: Five Film Critics on Why You Have to See It,” News, Slate, October 4, 2011, https://slate.com/culture/2011/10/salo-five-film-critics-on-why-you-have-to-see-it.html; Jim Emerson, “From Zombies to Pasolini: Movies as Schoolyard Dares,” Film Criticism, Roger Ebert, December 14, 2012, https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/from-zombies-to-pasolini-movies-as-schoolyard-dares; The Criterion Collection, “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom,” The Criterion Collection, 1993, https://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom.

[vi] Martyrs, directed by Pascal Laugier (Wild Bunch, 2008).

[vii] House of the Dead, directed by Uwe Boll (Artisan Entertainment, 2003).

[viii] I Spit on Your Grave, directed by Meir Zarchi (The Jerry Gross Organization, 1978).

[ix] Law Abiding Citizen, directed by F. Gary Gray (Overture Films, 2009).

[x] Piers Morgan Uncensored et al., ‘WHY Is Elon Musk Promoting THIS?’ Citizen Vigilante Director vs Mehdi Hasan, 2026, 33:55, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2k4jy6AYY.

[xi] C. Rachel Katz, “An Interview with Filmmaker Uwe Boll -,” C. Rachel Katz, INFLUX Magazine, January 14, 2017, https://influxmagazine.com/an-interview-with-filmmaker-uwe-boll/; Diana Ringo, “Interview with Uwe Boll: Citizen Vigilante Director on Politics, Cinema, and the Future of Filmmaking,” Indie Cinema Magazine, June 13, 2026, https://indie-cinema.com/2026/06/interview-with-uwe-boll-citizen-vigilante-director-on-politics-cinema-and-the-future-of-filmmaking/.

[xii] PBD Podcast, The Truth Behind Citizen Vigilante – Uwe Boll | PBD Podcast | #829, 2026, 01:01:16, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8uqTJPuMvE; Armond White, “‘Citizen Vigilante’ Media Coverage: Hollywood Tries to Create Consensus Condemning Film,” News, The National Review, July 3, 2026, https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/07/citizen-vigilante-strikes-journalism-too/.

[xiii] Paul Arendt, “‘Worst Director in the World’ Challenges His Critics to a Fight,” Film, The Guardian, June 20, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/jun/20/news.features11.

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References

Arendt, Paul. “‘Worst Director in the World’ Challenges His Critics to a Fight.” Film. The Guardian, June 20, 2006. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/jun/20/news.features11.

Armond White. “‘Citizen Vigilante’ Media Coverage: Hollywood Tries to Create Consensus Condemning Film.” News. The National Review, July 3, 2026. https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/07/citizen-vigilante-strikes-journalism-too/.

C. Rachel Katz. “An Interview with Filmmaker Uwe Boll -.” C. Rachel Katz. INFLUX Magazine, January 14, 2017. https://influxmagazine.com/an-interview-with-filmmaker-uwe-boll/.

David Haglund. “Salo: Five Film Critics on Why You Have to See It.” News. Slate, October 4, 2011. https://slate.com/culture/2011/10/salo-five-film-critics-on-why-you-have-to-see-it.html.

F. Gary Gray, dir. Law Abiding Citizen. Overture Films, 2009.

Jim Emerson. “From Zombies to Pasolini: Movies as Schoolyard Dares.” Film Criticism. Roger Ebert, December 14, 2012. https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/from-zombies-to-pasolini-movies-as-schoolyard-dares.

Meir Zarchi, dir. I Spit on Your Grave. The Jerry Gross Organization, 1978.

Pascal Laugier, dir. Martyrs. Wild Bunch, 2008.

PBD Podcast. The Truth Behind Citizen Vigilante – Uwe Boll | PBD Podcast | #829. 2026. 01:01:16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8uqTJPuMvE.

Pier Paolo Pasolini, dir. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. United Artists, 1975.

Piers Morgan Uncensored, Medhi Hasan, Uwe Boll, and Piers Morgan. ‘WHY Is Elon Musk Promoting THIS?’ Citizen Vigilante Director vs Mehdi Hasan. 2026. 33:55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2k4jy6AYY.

Pulver, Andrew, and Ben Quinn. “Elon Musk Promotes ‘Anti-Migrant’ Armie Hammer Film with Free Download on X.” Film. The Guardian, June 30, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/30/elon-musk-anti-migrant-armie-hammer-film-free-download-citizen-vigilante.

Ringo, Diana. “Interview with Uwe Boll: Citizen Vigilante Director on Politics, Cinema, and the Future of Filmmaking.” Indie Cinema Magazine, June 13, 2026. https://indie-cinema.com/2026/06/interview-with-uwe-boll-citizen-vigilante-director-on-politics-cinema-and-the-future-of-filmmaking/.

Rotten Tomatoes. “Citizen Vigilante | Rotten Tomatoes.” Movie Review Compiler. Rotten Tomatoes, 2026. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/citizen_vigilante.

Sade, Marquis de. The 120 Days of Sodom. Wilder Publications, 2008.

The Criterion Collection. “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom.” The Criterion Collection, 1993. https://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom.

Uwe Boll, dir. House of the Dead. Artisan Entertainment, 2003.