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THE EXTERMINATOR (1980)
SYNERGY DVD (region 2)
d. James Glickenhaus; pr. Mark Buntzman; scr. James Glickenhaus; ph. Robert M. Baldwin; ed. Corky O'Hara; m. Joe Renzetti;cast. Robert Ginty, Christopher George, Samantha Eggar; (104 mins)
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Vigilantes and Vietnam Veterans in New York Exploitation

The early 1980s were an interesting time for exploitation movies. 

In disreputable, so-called “grindhouse” cinemas, the usual violent fodder began to reveal an undercurrent of disturbing, self-conscious social and ethical criticism, albeit often cloaked in a cynical, despairingly nihilistic humour.  More often than not, the directors that thrived in this field were critically savaged, neglected because of the dominant perception that their films openly and deliberately wallowed in sensationalism, graphic violence and obscene gore with any social criticism as a mere pretence.  James Glickenhaus was one such director, working consistently in action-exploitation alongside such equally unheralded figures as Gary Sherman, William Lustig and Frank Henenlotter.  Though Glickenhaus would eventually move into film distribution, his early films were surprising box-office successes and he often flirted with the mainstream, though never quite arrived there.  However, if one were to name a film that perhaps most epitomizes the sleazy exploitation movie of the brief 1980s boom, then Glickenhaus’ contentious The Exterminator is a solid and worthy candidate.  The film’s release of was everywhere surrounded by controversy, with several scenes in particular posing a nightmare for the British and Australian censors of the time, as the film was widely reported in news agencies in these countries as representing a new kind of violent nadir in American cinema.

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Synopsis (contains spoilers)

The Exterminator begins with a harrowing Vietnam War prologue exploring the inhumanity precipitated by this most abhorrent collapse of morality. 

Some time later an emotionally scarred Vietnam veteran (Robert Ginty in his debut) works at a meat plant in New York City with a friend (Steve James), himself a former soldier.  They interrupt some minor criminal goings-on and on the way home, James is brutally beaten.  When Ginty visits James in hospital, he is outraged to discover that his friend has been paralysed by a vicious street gang.  Knowing that his friend’s family is in a dire predicament, financially and otherwise, Ginty then turns into a vigilante, going after the gang members one by one to honour his friend’s memory.  Soon, however, the more successful he is at his intended vengeance, the less content he is with its inherent limits.  Thus, he takes it upon himself to become a one-man justice machine, going after organized crime (to get money for his friend’s family) and trying to rid the city streets of its most monstrous offenders – paedophile rapists and torturers.  His exploits eventually come to the attention of a wearied police detective (Christopher George) who begins to investigate.  George in turn develops a begrudging respect for the vigilante although he is sworn to apprehend the violent avenger.  It is perhaps inevitable that the paths of these two men, and their respective codes of justice, will eventually intersect directly.

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Nihilistic Ethics in the Urban Wasteland

The people Ginty kills may be worthless scum but he derives too much pleasure in murder, perhaps a sign of his post-Vietnam psychosis. 

Even George is more interested in other things than the murder of these lowlifes, though eventually admires Ginty’s self-righteousness.  In that, it recalls the ethical dialectic achieved by Michael Winner in the seminal Death Wish.  But Ginty is a more ambiguous figure than was Charles Bronson in that film, his cute puppy-dog droopiness and blue eyes at odds with his amoral delight in retributive violence.  Indeed, though Death Wish is the obvious inspiration for The Exterminator, Glickenhaus refers also to Taxi Driver in tying the vigilante to the psychotic Vietnam veteran – a character type that emerged before American film could directly confront the war itself.  Thus, on one level the film considers the amoral violence of Vietnam a conditioning experience for Ginty, who when presented with a comparable dilemma to that depicted in the opening, merely resorts to his learned behaviour.  At home, he is a nobody, who finds purpose, honour and even a perverse nobility in his murderous sadism.  What emerges most ironically through this though is a depiction of the Vietnam veteran vigilante as a kind of modern noble savage, like Taxi Driver subverting films more concerned with moving towards social understanding.  Glickenhaus denies such reconciliation, instead depicting a morally hypocritical and decaying modern America.

The urban wasteland in The Exterminator appropriately approaches the neo-noir despair of Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader in the acknowledged 1970s classic Taxi Driver.  In that film, paedophilia was evidence of endemic moral decay. 

However, paedophilia in The Exterminator is more disturbingly explicit and morally ambiguous, meant as both outrage and titillation, tailoring to an inherently jaded audience in its combination of torture and nudity.  Oddly, the controversy surrounding this film centred less on its child sexual torture than on one scene wherein Ginty suspends a Mafia boss above an industrial meat grinder.  Glickenhaus revels in the subsequent consequences, his absolute misanthropy conveyed in sick, gratuitous violence.   Moral ambiguity is a standard amongst exploitation films, though rarely more disturbing than the wallow in moral disgust found here.  It is a world of predators, where the only sense of justice is in the acts of a man as aberrant as those he despises.  The film delights in this despair, becoming a powerful, if sleazy, vision of the desolation of the human spirit.  In that, it epitomized the bleak tone of a mini revival of film noir oppressiveness in the New York cycle of exploitation cinema.  It is unfair to dismiss the film as outright as it has been by popular critics.  Despite its allusions to perhaps better films, The Exterminator retains its hopelessness and its power to disturb: it is ultimately a sad film, evidence of a lost faith in human nature.

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Exhaustion and the End of Moral Restraint

The visual transfer is fine in anamorphic widescreen despite what seemed on the review disc a brief authoring problem close to the start. 

Many scenes once cut by the respective censors have been restored to this director’s cut, in all their explicitness.  Complete, it captures a brooding resignation, despite frame edge black-level clarity issues.  Quite notable, however, is the use of slight slow motion to give some of the film a comedown effect, neatly contributing to the sense of exhaustion accompanying the end of moral restraint.  Night scenes are vivid and oppressive, with realistic urban grit.  Likewise, the choice of locations makes much of the idea of America in ruins – a central design conceit.  The film functions also as a cross-section of abhorrent criminality, from street punks to Mafia extortionists through to the “chicken-house” wherein children are commodities.  Few films have such despair at urban desolation.  The source print is nonetheless flawed: film quality seems to vary slightly from reel to reel and signs of wear are evident.  The irony is that this wear-and-tear look contributes to the overall grindhouse atmosphere, enhancing both its seediness and its status as a bleak social-document.  At times, its use of primary colours is bold, stressing the seedy nocturnal existence of its predators.  It is unfortunate that the transfer has been taken from a considerably used print, but the DVD is still far superior to the long ago VHS release of this grisly film.

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Moral Collapse: the Fall of Man and the Urban Inferno in 1980s Exploitation

The sound transfer is in Dolby Digital 3.0 surround, with some scenes sounding decidedly flattened in effect whilst others have a more affecting directional fullness. 

Although this is an inconsistency, it is not too greatly disconcerting.  Indeed, some scenes have a standout spatial effect (the Vietnam opening capturing the helicopter well) and incidental sounds (footsteps, sirens) have a remarkably crisp clarity, surprising for a low-budget film of this age.  Bass levels are often powerful.  Although an unsubtle mix, it effectively enhances the sense of desolate, austere urbanity where backgrounds meld and also draws attention to those specific sounds that propel the film’s sense of moral descent.  These natural noises ironically combine with measured instances of such unusual, gentle sounds as those when Ginty fixes his own bullets, suggesting the simplicity of his existence as well as how the tension of his vigilante standoffs breaks the ordinariness.  The simple sound is stressed in order to draw out the horrifying yet banal nature of Ginty’s mounting obsessions.  Thus, the transfer is best at suggesting the inherently oppressive world that surrounds the vigilante: such is the paradox here as the vigilante reacts against this bleak amorality, but in so reacting finds a damnable purpose and energy.  The softness of Ginty’s voice adds to the irony of his violence.  Sometimes the print’s wear is audible in several sound pops, but hiss problems were minimal.

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A Distinct Lack of Bonus Features

Special features are unfortunately minimal. 

There is an original fullscreen trailer and a distributor “showcase” option containing previews for the three Basket Case movies as well as Frankenhooker, Maniac Cop and Red Scorpion.  The previews are well chosen, placing the film amongst other known exploitation works of the period.  For those viewers interested in the history of disreputable cinema, this DVD release of the restored, director’s cut of The Exterminator is a welcome event.

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USA DVD PURCHASE INFORMATION: The Exterminator
UK DVD PURCHASE INFORMATION: The Exterminator [DVD] [1980]
AUSTRALIA DVD PURCHASE: Exterminator, The (modified)

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