For many people, the cinematic vigilante has been shaped by Charles Bronson's character in
Death Wish
and its sequels. But screen vigilantes have taken many guises, from Old West lynch mobs and rogue police officers to rape-avengers and military-trained equalizers.
This book recounts the varied representations of such characters in films like
The Birth of a Nation
, which celebrated the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, and
Taxi Driver
,
Falling Down
and
You Were Never Really Here
, in which the vigilante impulse was symptomatic of mental instability. Also considered is the extent to which fictional vigilantism functions as social commentary and to what degree it is simply stoking popular fears.