Shows uncensored portions of the highly emotional Dec. 1984 videotaped confession of Bernhard Goetz, known as the "subway vigilante", who opened fire on four teenagers he feared were about t... Read allShows uncensored portions of the highly emotional Dec. 1984 videotaped confession of Bernhard Goetz, known as the "subway vigilante", who opened fire on four teenagers he feared were about to rob him on a New York subway train. Also discusses Goetz's attempted murder trial at whi... Read allShows uncensored portions of the highly emotional Dec. 1984 videotaped confession of Bernhard Goetz, known as the "subway vigilante", who opened fire on four teenagers he feared were about to rob him on a New York subway train. Also discusses Goetz's attempted murder trial at which he was subsequently acquitted.
- Self - Narrator
- (voice)
- Self - Author: 'A Crime of Self Defense'
- (as Prof. George Fletcher)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self - Cabey's Lawyer
- (as Ronald Kuby)
- Director
- Darrell Moore(for MPI Home Video)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsReferences Death Wish (1974)
Along with the confession of Bernhard acts, there's brief interviews with some of the jurors of his trials, activists and the "victims" lawyers, and later we found out some of them actually committed crimes right after or before their attack on Bernhard. The mystery still remains: Goetz was too quick with his action? Totally. He didn't kill anyone but easily could. Was there a racial motivation? To the last question I absolutely loved CORE leader Roy Innes input, a radical authority in the black community, who actually defends Goetz move and don't think of him as a racist. It was just the fear factor speaking higher. We'll never know exactly if the violence would come towards Goetz or if the quartet was just playing a lame prank while demanding for five dollars. As I said earlier, I considered a hero because he stood up for himself despite the unorthodox method. I've been in a slightly similar situation where the wagon was practically empty and comes a "soccer group", five or six guys and girls, loudly talking and cornering me thorugh all the exits of my seat. I only had two or more three steps to leave and those were some of the most frightening five minutes of my life because I was waiting for some menacing moment or some conversation I didn't want to have. Without excuses, I stormed to my exit and rushed my away home and the thought came: Bernhard Goetz was right all along because you never know when or how things like that can happen, and you need to be prepared for some reaction or some desperate response. Luckily, mine was just a rushed thought process, didn't like the feeling of that group around me when the train was empty and seats available everywhere; Goetz simply used his instincts and pulled the trigger. I know, 4 criminal and trained types against 1 simple skinny fella is cowardice and hard to provide some action but at least he could just point the gun and keep on moving, shout, threat them until them leave or you can exit the train. Gotta feel his anguish and panic (Hollywood wouldn't dare to make a biopic of this case, specially now, in those heavy political correctness fashion. I'd like to see that film happening just to create a crucial debate but it could turn out in becoming the new "The Birth of Nation" and we can't go through race riots because of facts of a different era).
Well, I'm just presenting scenarios and not really the movie. It's a nice documentary, it exposes all possible aspects of a complicated issue that was a matter for debate in the 1980's, and looking back now we don't see much the opposite happening. Sure, it happens of people going Charles Bronson mode, everything is a "Death Wish" kind of way because we are not safe in our streets, nowhere in the world despite the whole technological aparat available to us, more and more institutions, surveillance everywhere..crime is still going rampant. It's important and highly valid to see it now to compare personal situations, the stories we hear on the news and how sometimes our gut feeling tells us to break a crack to the system, protect ourselves and give some instant justice. But we're far from perfect, we can't use or have guns (in some countries) and we still have to depend on a judicial system that isn't helpful and only serve to condene the same kind of people or not give proper condemnation to hard or white collar criminals. The film presents its case in a good way, despite the poor audio quality from the police tapes, but here we have the chance to give Goetz a voice, a reasoning and truly enters his frame of mind. He wasn't a monster and lots of people hailed his daring action. It's simply another case of bad timing that caused a turmoil of catastrophic events, a drama of towering proportions. Life as it is and we're still not safe after all those years. 9/10
- Rodrigo_Amaro
- Feb 10, 2018
Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color