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The Exterminator (1980) - Robert Ginty


Boards Fight Back

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Boards Fight Back

Anyone seen it? 

It's a revenge thriller about a former Vietnam combat veteran called John Eastland, who witnesses a robbery. His friend saves him, but later gets crippled by a gang. After that, the dude basically hunts down criminals all over New York, while being trailed by a detective and the CIA. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtH7Xw22WOk

Great film. There's a sequel that has this really cheesy arcade video game music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnQwLwrjx_M

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18 hours ago, Boards Fight Back said:

Anyone seen it? 

 

I've watched this one, picked it up on DVD paired with Maniac Cop. Another movie which got most of its cult following on Home Video. I really don't recall much about the Exterminator sequel. The 1980film is dark and griyy, reminds me of John Carpenter and Walter Hill's early films. It heavily edited for the British market, and it lost a lot of its impact due to the heavy cuts. The later Region 2 DVD releases restored the BBFC cuts.

 

Source- https://rarecultcinema.com/post/170737143673/robert-ginty-the-exterminator-1980

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Nice pick. It is my fav movie of Ginty, somewhere between Lustig’s maniac, Vigilante and death wish. Nice 42nd street movie, the scenery is awesomely bleak, 80’s throwback when the 42nd street was really something.

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NoKUNGFUforYU

I don't remember it holding up that great on second viewing, but the first time it was great! "Tell me if there's anyone in the house. If you lie I'll fucking comeback and kill you!"

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Boards Fight Back

The guy he kills with the meat grinder for lying about the attack dog, was the drummer in a 50's band called the Comets! 😜

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The sequel was a fun 1984 film where Eastland would use a flame thrower and finds himself face to face with a gang led by the single-lettered X, played by Mario Van Peebles.

Here's the trailer for the original 1980 film

 

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I gave this another spin earlier, i do like the movie though it's by no means perfect. Captures the era very well and Ginty's laid back performance is actually very believable. Still there's some issues in it- there's no build up to Eastland becoming the title character- literally he's visiting his stricken friend in hospital,the very next scene he's got a gang member imprisoned and threatening him with a blow torch. How he got there, how he captured him who knows. I love Christopher George but in this he must be the most useless detective ever,  spending most of the movie romancing doctor Samantha Eggar while Eastland is cleaning house all around him. I'll give the sequel another watch shortly,i remember it being a bit haphazard and poorly edited, perhaps studio interference?

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The sequel is an odd beast.Though Mark Buntzman was the director the credit "additional scenes directed by William Sachs" suggest a troubled production.The film itself is solid enough on the whole, Mario Van Peebles as X the ruthless gang leader is pretty good. Still,like the first movie, things happen in an instant and you wonder how we got there in the first place.

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On 1/18/2020 at 6:21 AM, saltysam said:

The sequel is an odd beast.Though Mark Buntzman was the director the credit "additional scenes directed by William Sachs" suggest a troubled production.

Cannon wasn't happy with Mark Buntzman's cut so they hired Sachs to fix it up. Sachs said in a 2012 interview that the idea for the Exterminator to appear with the welding mask was his idea because Robert Ginty was working on another film and he wasn't able to come back for reshoots and in addition, they moved production from NY to LA due to budget issues.

You can see the interview here about Sachs' works on projects including Exterminator 2
https://hidden-films.com/2012/10/22/the-hollywood-fixer-galaxina-director-william-sachs/

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