Vigilante: The Incredible True Story of Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels (2018)

Vigilante: The Incredible True Story of Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels: Directed by David Wexler. With Curtis Sliwa. The incredible story of a man, a mission, and an organization that transcended race and gender to save New York City from a pit of despair in the late 1970’s and 1980’s.

“Iu0026#39;m from the 70s. I remember what a cesspool New York was in that decade, to a point that must be hard for younger folks to believe. In the midst of it all suddenly emerged the Guardian Angels — a white-hat (make that red beret) street gang — and the media just couldnu0026#39;t get enough of it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo I walked into this one already interested and eager to hear the story. What I didnu0026#39;t count on was the one-man army that Curtis Sliwa turned out to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe guyu0026#39;s like the living embodiment of New York. Itu0026#39;s not just the accent; itu0026#39;s the machine-gun delivery, itu0026#39;s the every third sentence in Italian, itu0026#39;s the goomba expressions that somehow manage to be sheer poetry. But mostly itu0026#39;s the attitude.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSliwa reminded me of any number of New York characters we saw on TV back in the day: lightening fast, tough as nails, rude and sarcastic, but determined not to retreat. Itu0026#39;s the portrait of a real, natural leader. Facing Sliwau0026#39;s merciless pounding rhetoric, I thought, u0026quot;Iu0026#39;du0026#39;a followed this guy anywhere.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThatu0026#39;s how he built a defence force out of the staff of a McDonaldu0026#39;s.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you remember those days, see the movie. Yeah, itu0026#39;s one-sided. Yeah, his detractors donu0026#39;t get no time. Yeah, they probably left out a lot of stuff.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo whatu0026#39;s it to you?”