Defendor

 

 

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As a loyal Canadian, I confess that I still have qualms about picking up a Canadian-made direct-to-video movie. However, I saw the trailer for "Defendor" at the beginning of "Zombieland" and knew instantly that it was going to be something special. And it was something special, and a lot more.

Superhero movies such as "Spiderman 2," "Iron Man," and "The Dark Knight" have all been praised, and justly so, for their character development. However, none of them come close to depicting real people when compared to "Defendor." First of all, we have Woody Harrelson as the ultimate everyman, Arthur Poppington, driven by both vengeance and a child-like mind, on a mission to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of the possibly-nonexistant Captain Industry. Donning a black turtleneck, a duct tape 'D', and his grandfather's WWI trench club, Arthur becomes Defendor. With a surprisingly efficient arsonal of marbles, lime juice, and wasps in baby food jars, (providing some of the biggest laughs of the movie) as well as an abhorrence of gun-reliant villains and drug lords, Defendor takes on the scum of his city with cringingly realistic results. Whether he's beating corrupt narcotics officer Dooney (the always excellent Elias Koteas) with his trench club, or being retaliated against by a crew of drug dealers in an alley, the violence is uncompromising, non-stylized, and has lingering consequences. We feel the pain of every character, and, after each battle, we honestly fear that Defendor may not be able to pull himself together for another bout. Nobody falls and bounces in this movie. They fall and land on very hard concrete covered with broken glass.

Kat Dennings soon appears as Kat, a young prostitute, and gives her best performance to date. She is tragically acceptant of her place in the world and tempered like steel, but is drawn to the purity and innocence she sees in Arthur, soon coming to view him as a safe haven in her unforgiving life. The chemistry between the two actors is fantastic, and forms the most endearing foundation of the movie. In a world of movies where the plot sits idling while we wait for the boy and girl to inevitably have sex, there is something refreshing about the scene where Kat crawls into Arthur's bed for nothing more than companionship, and they lie (back-to-back and fully clothed) talking about their lives as they drift off to sleep.

Supporting characters include the consistently reliable Michael Kelly as Arthur's friend and employer, who is both tough-as-nails and sympathetic as the only genuinely stable family man in the movie. Sandra Oh is always a breath of fresh air in her handful of appearances as Arthur's psychiatrist. And never forget Clark Johnson as a police captain who secretly relishes the assistence of everyday heroes, even as he obligingly tells Arthur that vigilantism is not the answer to the city's problems.

Peter Stebbing's direction and writing could not have been better, and it is one of the few movies where you know that a larger budget and Hollywood input would have destroyed it. Stebbing's refusal to compromise his original script may have cost him a studio release, but sticking to his guns saved this movie from being just another spoof or over-the-top actioner. Defendor does something that few Hollywood movies have done. It brings out real emotion from its characters, and from its audience. You will leave this movie feeling elation, sadness, amusement, and inspiration. My highest possible recommendation, and keep making Canada proud with excellent movies like this!

4.5 out of 5

Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson) has a secret: when night rises upon the city, he takes to the streets as Defendor, a lone avenger on the hunt for the ever-elusive Captain Industry. Unfortunately for Arthur, he's mildly retarded and the line between right and wrong sometimes blurs. Though he means well, sometimes he gets in over his head, especially when his search for Captain Industry takes him into the city's underworld of drugs, guns and prostitution.

After saving the life of prostitute and drug-addict Kat Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings), Arthur takes her in and, though at first exploited by her for money, the two eventually bond and he accomplishes one of his objectives he had ever since donning the Defendor uniform: helping those who need it most.

Being a lifelong superhero fan, there are a few things, to me, that define a good superhero movie and Defendor had more than one of those things. It touched me on that very human level of seeing a sincere human being trying to make a difference regardless of what other people think of him. Fear of man is one of the things I think holds people back from doing the right thing in real life. To at least see that attribute on the screen means a lot to me because it proves that people are still thinking about it even if it's just in a movie.

The trailer for this flick makes it come across as more like a superhero spoof than a serious movie, and this was most definitely a serious movie. Sure, there were some funny moments, but this movie wasn't about that, but instead was about a man who saw something wrong and did the best he could with what he knew how to do.

And he did. He showed us who Captain Industry really was: the villain that all of us have in each of out cities, the one comprised of drugs, guns and illegal sex that has ruined countless lives yet for some reason authorities refuse to do something about it.

This movie makes me think of the real life superheroes that are out there (Google "Real Life Superheroes"), those real men and women who don guises of other personas and do what they can to help us. Lots of people mock them. Lots of people mocked Defendor, but when all is said and done, they, like Defendor, do the right thing and try to right a world full of wrongs, bring hope to those who need it, and set an example that we should all follow.

Defendor is a fantastic movie and I'm really glad Peter Stebbings went ahead and made this flick.

Fight back.

Recommended.

A.P. Fuchs
Canister X

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