The Exterminator is a 1980 American vigilante action film written and directed by James Glickenhaus and starring Christopher George, Samantha Eggar, and Robert Ginty. Ginty plays John Eastland, a Vietnam veteran who turns vigilante when his employer gets shaken down by the Mafia and his best friend, a fellow veteran who once saved his life in combat, is left paralyzed by a street gang. George plays a detective who is actively pursuing Eastland.
The film, particularly the grisly methods employed by Eastland to coerce criminals, drew outrage from critics. However, it was an independent hit, generating $30 to $35 million in total revenue. It gave Ginty, until then best known as a supporting player in mainstream fare, a second career as an exploitation leading man, and marked the breakthrough of African-American actor Steve James. It is also considered an early example of the vetsploitation subgenre.
Plot
During a firefight in Vietnam, U.S. soldiers John Eastland and his best friend, Michael Jefferson, are captured by the Viet Cong. They are tied to wooden stakes with several other men, and tortured for information. When Eastland refuses to answer, the VC commander decapitates the soldier beside him with a machete. Jefferson escapes moments later, kills the remaining VC soldiers, and unties Eastland, who then kills the commander.
The film then shifts to New York, where Eastland and Jefferson work in a warehouse. One day, Eastland catches a group of thugs, called the Ghetto Ghouls, trying to steal beer. He is attacked, but Jefferson comes to his aid. They defeat them, but the gang return to cripple Jefferson, damaging his spine with a meat hook. Eastland, after this incident, captures and interrogates one of the gang members with a flamethrower. He then attacks the gang's base of operations with his rifle, shooting one gang member and leaving two others tied up in a basement (also shooting one of them afterwards), which is full of hungry rats.
Eastland's justice doesn't end there. The warehouse where he works has been forced into paying protection money. Gino Pontivini, the mob boss behind the scheme, has even taxed the workers' paychecks. Eastland kidnaps Pontivini, and chains him above an industrial meat grinder. Eastland then demands information to get to Pontivini's safe, which Pontivini reluctantly gives. Eastland barely survives an attack by Pontivini's Dobermann, so upon returning, he lowers Pontivini into the grinder for lying about the dog. Jefferson and his family are given Pontivini's money to help pay their bills.
Detective James Dalton begins investigating the attacks, while the press dub Eastland the "Exterminator". Meanwhile, Eastland kills the ring leader of a child prostitution ring, as well as a state senator from New Jersey who sexually abuses children. He also kills three more members of the Ghetto Ghouls (one of which being the gang member he interrogated earlier), after witnessing them rob an elderly woman. Meanwhile, the CIA has heard of the Exterminator and reaches an odd conclusion. Based on the current administration's promise to cut down crime rates, they believe the Exterminator is either an opposition party's stunt, or a foreign power's ruse to humiliate the current administration; by exposing their inability to handle the city's crime problem.
They monitor Dalton's investigation of the Exterminator. Dalton, working from a bootprint found at Pontivini's home, discovers the Exterminator wears hunting boots manufactured by a mail order firm in Maine. Asking them for a list of clients in New York, and following the hunch that the Exterminator may be a Vietnam War veteran; since he killed the Ghetto Ghouls with an M16 rifle, Dalton has narrowed his suspects accordingly. Eastland visits Jefferson in the hospital, and because he will never be able to walk again, Jefferson asks Eastland to end his life.
Eastland does, but coincidentally, Dalton is visiting the hospital at the same time. When he learns about Jefferson's death, Dalton surmises that one of Jefferson's friends was the Exterminator, and learns that one of his suspects, Eastland, was Jefferson's closest friend. Eastland is aware that Dalton is staking out his apartment, so he arranges a private meeting with him, where he hopes to explain why he became a vigilante. However, the CIA are aware of the rendezvous after bugging Eastland's phone. They ambush him at his meeting with Dalton, which results in Dalton being killed while helping Eastland escape.
Cast
TV anchors Roger Grimsby and Judy Licht and musician Stan Getz appear as themselves. Samuel L. Jackson makes an uncredited appearance as an extra.Cross, Kathleen. "Samuel L. Jackson Highest Paid Actor Ever; You’re Not Going to Believe How Much He’s Earned", rollingout.com, published 10-27-2011. Retrieved 11-11-2015.Jackson, Samuel L. "Filmography of Samuel L. Jackson", samuelljackson.com (official website). Retrieved 11-11-2015.
Production While promoting his struggling first film The Astrologer, director James Glickenhaus realized the importance of the Southern drive-in and international markets, which demanded more visual and action-driven product.Gallagher 1989, p. 57 A visit to the 1978 Cannes Film Market with Astrologer producer Mark Buntzman allowed the pair to finetune their assessment of what the world wanted to see.
The impetus for The Exterminator came from the mugging of a Columbia University student in an elevator, which had left him paralyzed.Glickenhaus 1989, p. 69 Drawing from Sergio Leone, the original draft only had a handful of dialogue lines, but this did not prove commercially viable and a more conventional structure was adopted.Glickenhaus 1989, pp. 61 Buntzman, who was Glickenhaus' childhood friend, returned as producer. In the early stages of development, the projected budget was just $850,000. More money was added as the picture grew in ambition.Glickenhaus 1989, p. 61 The budget was provided by Glickenhaus' affluent family, and business acquaintances of the Buntzmans, who were big real estate players.
Casting Joseph Bottoms was originally hired to play John Eastland. To entice the young star, Glickenhaus topped up his fee with a percentage of the film's profits, which would have made him millions had he foreseen its success. However, when Bottoms landed a role in the Disney film The Black Hole, his camp asked for an extra $10,000, arguing that The Exterminator could damage his image. While the sum was modest, Glickenhaus did not appreciate being ambushed just one week before filming. He refused out of principle and delayed photography by another week to find a replacement.Glickenhaus 1989, p. 63
Among the actors offered to him was Robert Ginty, whom he had seen portray a Vietman veteran in the 1978 drama Coming Home. Although his everyman physique was at odds with the audience's expectations of an action star, the director rationalized that it might make his vigilante turn more impactful. Ginty loved the script, in part because he had once witnessed a fatal gang attack on a friend, and returned to New York within twenty-four hours. While getting along creatively, Ginty and Glickenhaus did not gel from a personal standpoint. According to the director, Ginty later acknowledged his bad behavior, and they remained on speaking terms thereafter, albeit not particularly close.
Steve James also received his first featured role in this film. Originally, James applied for the bit part of a bartender, but Glickenhaus liked him so much that he rewrote Eastland's best friend, a Puerto Rican, as an African-American to accommodate him.Glickenhaus 1989, p. 62 Top billed Christopher George and BAFTA Award nominee Samantha Eggar were added to bring respectability to the project.Glickenhaus 1989, pp. 62 Despite the project's modest stature, George earned plaudits both his humbleness. Glickenhaus did not think that the British Eggar was a perfect fit for the story, although that was not an indictment of her acting abilities.
Principal photography Filming started in mid-September 1979 in New York City and was scheduled for eight weeks. Some scenes were shot at an illegal prostitution house on 42nd Street. Glickenhaus was there when the police closed it down, and arranged with them to shoot there. The Bronx Terminal Market was used extensively. Vehicular crashes were staged there, as were scenes set at the food warehouse employing Ginty and James' characters. This was done for practical reasons, as Buntzman's father David had business interests there. Some shots of crowded streets were stolen by concealing the camera inside a cardboard box. The stunts were coordinated by Cliff Cundey, who had previously been a performer on The French Connection. Tom Brumberger was hired to oversee the special effects, but he goes uncredited in the final film. At the beginning of production, Brumberger hyped up an innovative, 150-foot "tower of fire". According to Buntzman, there were issues with some of the effects not working.
Reshoots After viewing the assembly cut, it was decided that the movie needed a signature setpiece. This led to the creation of the Vietnam prologue. It took only four days to shoot, but benefited from four weeks of extensive planning, which was mostly overseen by Buntzman. Glickenhaus did join in time to direct.
The sequence was filmed at the Indian Dunes in Valencia, California, under pyrotechnics coordinator Paul Stewart. The same location and coordinator would be used for Twilight Zone ill-fated Vietnam segment in 1982. During the ensuing trial, it was alleged that incidents foreshadowing that catastrophe, including a helicopter mishap, had taken place on The Exterminator. Glickenhaus categorically denied the bulk of those claims, and provided trade magazine Variety with corroborating testimonies. The decapitation scene did not use a simple dummy, but a full animatronic made by Stan Winston for $25,000. Because it was so realistic, Glickenhaus believes it was used in all shots.
Estimates of the film's total budget have varied somewhat. In a contemporary interview, Buntzman determined that it had come in at $1.5 million, including a bit over $1 million for principal photography. In retrospective comments, Glickenhaus said that it had cost about $2 million, including $400,000 for the additional prologue.
Post-production The Exterminator was mixed in Dolby Stereo, a rarity for an exploitation film at the time. According to Buntzman, it was the first New York City production to use the format, and the local Dolby facility was not yet complete when the film was being worked on. Another scene that almost went through reshoots was the dog attack, because the animal did display enough aggressiveness. However, editor Corky O'Hara managed to salvage it. The movie featured a fair bit of slow motion, as the young director remained influenced by Sam Peckinpah's use of the technique.Glickenhaus 1989, pp. 67 The MPAA demanded that 42 seconds be cut to avoid an X rating. This resulted in the beheading and the meat grinder scene being heavily trimmed for the film's domestic theatrical run, in addition to a shot of the burnt pimp.Glickenhaus 1989, p. 61–62 In the U.K., the movie was cut separately, but left a similar 44 seconds on the editing table. Most major markets received a version that was cut in some way, except Japan.
Release Marketing