A hobo rides in to town on a railway car and finds a city over run with criminal depravity. It quickly becomes apparent that the local authorities are in the back pocket of a crime syndicate run by a bloodthirsty psychopath by the name of Drake, and his two disturbed sons Slick, and Ivan.
The hobo soon finds himself caught in the middle of a vicious armed robbery and finds himself stepping up to the plate to deliver justice from the barrel of his 20 gauge shotgun. Soon the hobo is cleaning up the streets one scum bag at a time. "Bum fight" film makers, pimps, murderers, rapists, paedophiles, corrupt cops, and sex trade traffickers, all get what they deserve. No predatory, low life is safe from his righteous vengeance.
But soon Drake takes notice and finds a way to turn up the heat on the hobo in an attempt to put him out of the vigilante business once and for all. The hobo is now pitted against Drake's deranged sons, and The Plague; a team of armour-clad enforcers. But he has an ally; a street wise and highly spirited sex trade worker by the name of Abby. It's a battle to the death, and it isn't going to be pretty.
Part of what makes this film great is that while it is visceral, disturbing, and violent, it also finds opportunities to inject some humour, social commentary, and even some hope into its over-all message. It hasn't been credited by many as being a particularly deep or smart film, but in some ways its got more heart than most of the pulp we are fed these days even if the ending is a bit ambiguous... sequels?
The film was made in Canada and includes some interesting cameos including George Stroumboulopoulos, and Ricky of the Trailer Park Boys. In fact, the acting in this film all-around was not bad. Rutger Hauer was excellent and quite convincing at the hobo, and Molly Dunsworth was wonderful as Abby.
Hobo with a Shotgun is a grindhouse-style exploitation film, but not one without something to say. Yes, much of the film will be too much for the weak of heart. It is violent and troubling. But it is also, in many ways, very real. The evils that our heroic hobo selflessly takes on are real evils that are all too easy to put out of our minds on a day to day basis. But without glorifying, lampooning, or beautifying any of these things, this film makes you look at them dead on and make you consider how these things can happen, where we are headed as a society, and what justice might look like in real life.
Undoubtedly no one man will ever fix up this rotten society, and vigilantism is a slippery slope. But if Hobo with a Shotgun is any indication then we should have taken Tom Morello's advice and armed the homeless years ago.
4 Remington 870's out of 5
Rated R: contains violence, gore, language, drug/alcohol use, nudity, sexuality, disturbing scenes.
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