'The ship is already sinking': Why the 'Citizen Vigilante' director wants to shock you



The corporate entertainment complex is experiencing a collective nervous breakdown. The catalyst for this sudden departure from sanity is "Citizen Vigilante," a cinematic hand grenade that blows the lid off the establishment's favorite lies.

Directed by the notoriously uncompromising Uwe Boll, the film takes the documented reality of Europe's border crisis, pairs it with an industry outcast, and refuses to apologize for the violence that follows.

'Everybody loved that I knocked out the critics,' Boll notes dryly. 'They stepped into the ring and received a much-needed reality check.'

Film reviewers, conditioned by years of ideological conformity, responded with their usual panic-stricken script, hurling accusations of "fascism" like overexcited monkeys slinging feces.

Crying 'fascist'

When asked why modern film critics seem so threatened by stories that reflect public frustrations instead of establishment-approved narratives, Boll doesn't hesitate.

"They know that the facts are against them and they have no defense," Boll states matter-of-factly. "So they label everyone a fascist or a Nazi if they point out that criminals need to be prosecuted and, if possible, deported."

"The leftist governments in Europe are victims of their own propaganda. They are under immense pressure to ignore grooming scandals, knife stabbings, and all forms of violent random crime."

The hysterical reaction from the press stems from a deep-seated fear of the obvious. For years, the European establishment maintained control by enforcing a strict code of censorship around the predictable outcomes of open-door migration policies. "Citizen Vigilante" breaks that code with a sledgehammer.

The film acts as a mirror to a continent where citizens are told to accept acts of savagery as a standard feature of daily life. When art reflects the dark reality instead of the utopian fantasy, the gatekeepers reach for the chloroform.

RELATED: 'Citizen Vigilante': A cinematic hand grenade lobbed at the cathedral of liberal pieties

bollfilms.com

Hammer time

The casting of the lead role provided another opportunity to challenge the industry's enforced consensus. Beyond his fit for the role, casting Armie Hammer felt like a well-earned middle finger to an entertainment industry obsessed with moral conformity.

"Armie was a major star and would be the perfect James Bond," Boll says. "Unfortunately, in today's climate, a one-legged transgender person from Bangladesh has a better chance of getting that part."

"By the way," he adds, "that is not a joke against transgender people — that is a joke against the insanity of the woke police running Hollywood. Armie acted irresponsibly years ago, but he committed no crime. He rehabilitated himself and deserves to be a major star again. He was perfect for the role of Sanders, so I hired him."

Boll is right. Hammer, a genuinely gifted actor, is not a criminal. Whatever one makes of his personal controversies, they are not comparable to the depravities of Harvey Weinstein. On screen, the American’s stoic, unsentimental delivery of justice feels both refreshing and revolutionary.

Hollywood thrives on a system of selective banishment, enforcing a social credit system that demands absolute ideological submission. Hiring Hammer was a calculated rejection of that ecosystem. It demonstrated that a filmmaker with independent backing can bypass the arbitrary tribunals of the cultural elite.

Wake-up call

The performance itself fuels a narrative that focuses directly on the systematic failure of European state institutions. The complete lack of public safety in major European centers is a daily reality on the streets of Berlin, Paris, and London, where the native populations find themselves treated as second-class citizens by their own representatives.

This fact is not lost on Boll.

"Germany is going down the drain, just like the U.K. and France, and we have watched it unfold for at least 15 years," the filmmaker explains. "Now that more middle-class citizens are feeling the impact, they are starting to wake up and get upset. The general population always reacts too late, usually when the ship is already sinking and they have lost their jobs, their homes, or are simply running out of money for groceries. Then they become resentful and depressed.”

He considers his latest film “a harsh wake-up call designed for shock value to accelerate that awakening. Politicians are elected to bring safety and prosperity to their country. That is not happening.”

In Germany, he adds, “our bridges and schools are literally falling apart, but we are funding bicycle lanes in Peru. That is a documented fact, not a joke." He’s right. It’s true.

Contract killers

This disconnect forms the emotional center of the film's protagonist, a man driven to extreme measures by the state's total abdication of authority. The character's narrative arc reflects a growing sentiment across the continent. When the social contract is voided by the ruling class, the consequences will be severe.

Michael Sanders goes to some incredibly dark places by the end of the film, leaving fans to wonder if the sequel will bring a deeper escalation of his crusade or a confrontation with the true cost of taking the law into his own hands.

Boll remains coy about the exact plot of the sequel. "Maybe both," he offers.

Bounty hunter

Obviously, one cannot interview Boll without discussing his decision to stream the film for free on X via Elon Musk's account. This move bypassed traditional distribution entirely, rendering traditional studios obsolete.

"Thanks to X, the world could watch the film for two days," Boll says. However, he adds, “you still need theatrical releases, Blu-ray, television, and streaming revenues to generate a profit. If you launch exclusively on social media, you would need an alternative model to get compensated for the work."

In theory, this alternative model would look like a digital bounty system — direct-to-consumer micro-subscriptions or platform-backed ad-revenue splits driven entirely by viral engagement rather than studio greenlights. It is desperately needed because the current gatekeepers don't just take a cut of the profit but also a cut of the truth.

The entertainment elite dislikes independent distribution channels because they destroy the monopoly on information. This rebellious streak defines Boll's career. Twenty years ago, he famously challenged his fiercest critics to actual boxing matches and beat them in the ring, an event that permanently altered his relationship with the film establishment.

"Everybody loved that I knocked out the critics," Boll notes dryly. "They stepped into the ring and received a much-needed reality check." With "Citizen Vigilante," Boll delivers the ultimate right hook, forcing open the eyes of the cultural commissars who would very much like us to ignore reality.

Popular 'Citizen Vigilante' movie promotes death wish for multicultural melting pot



BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn't giving “Citizen Vigilante” high marks as a film — rather, he argues it largely fails by traditional cinematic standards.

But the point of the film wasn’t to tell a compelling story or showcase great acting.

“‘Citizen Vigilante’ is not a movie. It doesn’t care about story. It doesn’t care about plot. It doesn’t care about acting. It doesn’t care about script. It’s not a good movie,” Whitlock says.

“It’s a provocative political statement,” he adds.


Whitlock believes the political statement is anti-illegal-immigration, anti-multiculturalism, and anti-Islam, explaining that the film is “capturing the anger that many people in America and in Europe have” regarding these topics.

However, while Whitlock doesn’t care for the film as a film, he does believe it’s important that “movies get put out to make political points.”

“For this movie to be put out and for Elon Musk to be supporting it and for the conversation that is driven and for the subject that it touches on, it’s an indication in my mind of where they want the conversation to go and what they’re trying to stir in white people globally,” he says. “Enough is enough.”

And Whitlock himself is “anti-multiculturalism” like the film.

“All cultures are not created equal. And we are tolerating cultures that are satanic, chaotic, not law-abiding, degenerate. We’re tolerating and embracing these things under, like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re supposed to do. Diversity is good,’” he explains.

“I’m fed up with the melting-pot mentality that, when I was younger, that slogan sounded good. As I’ve now reached full maturity, I’m like, not everything needs to be in this pot. Some of this stuff in the pot will kill you,” he continues.

And while television and media are always trying to “tug at our tribalism” — usually from the point of view of the left — “Citizen Vigilante” does the same.

“That’s the point of ‘Citizen Vigilante,’” Whitlock says, “to bring out our tribalism, justify our tribalism.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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Trillionaires Like Elon Musk Aren’t A Problem For America, Envious Leftists Are

Multimillionaire politicians denounce billionaires as the source of all evil, to the applause of college graduates pretending to be working class. It's a dangerous farce.

Trump agencies actually made a government process more efficient — A LOT more



The federal government is known for many things, but efficiency isn't one of them. But now, thanks to the tireless efforts of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the DOGE, at least one process has been made easy: federal employee retirement.

In pursuit of "higher quality, faster resolution times, and enhanced efficiency," the OPM took on the herculean challenge in September of migrating its retirement application processing operations from a mine in Pennsylvania "to a fully electronic world."

'By hand, on paper, in a system that feels like a time capsule from the 1970s.'

OPM Director Scott Kupor revealed on Wednesday that the challenge was successfully met — meaning greater efficiency and fewer workers having to toil underground at the Iron Mountain mine.

Quick background

For decades, federal retirement paperwork — roughly 10,000 applications per month — has been processed 230 feet underground in a former limestone mine roughly an hour north of Pittsburgh.

Kupor shed a light late last year on the cavernous Boyers, Pennsylvania, facility, noting that "it’s a place where 600 dedicated federal employees process thousands of retirement claims every month — by hand, on paper, in a system that feels like a time capsule from the 1970s."

Kupor noted further that the mine "houses about 26,000 file cabinets filled with manilla envelopes, cardboard boxes, and about 400 million pieces of paper, a true testament to the scale and complexity of federal retirement processing."

While impressive, Kupor said that the mine "is a microcosm of a bigger, more endemic challenge within the federal government: outdated systems and processes that have not kept up with modern technology and that lag in terms of operational efficiency."

The process, until recently, entailed:

  • prospective retirees filling out their retirement paperwork on paper;
  • the routing of the paper applications by mail to the HR departments of the retirees' respective agencies;
  • the routing, again, of the paper applications to the respective payroll providers; and
  • the shipment of pallets loaded with the completed applications to the Boyers facility.

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Stephanie Strasburg/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Under the leadership of U.S. Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia — the Airbnb co-founder who joined the Department of Government Efficiency last year — the OPM attempted to tackle what Kupor characterized as a "50-year problem of epic proportions."

Deliverance

The OPM announced the "Last Day of Paper" on Wednesday and the official end of paper retirement processing for over 95% of federal retirement applications.

Moving forward, virtually all retirement applications will be submitted and processed electronically through the OPM's Online Retirement Application. ORA has already processed in excess of 155,000 retirement applications over the past year.

"Today we’re closing the book on one of the federal government’s oldest paper processes," Kupor said in a statement.

"For decades, retirement applications were literally mailed around the country before reaching OPM. That’s over," continued the OPM director. "By moving retirement online, we’re delivering faster decisions, better service, and greater transparency for federal employees while modernizing an essential government function."

Elon Musk, long a champion of greater efficiencies in the U.S. government, told Fox News Digital, "Now people can retire as soon as they want, instead of waiting six months for paper to be carried into a mine."

Kupor thanked Musk "for his vision on this project," Gebbia "for his technical leadership," and the OPM members who made it happen, quipping, "So long, Michael J Scott," in reference to the fictional paper salesman in "The Office."

The OPM is still in the process of digitizing hundreds of millions of historical retirement records.

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Gov. Pritzker says he's one of the good billionaires, not the ones vilified by socialists



Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker appears to be supportive of socialist Democrats making gains in recent elections, despite their decidedly anti-billionaire policies.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Pritzker during an interview Tuesday if he was comfortable with the far-left Democrats who frequently target billionaires as the enemy, despite the governor being worth about $4.3 billion.

'I think it's about what do you stand for and what do you actually accomplish for people, not how much money you have.'

"What do you make of Democrats in your party, as we lead up to 2026 and the midterm elections and 2028, who rail against the billionaire class in your party?" Collins asked.

"I completely understand how people feel looking at Elon Musk and what he's done to this country and with DOGE and all the things that he blurts out on his own platform, on X," Pritzker responded, "when people look at what the other kind of oligarch, Big Tech types, have done, right? Those are the examples that people have now of billionaires. Look at Donald Trump and the way he has treated working-class and middle-class people. The fact is that I understand why people feel as they do."

When pressed by Collins, he implied that he would be exempt from the ban because of his Democratic policies.

"I think it's much more about the values that you carry and then carry out," he continued. "And as somebody who has stood up for a workers' rights amendment and got it passed in the State of Illinois, who's stood up for LGBTQ and reproductive rights, somebody who's legalized cannabis, somebody who's raised the minimum wage in my state for people from $8.25 to $15, you know, I think it's about what do you stand for and what do you actually accomplish for people, not how much money you have."

Collins quoted Trump as referring to the socialist Democrats as the greatest threat to the U.S. since the founding, and Pritzker responded by claiming the president suffers from dementia.

"The man is continually suffering from dementia. I don't think he really understands what he's saying," he said.

"I think he has these concepts in his head, and he blurts them out without really thinking," Pritzker added.

RELATED: George Soros has dumped MILLIONS of dollars into midterm elections — and he's not done yet

Pritzker is the heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune.

In Feb. 2026, the governor's cousin Thomas Pritzker stepped down as the executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation after 22 years over his involvement with the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In a letter to the board, Thomas Pritzker wrote, "Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which I deeply regret."

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Banned 'anti-migrant' movie 'Citizen Vigilante' shoots to No. 1 after Elon Musk intervention



A film that is triggering progressive critics is becoming a viral sensation after the director called it "an inconvenient truth."

The movie stars actor Armie Hammer as a man who takes justice into his own hands after he feels the government and law enforcement have failed to protect their citizens.

'Racist, xenophobic, ethnocentrist.'

'X' rated

"Citizen Vigilante" has been called "anti-migrant," "racist, xenophobic," and "incomprehensible," yet audiences seem to love it.

With a fan score of 94% on popular review site Rotten Tomatoes, critics seem once again to be at odds with audiences while drawing a political line in the sand.

A huge social media push has seen the movie top the streaming charts, with multiple outlets reporting on Monday that "Citizen Vigilante" soared to No. 1 on Amazon Prime's "Top 10 movies to rent or buy," where it still stood at the time of this writing.

The film was reportedly No. 2 on Apple TV's top movie list on Monday as well.

This all came after X owner Elon Musk posted "Citizen Vigilante" for free download on his platform last Thursday — with director Uwe Boll's permission — garnering at least 8 million views by Musk's own account.

Boll responded on X, "Dear Elon thank you. Donald Trump needs to see the film."

RELATED: 'Citizen Vigilante': Outlaw director takes unflinching look at migrant violence

Banned abroad

By all accounts, the film draws on anti-immigration sentiments that are becoming popular around the world, and even references real-life migrant crimes for its story.

The movie has already been banned in Germany because it was found to be "inciting violence against migrants," director Boll told Variety in June.

Boll called it "deliberate censorship" that was "on purpose."

In an email to Newsweek, the director said his movie "shows an inconvenient truth what all other movies out there don't want to show or try to sugarcoat in their productions."

Boll added, "The audience wants real films again — bold and with impact and about reality."

Bans and negative reviews have been overtaken by the film's momentum, and the flick was just acquired by Quiver Distribution for a worldwide push, except for in the U.K., German-speaking territories, South Korea, and Taiwan.

RELATED: 'Supergirl' has disastrous opening after star declares character 'doesn't live inside the binary'

Many such (angry) cases

Many critics have not enjoyed the film, with some reviewers declining to even score it.

For example, Stefan Birgir Stefans called the film "brain dead" and gave no score, while Variety's Todd Gilchrist similarly gave no rating and said the director was "deliberately sabotaging his star."

Nicholas Bell said the film was "magnifying its xenophobia through the beacon of far-right agitprop," while Joseph Robinson called it "a discriminatory parable."

It was U.K. outlet the Guardian that dubbed "Citizen Vigilante" as "anti-migrant" on Tuesday, with Ready Steady Cut describing the film as "utterly incurious and incomprehensible, but politically barbed."

Critic Jonathon Wilson argued the film was for people who believe "immigrants are to blame for all the violent crimes in the West to see as a rubric for defending their homeland."

Tyler Thier of In Review Online summarized the movie as "racist, xenophobic, ethnocentrist, alt-right agitprop manufactured to piss off the 'woke Left.'"

The consistent use of "agitprop" by reviewers is, interestingly enough, a reference to pro-communist propaganda used by the Soviet Union.

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Sorry, socialists: The system isn’t the savior



What is wrong with man? Every political philosophy begins with an answer to that question. Scripture’s answer changes everything.

As New York celebrated the victories of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates this week, I recalled something he said after his own victory last fall: “Praise be to Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.” Predictably, much of the conversation has centered on his politics and, as we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, his public invocation of Allah.

Government can restrain the effects of evil. It cannot regenerate the human heart.

Those discussions are important, of course. But I found myself thinking about something else.

Gratitude reveals theology because we instinctively thank the one we believe governs reality. Some thank fortune. Some thank the market. Some thank government. Some thank the universe. Some thank themselves.

Our gratitude reveals what we ultimately believe about reality.

New York’s mayor publicly thanking Allah does more than express personal devotion. He is acknowledging a theological authority. Theology never stays inside the sanctuary. Eventually, it walks into the courtroom, the classroom, the legislature — and the voting booth.

Theology inevitably shapes our understanding of human nature. That understanding eventually produces a political philosophy.

Most Americans assume we are arguing about taxes, health care, immigration, education, or economics. We are not. Beneath every political argument lies another question.

What is wrong with man?

Every political philosophy answers it.

If man is basically good, then his deepest problem lies outside himself. The system is broken. The economy is broken. The institutions are broken. Change the system, and people should improve with it.

That assumption helps explain socialism’s enduring appeal. If people are basically good but trapped inside unjust structures, then changing those structures becomes the highest moral priority. Build a better system, and society should improve.

Scripture begins somewhere else.

Jeremiah addresses the heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” Jesus locates murder, theft, adultery, greed, envy, and slander in the heart as well. Paul affirms the same conclusion when he writes in Romans that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

RELATED: Trump showed voters the con behind the curtain

Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images

If Scripture is right, no political system can solve mankind’s deepest problem.

The reformers understood that sin had not merely damaged humanity but corrupted every faculty of our being. We still bear God’s image and remain capable of astonishing courage, creativity, generosity, and sacrifice. But we are also fallen.

Those convictions profoundly influenced the political imagination of the men who framed the Constitution. The framers did not write the Constitution for basically good people. They wrote one for sinners.

They divided power through checks and balances because they knew power does not sanctify fallen people. It magnifies them.

Their greatest political achievement was not trusting themselves. As a result, the framers collectively produced a document better than they were.

Checks and balances are not expressions of political optimism. They reflect theological realism. They acknowledge that no office, no election, and no majority vote can cure what Jeremiah identified in the human heart.

The same view of human nature should shape how we think about wealth. Whenever someone accumulates great wealth, someone inevitably says, “Think what we could do with all that money.”

Elon Musk’s extraordinary wealth has simply made that argument impossible to ignore.

“Think what we could do with all that money.”

Notice what is quietly assumed. We imagine our compassion is purer, our judgment sounder, and our motives less corrupted.

RELATED: Who wants to eat a trillionaire?

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When Mary poured perfume worth nearly a year’s wages on Jesus’ feet, Judas objected.

“Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

On the surface, it sounds compassionate, practical, even responsible. Then the apostle John adds one sentence that changes everything.

“He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.”

John does not debate Judas’ proposal. He exposes Judas’ motive.

There is a kind of generosity that costs us nothing because it spends someone else’s resources. Judas voiced it. John exposed it. Every generation repeats it.

Before we recognize Judas in someone else’s politics, we ought to recognize him in ourselves.

When I stand before God, he will not ask me what others did with their resources. He will ask what I did with mine.

That question reaches far beyond money. It reaches into our families, churches, communities, opportunities, and even our suffering. How we steward each of them reveals our theology.

Politics asks, “Who should control this?” Stewardship asks, “Lord, what would you have me do with what you have entrusted to me today?”

Good government, the rule of law, checks and balances — all of those things matter. But they can only restrain the effects of what Scripture says is already there. They cannot create what Scripture says is missing.

Government bears the sword. Christ bore the cross.

Government can restrain the effects of evil. It cannot regenerate the human heart.

Only the gospel can make sinners new.

We do not merely need a better system. We need a new heart.