Vengeance, or Kid Vengeance as it was originally called, is a Western telling the tale of how a young early teen boy called Tom (Leif Garrett) witnesses the brutal rape of his mother and then murder of both her and his father at the hands of an outlaw gang leader called McClain (Lee van Cleef). The members of his mostly Hispanic gang also rob a large haul of gold off a hulking but quiet black miner called Isaac (former NFL player Jim Brown). Tom has been well taught desert survival and hunting skills by his father and he extracts revenge on the gang incrementally through use of poisonous snakes, scorpions and various methods to lure individuals into traps were he kills by stealth. With the help of Isaac, he rescues his older sister Lisa (famous '70's teen actor Glynnis O'Connor), Isaac retrieves his stolen gold and McLain and most of his gang are killed.
This movie involves a fascinating confluence of people and places. First off it was filmed in 1976 in Israel along with a spaghetti western called God's Gun. These were van Cleef's last movies thus ending the career of one of the great cowboy actors. Putting then 14 year old Leif Garrett in the lead role hunting van Cleef alongside a former NFL player Jim Brown made for intriguing chemistry. Garrett was actually a decent actor long before he became a massively famous heartthrob pop singer and played well the role of this energetic and feistily independent teenager. He demonstrates that he was very handy on a horse but somehow Leif comes across, even this early in his career, as a teen idol pinup with perfect blond hair and flawless tanned features no matter how rugged the setting or how violent his actions. The whole thing comes together pretty well, nothing earth shattering but nonetheless a cool story of right prevailing over wrong.
This movie involves a fascinating confluence of people and places. First off it was filmed in 1976 in Israel along with a spaghetti western called God's Gun. These were van Cleef's last movies thus ending the career of one of the great cowboy actors. Putting then 14 year old Leif Garrett in the lead role hunting van Cleef alongside a former NFL player Jim Brown made for intriguing chemistry. Garrett was actually a decent actor long before he became a massively famous heartthrob pop singer and played well the role of this energetic and feistily independent teenager. He demonstrates that he was very handy on a horse but somehow Leif comes across, even this early in his career, as a teen idol pinup with perfect blond hair and flawless tanned features no matter how rugged the setting or how violent his actions. The whole thing comes together pretty well, nothing earth shattering but nonetheless a cool story of right prevailing over wrong.