The Global Story: Citizen Vigilante and Elon Musk’s war on ‘woke’ films

**Tristan Redmond** (0:00)
Hi there, it's Tristan Redmond, one of the hosts of the Global Story Podcast from the BBC. And as a bonus for your feed, we're bringing you one of our best episodes of the week. You might have seen shots of the publicity tour for one of the biggest movies of the year, all over your socials this week. Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey, features many of Hollywood's most bankable stars. And early reviews have been glowing. But this week, we looked at the phenomenon around a movie that's had a much harder time finding a platform and how it became a lightning rod in Elon Musk's war on so-called woke culture. And if you enjoy this episode, every weekday we tell one story where the world and America meet. You could find more by searching for the global story wherever you get your podcasts. Now enjoy the show. You might remember a few months ago that Elon Musk got quite upset about the director Christopher Nolan's new movie adaptation of The Odyssey. Musk published a string of posts criticizing Nolan for casting Lupita Nyong'o, a black actor, as one of the central characters. He said that role should have been given to a white actor and that Nolan was afraid of being accused of racism. Musk wanted to take down The Odyssey for being part of Hollywood culture, which some on the right believe is dominated by the left.
Fast forward to now, and Musk has been posting about a film that's been firmly rejected by some people on the left.
It's a violent thriller called Citizen Vigilante. It features the murder of multiple immigrants in Europe, and it stars a disgraced former Hollywood A-lister who's trying to make a comeback.
From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redman in London. Today on The Global Story, is the right seeking a political rebalance of the movie industry, and is a film like Citizen Vigilante the way to go about it?

**Mike Wendling** (2:19)
My name is Mike Wendling, I'm a journalist. I specialize in looking at the far right in the US and beyond.

**Tristan Redmond** (2:26)
Well, we're delighted to have you here with us, Mike. I waded through most of Citizen Vigilante, the new Armie Hammer thriller, and it was a hard watch. How did you first hear about it?

**Mike Wendling** (2:41)
I first heard about it in the usual places where these kinds of things pop up, which is right-wing, hard right, far right social media. These days, that generally means X. What we used to know is Twitter owned by Elon Musk. There was chatter about the film, and then a few news articles appeared, and I realized that Elon Musk had made the film available for free for a limited period of time on that network.
I think I actually came across memes of the film before I actually came across the film itself.

**Tristan Redmond** (3:11)
Can you give us an overview of what the film is about?

**Mike Wendling** (3:13)
Yeah, sure. The former famous Hollywood actor Armie Hammer plays an ex-US Army soldier who inherits a property empire in an unnamed European country.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:31)
The truth is this, you are all being used.

**Mike Wendling** (3:36)
Armie Hammer's character, Michael Sanders, he has inherited this property empire, but he moonlights as a vigilante. He is the titular Citizen Vigilante.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:45)
I'm here to help you take that control back. The state, court, police.
So you think that they've failed you, but they haven't. Now they only exist to control you.

**Mike Wendling** (4:02)
It paints a dark, dystopian view of Europe as being completely overrun by migrant gangs, criminals, where women are afraid to go out at night.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:13)
You walk down the street and you get stabbed or robbed.

**Mike Wendling** (4:17)
He's a real hero. We need more guys like this. And there's only one man who can stop it all because the elites and the justice system are completely ignoring the problems on the ground, and it's our hero, Michael Sanders. He proceeds to go on a rampage killing gangsters, killing migrants, killing the families of migrants, killing judges.
A whole load of police officers also get killed by the hero. And ironically, for a film that is supposed to be highlighting the dangers of out of control, violent, illegal migrants, the hero is a violent, illegal migrant. It's made very clear that he is in the country without proper legal permission, and his body count is high.

**Tristan Redmond** (5:09)
Yes, the body count is high.
And Armie Hammer in the film, the main actor, you may remember him from such films as Call Me By Your Name. He was an A-list Hollywood star, one of the big ones, and he had a quite dramatic fall from grace. What's his story and how did he come to be?