Uwe Boll, a 60-year-old German director, became famous in the first decade of the century for a string of films based on video games. They were savaged so mercilessly, and lost so much money, that Boll earned the title of “the worst director in the world.” Still, he remained committed to continuing to make bad movies. He secured financing by exploiting a loophole in German tax law, which allowed him to receive huge tax rebates on money-losing films. That enabled Boll to raise large budgets and cast actors such as Ben Kingsley and Christian Slater in films seemingly destined to fail.
In 2006, fed up with the devastating reviews, Boll invited five of his harshest film critics into a boxing ring in Canada. The critics thought it was some bizarre publicity stunt — this was Uwe Boll, after all. But the world’s worst director, who had once been an amateur boxer, got them into the ring and beat them mercilessly, leaving them bloodied.
Two years later, Boll declared in an interview that if an online petition calling on him to retire gathered 1 million signatures, he would stop directing films forever. The petition reached 350,000 signatures before it was shut down. Boll later said he would not have honored the deal anyway, claiming the petition had been manipulated by hackers.
Eventually, German authorities closed the tax loophole, and Boll moved on to scraping together budgets for especially violent social and political films. “Postal,” for example, mocked the Sept. 11 attacks, while “Rampage” followed a young man’s mass killing spree against modern society, and actually received relatively decent reviews. In 2016, reality finally managed to break Uwe Boll. He announced his retirement from filmmaking, opened a successful restaurant in Vancouver, Canada, and waited for his chance to return. It came.
The past decade has been a paradise for the business model of “anti-establishment,” “anti-liberal” and “free speech warrior” branding, whether authentic or not. Boll, at least, can claim authenticity. He jumped at the chance to make a film that would stick a finger in liberalism’s eye, complete with an unemployed actor and many dead immigrants. Over the weekend, he received his grand prize when Elon Musk uploaded Boll’s new film, “Citizen Vigilante,” which was banned from screening in Germany, to X and kept it available to watch for 48 hours.
Armie Hammer — in one of his first leading roles since Hollywood cast him out in 2021 following allegations of sexual assault with cannibalistic overtones — plays an American businessman living in Croatia in “Citizen Vigilante.” Frustrated by a local crime wave, the decline in his property values and what he sees as the impotence of the legal system, he embarks on a violent and brutal campaign explicitly targeting immigrants. He records the executions he carries out and uploads them to social media, turning himself into an extreme viral phenomenon and an Interpol fugitive.
It is a story as stale as a piece of Bazooka gum stuck to a seat in a Tel Aviv movie theater in the 1980s. But when the first trillionaire in history, with 240 million social media followers, promotes your film that way, you are set.
Armie Hammer in 'Citizen Vigilante'
(Screenshot: YouTube)
Germany’s film ratings board, the FSK, refused to grant “Citizen Vigilante” an official age rating, arguing that it encourages vigilantism and brutal violence and contains harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric. The refusal blocked the possibility of screening the film in major cinemas or advertising it in Germany, prompting claims of censorship. For Musk, the combination of a violent anti-immigration film and allegations of censorship against right-wing figures is like oxygen, so he uploaded the full movie to X.
Boll, who has already announced there will be a “Citizen Vigilante 2,” said the plot was inspired by a real gang rape case that occurred in Hamburg in 2020. The attackers, who were immigrants, received only suspended sentences, sparking major public outrage. “A morally bankrupt thriller,” Variety wrote. “Brave and relevant,” right-wing figures said. No response from either side was surprising. But Uwe Boll is back making movies, and if necessary, he will invite the critics back into the boxing ring. Today he feels far more confident and far less alone.
‘The liberals’ nightmare’
The reason Uwe Boll can make a film like this and find a large audience is a seismic shift that has taken place over the past decade — alongside Trumpism, of course — in the film and television industry outside the mainstream. A movie such as “Citizen Vigilante” finds a home in the American right’s attempt to build a kind of conservative Hollywood, an ecosystem made up of production companies and streaming services based on religion, patriotism in a single interpretation, traditional family values and the like.
There are now dozens of production companies in the United States focused exclusively on content with a dual purpose: advancing conservative agendas and irritating liberals. The film “Run Hide Fight: Infidels,” whose trailer was released last week, is exactly that kind of project. It is a production of The Daily Wire, the media company founded by conservative influencer Ben Shapiro, which established an official film division aimed at creating “an alternative to Hollywood’s woke studios” and giving a home to creators and actors who have found themselves outside the industry. Like Armie Hammer, the star of this film, Jonathan Majors, also found himself pushed out of Hollywood.
The Daily Wire will release “Run Hide Fight: Infidels” this fall exclusively for subscribers to its streaming platform, and it describes the film as “the liberals’ nightmare.” It is marketed as an 1980s-style action movie, with the following delicate plot: “A group of radical Islamist terrorists takes over a liberal college campus in the U.S. and imposes Sharia law on the helpless liberal students.” Majors, who had been one of Hollywood’s next big things before his partner accused him of assaulting her — he was convicted of third-degree assault and harassment, and acquitted of the most serious charge — plays a former Delta Force soldier who teams up with a group of students and the campus’ Black security guard, who is tired of being called an “Uncle Tom.” Together, they arm themselves and set out to save the disconnected liberals.
Jonathan Majors
(Photo: Joe Maher / GettyimagesIL)
Shapiro’s company has already produced a series of genre films in recent years that deliver clear right-wing messages. “Shut In,” from 2022, follows a former drug-addicted single mother who is locked in a pantry by her violent partner and must save her children. She survives through faith in God, atonement for past sins — and a gun.
“Terror on the Prairie” is a Western starring Gina Carano, who was fired from Disney’s “The Mandalorian” after controversial political tweets. The Daily Wire produced the film specifically for Carano, whose high-profile lawsuit against Disney is being funded by Elon Musk. In the film, she plays a lone woman in the West fighting a gang trying to take over her home. She defeats them because she has a lot of guns. Then there was “Lady Ballers” in 2023, starring Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing, with Shapiro himself appearing in a cameo. The film follows a failed basketball coach who decides to disguise his men’s team as women so they can compete in a women’s league and win easily. There is not much subtext here.
The genre’s biggest box office success is the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom,” which grossed more than $250 million, including $184 million in the U.S., on a budget of less than $15 million. That made it one of the most successful independent films of all time. The film tells the story of Tim Ballard, a real-life former government agent who quits his job to rescue children from human trafficking networks in Latin America. It was distributed by Angel Studios, a studio based on crowdfunding from Christian and conservative communities. Film critics called it “a tool for promoting conspiracy theories,” and it received a massive boost straight from Mar-a-Lago.
‘The White Lotus’? No thanks, give us Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion’
The conservative right in the United States did not always despise Hollywood. Ronald Reagan, after all, entered politics straight from B-movie studios, and all the action films of the 1980s were national Viagra. Things began to change under Bill Clinton, who was the first president since John F. Kennedy to be very publicly connected to Hollywood. The resentment grew to enormous proportions alongside Barack Obama’s rise, as Hollywood fell in love with him and lined up behind him.
Donald Trump
(Photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Bitterness toward Hollywood is also one of the foundations on which Trumpism itself was built, not least because Donald Trump always wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite, and that elite rejected him. He never forgave not winning an Emmy for the reality show “The Apprentice,” and his claims that things were rigged against him began long before the 2020 election.
On that ground arose an industry whose companies largely insist they are not partisan and only want to create a brand associated with family and amorphous American values. In practice, these companies succeed because they turn conservative bitterness and resentment toward Hollywood into a weapon. Every bad review of a film is blamed on the liberal media, and therefore becomes another reason to support these platforms. If you are offended by television shows about same-sex marriage, you now have an alternative.
Bill Abbott, CEO of Great American Media, one of the leading companies in the field, argued that shows such as “The White Lotus,” with storylines involving incest, are celebrated by the entertainment industry as part of what he sees as a deliberate effort to normalize abnormal behavior. He said this pattern appears constantly across films and television series, and described it as a highly intentional strategy.
From 'The White Lotus' Season 3
(Photo: Courtesy of HOT, yes and Cellcom TV)
Crowdfunding is a popular tool for conservative production companies that use audience enthusiasm, often around a specific political point, to raise money. “His Only Son,” another Angel Studios film from 2023, grossed more than $13 million after being produced on a budget of $250,000. “The Chosen,” a long-running television series about Jesus, raised nearly $100 million through crowdfunding and reached a quarter of a billion people through streaming.
But not everyone needs crowdfunding. Mel Gibson has already filmed two sequels to “The Passion of the Christ” — one of the most financially successful films of all time — on a budget of $250 million. Unlike “The Passion,” which was an independent production made at a time when Hollywood was unwilling to go near Gibson, this time he is doing it with the backing of a major Hollywood studio, Lionsgate. Because it turns out antisemitism and racism have an expiration date in Hollywood, too, and Mel Gibson is no longer canceled. The two films, set for release in 2027 and 2028, are expected to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. Jesus always sells.
This industry is also a rehabilitation center for canceled actors, or for those who are convinced Hollywood blacklisted them simply because they hold conservative views. Jim Caviezel, who led the huge blockbuster “Sound of Freedom” and was also Mel Gibson’s first Jesus, is an extreme religious conservative who now makes only films tied to this agenda. Jonathan Majors, Armie Hammer and Gina Carano are examples of canceled actors who have found work. Kevin Spacey — who, ironically, was once one of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s closest Hollywood allies — may participate in Uwe Boll’s next project.
From 'The Passion of the Christ'
(Screenshot)
The genre’s leaders are not seeking critical success or awards. In fact, the knowledge that Hollywood ignores them is part of the business model. They have even created a parallel industry, with their own critics and prizes. One example is the Movieguide Awards, handed out by a media outlet that brands itself as “movie reviews for Christians.” The Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala is held every year in Los Angeles during Hollywood awards season. Last year’s winners included “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid, which was produced by two conservative companies and received 17% positive reviews on the mainstream review site Rotten Tomatoes.
Movieguide also rates Hollywood films according to “family content” and claims that movies with strong Christian values perform better at the box office. Its formula relies mainly on children’s films and ignores many mainstream hits. Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” received low “family content” ratings from the outlet.
“We have a new generation that's having kids, and they want faith and values, their generation does not want sex and violence,” Ted Baehr, who founded Movieguide 40 years ago, told Politico. Well, maybe. The new films starring Armie Hammer and Jonathan Majors are betting that conservatives do, in fact, like violence. It just depends on whom it is aimed at.