Act of Vengeance



The year is 1965 and Charles Bronson plays (not Jack but) Jock Yablonski who works for the coal miners Union headed by the corrupt Wilford Brimley who sold out to the mines years ago. He has lots of family close in the area and some mine but most work in the union with him.
***Please note, Charles Bronson will be refered to by his character's name in this summary instead of his own as Jock Yablonski is such a cool name.***
Deep in a mine several workers are at work when an explosion kills several people. Brimley immediately flies to the mine and makes a speech about how safe the mines are and how despite the fact several people just died, mines are generally safe. Jock and his family can't believe that he would defend the mines in a time like this and it urges Jock toward his eventual schism with the organization. The next day when he's asked to forge a few numbers by Brimley, Jock decides to confront him. In Brimley's office, Jock asks why he's selling out to the mines when his constituency needs him. When the conversation turns tense and Jock suggests he may disband and run against him in the upcoming election, the best part of the movie comes. Brimley, astounded that he'd try to challenge his authority much less run against him smirks in a Mr. Ellis type way that this is "my union." He smiles gayly, points to himself and smirks, "mine" again. He pauses for several seconds and does it again. Jock is clearly confused by his childish exhibition and storms out of his office.
His family and he decide he'll go through with it and run for presidency. In preparing for his press conference, his children tell him the reporters will ask him why he participated in the chicanery the union was involved without complaning for so many years. He can't think of a satisfactory response but says he'll improvise. His children are clearly disturbed by his lack of preparation but trust his judgement and are confident in him. At the press conference the question came up and he decided that he'd go ahead and tell the truth and just apologize for not dissenting earlier. People aren't taken by storm by him because Brimley is so powerful. A meeting is held by the Yablonski team and about 40 people are in a classroom listening to him. By contrast, Brimley holds a rally which fills a small stadium, so Brimley has the clear advantage.
Still, as all grass roots movements gain strength, he starts getting a chunk of the support. The Brimley camp is starting to get mad at him because he's outperfoming a well funded campaign with volunteers running his movement. Still they do little to stop him in terms of illegal actions. Finally election day comes and the polls are fixed by the Brimley campaign. Jock suspects this is the case, and quietly retires to his home for a casual winter. Meanwhile the Brimley side knows he's fighting the results and thus wants to get rid of him. Especially since Yablonski campaigned that when he got in office there would almost certainly be jail terms waiting for the corrupt incumbents. Thus, one of Brimley right hand men gets his daughter who loves him more than anything to convince her husband to kill him for $10,000. She is able to do this since her husband is a wussy wimp who loves guns and is hungry to prove himself to anyone. He and his "friends" make several trips up to the house scouting it out, and once go up to the door in broad daylight. When Jock asks what they need, they say they're former coal miners looking for work. A running blue car is parked far away, but within sight, and Jock asks if it's theirs. They say it's not and that they walked. As Jock goes to write down the license plate, they run away and the car speeds off. Jock puts this description on his list of threats which is very thick.
One day that winter, the United States Labor Commission calls telling him that someone was willing to testify to the ballot stuffing which went on during the election. A poll that had reported a close vote with Brimley winning turned out to be about 5 to 1 in Yablonski's favor. There would be a full investigation of the election. The incumbents are now very scared and force the man to go through with it. He gets one of his buddies who went earlier (coincidentally the fat guy with a gold tooth from Death Hunt) and a teenage Keanu Reeves to go and do it. Both Jock and his wife are in the house as well as one of his daughters. Keanu aims at the daughter while the fat guy prepares to take Jock and his wife. Both the fat guy and the wuss are very scared, but Keanu in his youthful innocence is not shaken. He fires several times and this forces the fat guy to kill them, though it's obvious he wasn't ready. Jock puts up quite a fight, but can't win. As the three leave, they pass the description of the car with license number he'd written down earlier.
The movie ends with the children presiding over his funeral telling everyone how Jock wouldn't have wanted them to morn for him but instead to finish the job he started. The epilogue tells how all the big men in the union went to prison immediately following the insuing investigation. Brimley died in 1985, the same year this movie was made. The gunman went to prison also, and now Jock Yablonski's children are in charge of the union and they turned it around.

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