2009’s Defendor received little attention upon its release and has since been mostly ignored, but it delivers a moving and gut-wrenching tale that should count it as a notable sleeper of a superhero movie.
What Is It?
This 2009 indie superhero film starred Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington, a person with no superpowers but who dons a costume and gear as Defendor (misspelled for a reason and explained in the film) to take on the criminals who seem to run unchecked in his city. He has a particular vendetta against a “super villain” known as Captain Industry and he befriends a young prostitute/junkie who he believes will prove crucial to tracking down his nemesis. And while there’s plenty more to the movie, that bare-bones description provides a sufficient enough setup because this one is best viewed spoiler-free to experience its full impact.
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Michael Kelly, Sandra Oh, Kat Dennings
Crew: Peter Stebbings (Writer/Director), Nicholas Tabarrok (Producer)
Original Release: 2009
Legacy:
This movie flew very much under the radar when it first came out, but it’s a must-see for superhero fans as it turns that genre on its head (while playing off many of the expected clichés) and delivers a powerful and moving piece of cinema.
A Closer Look:
The brief synopsis given above will immediately draw comparisons to 2010’s Kick-Ass (or 2008’s Special or 2010’s Super). And Defendor does share some similarities to Kick-Ass (and the other films), but it takes a very different approach to the same sort of concept and delivers a far superior film. Both Defendor and Kick-Ass have normal people putting on a superhero costume and trying to act like the comic book characters that inspired them. But the latter film takes this idea to the extreme if not the absurd whereas the former remains grounded in reality. In fact, Defendor really counts more as a drama than anything else. Very little that happens in the movie is not plausible, and it hardly counts as a sci fi entry, whereas Kick-Ass infused its story with many genre elements. But Defendor still roots its premise heavily in the superhero tale and should be embraced warmly by genre fans. Kick-Ass also verges on torture-porn at times, though intentionally as it winks to its audience and brings to life situations only implied in its comic book source material. Defendor does not take this approach (though it has plenty of violence), as it delivers more in the way of a dramatic character study. It also has a gut-wrenching quality about it, but not in the same, creepy way that plays out at times with Kick-Ass. Defendor has moments that make you cringe and/or feel uncomfortable, but ultimately this helps bring out the true pathos in the film’s hero.
Ultimately, director Peter Stebbings shows himself to be an exceptional filmmaker with this movie, handling a grand story on an intimate scale while expertly working in such nuances as the misspelling of the title character’s name and the Captain Industry reference (watch the film to understand). It’s not like we haven’t seen the idea of normal people dressing up as superheroes played out in comics, on television, and in the cinema before. But Stebbings manages to give the concept a fresh spin and ultimately uses it to deliver an engrossing and moving film. It’s not too much of a spoiler to tell you that he works in many of the expected standards from the darker, grittier comics that this film draws its influence from. Defendor gives us the troubled, driven central character with a motivation from his past to strike out against crime. And of course, the city is riddled with the criminal element and the people feel helpless and insecure. Then we have the corrupt cop on the take and the jaded hooker with a good side she tries to suppress. And all of this could have led to a stale, hackneyed film or a contrived and muddled affair or could have easily descended into camp.
But Stebbings meshes all of these elements together without giving in to cliché and makes the familiar seem like a whole new experience. Reworking old ideas is not a bad thing in itself. It’s when you regurgitate what has come before that you deliver an ersatz product, and Stebbings avoids the latter here. With this relatively simple, grounded story that he put together on very little money (about $3.5 million) and that uses minimal in the way of special effects, he succeeds in delivering that grand tale that genre productions with much larger budgets often strive for yet all too often fall short of. That’s story-telling and that’s film craft and that’s what makes this a movie fans should seek out.
And of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the outstanding performance delivered by Woody Harrelson. Woody is one of the all-time great actors and one of Hollywood’s best character performers. Unfortunately, he has rarely received the material equal to his talent, even though he manages to make shine almost any script that he receives. But with Defendor, Harrelson finally gets his Magnus Opus, even if it has not been recognized as such. He delivers a career performance and expertly interprets the nuances of the script. From the one-liners that aren’t as witty as you would like (there’s a reason for that, and don’t worry because he does get some zingers in there), to his less-than-heroic run-ins with bad guys, to the moments when he reveals the inner turmoils that haunt the man under the (painted-on) mask, Harrelson is at the top of his game from start to finish. And he gets a pretty impressive supporting cast that includes Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy), Elias Koteas (The Prophecy, Fallen), Michael Kelly (The Sopranos, Fringe), and Kat Dennings (Thor, Wandavision), each of whom fully immerses themselves into their roles and help elevate this movie to that next level.
If you missed out on this one, which is quite likely, you need to check it out. I consider this an essential superhero movie, even though you could make an argument that it’s not a superhero movie at all. In any case, it’s a must-see for genre fans as well as those who enjoy quality filmmaking.
A Failure to Fly:
Defendor premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and then received a very limited release in theaters. Unfortunately, it suffered from little to no marketing, and what did exist misrepresented the film. The movie is played up as a comedy in its promos, and while it does have its humorous elements, it is really a drama through and through. And that unfortunately seemed to hamper it in more ways than one. The movie industry–which prefers an easily labeled product–couldn’t readily peg down this drama with genre trappings and that ultimately resulted in it falling through the cracks. It got little attention upon its release, and no recognition from the Academy which was yet another injustice served upon it. The Oscars often shy away from genre films in the non-technical categories anyway, but this indie film definitely deserved at least nominations for Harrelson’s acting as well as Stebbings’ writing and directing. Unfortunately, it received no attention from the organization that supposedly recognizes the best examples of film-making and has since been all but forgotten.
Not A Rip-Off of Kick-Ass:
As mentioned above, Defendor has a similar premise to Kick-Ass, but you can’t accuse writer/director Peter Stebbings of stealing from the Mark Millar comic book series or the movie that followed. Stebbings wrote the screenplay in 2005, three years before the comic hit the stands, and he filmed the movie in 2009, one month before Kick-Ass hit the big screen. The film Special came out a year prior to Defendor, but Stebbings had completed his script three years prior to that.
Interesting Facts:
At the end of the film, we see a graffiti painting of Defendor and his name on a building wall. The 2017 Netflix series Defenders which teamed up the MCU characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist used a very similar piece of graffiti in promotional pictures. Whether this was a swipe, an homage, or just a coincidence is unclear.
Genre fans may know writer/director Peter Stebbings for his guest appearances on genre shows like The X-Files, The Outer Limits (the 90’s remake), and Stargate SG-1. He also played Markus Alexander across the two seasons of J. Michael Straczynski’s excellent but underrated post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah.
Stebbings could not sell the script for Defendor to any of the bigger Hollywood studios claiming that they “didn’t want to touch it, but all the actors and their agents wanted to.” It’s probably best that he went the indie route, though, as he had much more control over the final product that way.
Where Can You Watch It?
The movie has been released on DVD and you can also purchase it VOD. It is not currently available on any of the major streaming services.
