'RAMPAGE'........FRIEDKIN WEIGHS THE SCALES........KILLER VS. VICTIMS..........

Rampage (1987)   For a while, director William Friedkin reigned supreme as Hollywood's prime purveyor of blistering, in-your-face, anything-for-a-thrill cinema......("The French Connection" and "The Exorcist".....)

                But his raw, grim "Wages Of Fear" remake, 'Sorcerer' was the kind of sour, gritty experience that audiences decided they'd had enough of.....(it opened in the '77 summer of "Star Wars")

                And Friedkin's films then wobbled from unfunny comedies ("The Brink's Job", "Deal Of The Century") to his gruesome, repugnant gay sex thriller "Cruising" with Al Pacino......

                "Rampage", his lurid, bloody mixture of serial killer violence combined with an angry capital punishment debate. fell directly into limbo as its releasing company went bankrupt.......

                 Five years after its 1987 production year, it resurfaced in 1992, newly re-cut by Friedkin, supposedly altering its draconian view of the death penalty.....

                  We've seen both versions.......and our reaction isn't much different from one to the other......other than Friedkin tinkering with the last 10 minutes to make the climax a little more more measured, meditative and....and....well, grown up.

                 Ever the visual sensationalist, Friedkin makes sure to rub your nose in the red meat before he pumps you up with outrage at the idea of a murderous sicko cheating death on an insanity plea.....

                 A boy-next-door sociopath (a superbly disturbing Alex McCarthur) slaughters members of two suburban families........and the liberal, anti-death penalty D.A. (Michael Biehn is uncomfortably tasked with getting a jury to fry the kid to a crisp......regardless of the creep's sanity, or lack thereof...

               Cue the usual cast of characters, including, for the defense, the wimpy shrink who thinks we'll just have to sacrifice our lives so he can continue to study the cat-scans of the guy who offed us......

                There's no question which side of this issue (to kill or not to kill the killer) that Friedkin comes down on........leading to the film's most powerful sequence - Biehn putting the jury through an enforced five minutes of silence equal to the amount of time it took one of McCarthur's mortally wounded, suffering victims to die.......

               The initial version concocted a simplistic deux-ex-machina fate for McCarthur........in its re-edit, a more thoughtful Friedkin imagines an incarcerated, crazy killer patiently waiting for his years-later eventual release from a psychiatric hospital.......entirely credible and maybe even more uneasy to think about.

                 Both films wisely close with the most sadly affecting scene.......a night at a carnival enjoyed by a young boy and his melancholic dad - their family's sole survivors of McCarthur's random bloodlust.

               We don't want to sound like we're giving this movie too much credit for addressing such a vital issue, one that still resonates today.........Friedkin's goal here isn't stimulating your mind.....he's out to grab you by back of your neck and stick you into the blood, gore, tragedy and anger.......(while still gobbling your butter popcorn)

                  It's lurid, ragged, brazen exploitation.........and will grip your attention, whichever version you end up viewing. 2 & 1/2 stars (** 1/2)