Out for Justice is a 1991 American crime action film directed by John Flynn, from a screenplay by R. Lance Hill, starring and co-produced by Steven Seagal. Seagal plays Gino Felino, a veteran New York City police detective who sets out to avenge his partner Bobby's murder by killing the trigger-happy, drug-addicted mafioso culprit (played by William Forsythe). The film also features Jerry Orbach, Jo Champa, Gina Gershon, and Julianna Margulies in her film debut.

The film was released theatrically by Warner Bros. on April 12, 1991. During filming, the working title was The Night.

Gene LeBell incident

During filming, there was an alleged physical altercation between Seagal and stunt coordinator Gene LeBell. While on the production set, Seagal allegedly claimed that due to his aikido training, he was "immune" to being choked unconscious. At some point, LeBell, a 10th degree red belt in judo and experienced catch wrestler, heard about the claim and gave Seagal the opportunity to prove it. He supposedly placed his arms around Seagal's neck, and once Seagal said "go", choked him into unconsciousness, urination and defecation. The popularity of this incident led LeBell to be counted in 1992 as a potential additional member of Robert Wall's controversial "Dirty Dozen," a group of martial artists willing to answer to a public challenge made by Seagal.

Seagal has denied the incident ever took place, calling LeBell a "sick, pathological scumbag liar" and offered the name of a witness who could discredit the other account. After refusing to comment for many years, LeBell circumspectly referred to the story in 2012 in an Ariel Helwani when questioned on the matter in an interview; some outlets chose to consider this confirmation of the story, despite LeBell refusing to directly comment. He was quoted as saying: "When we had a little altercation or difference of opinion, there were thirty stuntmen and cameramen that were watching. Sometimes Steven has a tendency to cheese off the wrong people, and you can get hurt doing that." After being asked whether he was not going to directly confirm it, LeBell said: "Well, if thirty people are watching, let them talk about it."

Stuntman Steven Lambert, who was also Seagal's part-time bodyguard, stated he was present and said that a confrontation did happen. According to Lambert, Seagal explained to LeBell that he did not believe his choke hold was effective, and that he could escape from it. LeBell demonstrated the choke hold by putting it on Seagal. Without locking the hold, Seagal side stepped and swung his forearm backwards into his crotch. LeBell came off the floor by a few feet. As soon as he landed, LeBell used a foot sweep to sweep Seagal off the floor, with Seagal landing on his back. LeBell helped Seagal up.

Reception

Box office

Out for Justice debuted at number one for the U.S. box office, the third straight Seagal movie to do so. It eventually grossed $40 million, about a third less than his prior movie, Marked for Death.

Critical response

The movie received generally negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 22 critics. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Censorship

Additional cuts for violence were made for the film's release overseas. In the United Kingdom in particular, several of the gruesome action scenes were trimmed for the video release, cutting the duration by 54 seconds. It was later released uncut for DVD.

References

  • Movie Review at The Goddess and the Genius