If Nick Love’s Outlaw is to be believed, modern-day Britain is awash with “paedophiles, dealers, bullies, junkies, scum”. The film’s keynote speech suggests a world as rotten as the New York of such classic 1970s vigilante movies as Taxi Driver and Death Wish . But with its depiction of five law-abiding citizens who decide to fight back, including a former paratrooper (Sean Bean), a barrister (Lennie James) and a white-collar drone (Danny Dyer), it’s also the most incendiary British film since Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange .

Not that Love begins to approach Kubrick when it comes to examining the effects of violence on society. His track record, be it the soccer hooliganism of The Football Factory or the cartoon menace of the Costa del Crime tale The Business , suggests a director enthralled by nothing more than visceral thrills. But while he argues that those earlier films were “a bit of fun”, this is a more sober, adult experience. Or it can be seen as little more than a right-wing revenge fantasy.

Just as Taxi Driver ’s Travis Bickle became obsessed with wiping the streets clean of criminals, so Love presents a posse of testosterone-fuelled men willing to do the same. “I know plenty of impotent males in contemporary society,” he says. “I just think that there is a sense of disaffection in the country. People feel disillusioned. I remember when I was finishing The Business , people said if they had a problem they wouldn’t call the police any more; they’d deal with it themselves or get someone else to.”

Inciting his viewers to violence is hardly the act of a responsible film-maker. Of course, he’s not alone in this, but in the past, vigilante movies have been confined to Hollywood — from Sam Peckinpah’s revisionist western The Wild Bunch to urban works, from the obvious ( Dirty Harry ) to the obscure ( The Exterminator ). And because this mini-genre has never betrayed any historical allegiances to Britain, it never really took off over here. But as Love’s film indicates, times have changed.

BACKGROUND

• A clockwork outrage

• Who framed Bob Hoskins?

• Justice just got rougher

• Nick Love: wild boy finally shines

On the move

Is he a sex symbol or a "very good bad guy"? Whatever he is, you wouldn't want to mess with Sean Bean

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The problem is that while Outlaw may condemn Britain’s yob culture, it also perpetuates it. Take a look at the website (www.outlawthe movie.com), where various fans post comments in the forum about the state of the nation. As one asks, citing the example of rapists handed out light prison sentences: “Is it now time for people to come together and deliver justice themselves?”

The irony is that Love is preaching to the converted, making movies for those who rarely go to the cinema. Those who watch his work also populate it.

“From the last two films we made we have an enormous fan club of young men,” he says. “We filled the gap in the market. Nobody else is making films for lads.”

The numbers say it all. The Football Factory sold almost a million DVDs in Britain, with The Business ’s total about half that. And since the Outlaw trailer went online, it has had more than two million hits. Yet, rather spuriously, Love claims that the film is different from its predecessors. “It’s not necessarily for the same mob,” he says.

This is evidently nonsense. During preproduction, in one of the more shrewd film PR stunts of recent times, it was announced that fans could pay either £10 for an Outlaw T-shirt and an executive producer credit on the DVD or £100 for a chance to be an extra. Signing up in droves, most plumped for the more expensive option, with Love estimating that about £100,000 was raised.

No doubt when the 1,000odd extras discover that the nightclub scene that they were packed into was cut (though it will make the DVD), Love might experience a little retribution himself.

You might think that such a fate would be justice for a director who chooses to display such a nonchalant attitude towards violence in his films. If anything is worrying about the release of Outlaw , it’s the possibility of violence. Just as gangs roamed the streets of Britain after A Clockwork Orange , it wouldn’t be surprising if the same happened again.

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