Point Blank (film)
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- For other uses see Point Blank (disambiguation)
| Point Blank | |
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | Judd Bernard Robert Chartoff |
| Written by | Donald E. Westlake novel The Hunter writing as Richard Stark |
| Starring | Lee Marvin Angie Dickinson Keenan Wynn Carroll O'Connor Lloyd Bochner Michael Strong John Vernon Sharon Acker |
| Music by | Johnny Mandel |
| Cinematography | Philip H. Lathrop |
| Editing by | Henry Berman |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
| Release date(s) | August 30, 1967 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Point Blank is a 1967 crime film directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin, adapted from the classic pulp novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. Boorman directed the film at Marvin's request, and Marvin played a central role in the film's development and staging.
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[edit] Plot and Setting
The plot centers on the implacable and remorseless Walker (Lee Marvin, Parker in the novel), who is double-crossed and abandoned by his friend, Reese (John Vernon's first major role). After taking all the cash robbed from a courier in a large gambling operation, Reese shoots his partner Walker and leaves him for dead. In a double-double-cross, Reese also makes off with Walker's wife, (Sharon Acker). Afterward, Walker sets out to recover his lost money, chasing Reese - now a member of the corporate crime syndicate, The Organization. Walker sees no difference in the two, and pursues Reese and his superiors in a series of confrontations with The Organization, which has acquired all the trappings of a corporation, including accountants and currency-free financial transactions. Completely baffled by Walker's fearless and single-minded determination to get both revenge and his share of the loot from Reese's new employer, The Organization is slow to react and underestimates its new adversary, an error that soon proves fatal.
Set primarily in and around Los Angeles, Point Blank combines elements of film noir with stylistic touches of the European nouvelle vague, sun-drenched scenery, psychological themes, complex flashbacks, rapid rhythm changes, sound effects, and Boorman's own favourite myth elements. The opening ten minutes demonstrate a menu of cinematic devices, a "measured frenzy" that continues throughout the film.
[edit] Critical Reaction
Point Blank was dismissed by some U.S. critics as an average action film when first released. In her 1967 New Yorker review of Bonnie and Clyde, Pauline Kael disparaged Boorman's movie with one sentence: "A brutal new melodrama is called Point Blank, and it is."[1] Roger Ebert found the film only mildly interesting, writing in his review of the film, "as suspense thrillers go Point Blank is pretty good."[2]
With the passage of time, the film is today considered a neo-noir classic. Boorman's combination of film noir elements with the amorality of a bleached L.A. landscape has worn well over the years. Its focus on timeless themes of revenge, jealousy, and greed stands in contrast to trendier films of the era that concentrated on the decade's social and fashion trends, only to become quickly dated and irrelevant. Reviewer David Thomson praises the film: "Point Blank is a masterpiece... iconographic... urban thriller... a crucial film in the development of cinema's portrait of... organized crime."[citation needed]
The recent release of the movie on DVD has again given the film new life. Slant Magazine reviewer Nick Schager notes in a 2003 review: "What makes Point Blank so extraordinary, however, is not its departures from genre conventions, but Boorman's virtuoso use of such unconventional avant-garde stylistics to saturate the proceedings with a classical noir mood of existential torpor and romanticized fatalism."
"The film is sometimes credited with kicking off "American neo-noir... [and] a new mood in American cinema for fetishising blood and violence." (Andrew Pulver)[citation needed]
Loosely remade as the Hong Kong action film Full Contact in 1992.
Remade as Payback in 1999, directed and written by Brian Helgeland, starring Mel Gibson.
[edit] Trivia
- During shooting, Lee Marvin apparently punched John Vernon so hard it made him cry.
[edit] References
- ^ Kael, Pauline. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1968. ISBN 0-7145-0658-3
- ^ Ebert, Roger. Point Blank. rogerebert.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
