Point Blank (film)
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- For other uses see Point Blank (disambiguation)
Plot
The plot centres on the implacable and remorseless Walker (Lee Marvin, Parker in the novel), a man double-crossed, shot and left for dead by his partner Reese (John Vernon's first major role) who 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 Organisation. Walker pursues his money in a series of murders up the managerial structure of the Organisation - which completely misunderstands and misjudges his intentions.The film combines the harsh crime novel with stylistic touchs of the European nouvelle vague, psychological themes, complex flashbacks and rapid rhythm changes, 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.
Critical reaction
The film was dismissed as an average action film when first released. In her 1967 New Yorker review of Bonnie and Clyde, Pauline Kael flippantly disparaged Boorman's movie with one sentence: "A brutal new melodrama is called Point Blank and it is." Roger Ebert wrote, in his [1967 review of the film],"as suspense thrillers go "Point Blank" is pretty good." Today, the film is considered a neo-noir classic. 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."
The recent release of the movie on video has again given the movie praise. 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)
Remade as Payback in 1999, directed and written by Brian Helgeland, starring Mel Gibson.
Trivia
- During shooting, Lee Marvin apparently punched John Vernon so hard it made him cry.
External links
- http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/pointblank.html
- [Discussion of characters and themes in "Point Blank".]
- [Film Noir of the Week]
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