Point Blank
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Movie Reviews of Point Blank
Movie Review: point blank
Summary: 5 Stars
Lee Marvin was one of the best.
Fast moving. Great supporting cast too.
Movie Review: Relentlessly deadpan...and I'd buy a ticket to see the Mel Brooks version. Still, not bad
Summary: 4 Stars
When his buddy, Mal Reese, with his wife, Lynne, looking on, puts two bullets into Walker right after they've high-jacked a big haul on Alcatraz island, Walker gets mad...and then gets even. Walker somehow survives those gunshots and a year later he returns. For the next hour and a half, Walker (Lee Marvin) is going to say once if he says it ten times, "I want my money back." The Organization is not about to accommodate Walker, even if Walker's money is only a measly $93,000. That includes Reese, who now has Walker's wife and who has become one of the Organization's top men, all of whom look like business CEOs. While Walker relentlessly goes after his money and works his way up the corporate criminal ladder, he leaves a trail of corpses behind. Walker is shrewd, violent and deadpan, and he won't take "No" for an answer. That sums up Point Blank.
It must have been tiring having to prove in life and in the movies that he really was the tough-as-nails, seen-it-all, uber-macho main man, part bully, part cynic. For me, Lee Marvin was at his best playing secondary character roles. As a lead, more often than not he simply brought more of the same to the screen, but in a larger frame. He was queasily watchable in, for instance, The Big Heat, Bad Day at Black Rock, Seven Men From Now (Special Collector's Edition) and, much later with star billing but in a character part, Gorky Park. But it was just pow, smash, bang in most of his star vehicles. If he'd been more willing to break out of his star persona, he might have been a memorable actor, not just a star. He did a superior job in the one role where he deliberately took a big risk, playing Hickey in the American Film Theater's television presentation of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. He not only placed himself deep in a complex role, he was working with very good actors, notably Robert Ryan and Fredric March. Marvin did a fine job, but then immediately returned to the same old same old.
As for Point Blank, there's no doubt that John Boorman keeps it moving, throws in some perhaps unintended as well as intended irony and a lot of intended violence. He keeps the focus on the relentless Walker and Marvin doesn't disappoint. Point Blank also hasn't aged very well, in my view, even with Marvin's dynamically impassive (or impassively dynamic) performance, with the artsy clomp clomp clomp of Walker's shoes and Lynne's monologue with flashbacks as examples. A strong plus is the performances of the secondary characters, especially Carroll O'Connor and Keenan Wynn. With all that deadpan relentlessness, I just can't get out of my mind what Mel Brooks could have done with Point Blank.
The DVD transfer looks just fine. There is a commentary track which features John Boorman and Steven Soderberg chatting together, as well as a couple of shorts on Alcatraz. If you visit San Francisco, don't forget to save a morning or afternoon for the boat ride to the island and the tour of the federal prison. It closed in 1963 and is a grim and interesting place. For those who may not know John Boorman very well, he's a fine director who, for the most part, managed to make his films his way. I especially like Deliverance (Deluxe Edition), Hope and Glory, The Emerald Forest and The General.
Movie Review: A hard-edged story of betrayal and revenge with a superb DVD transfer!
Summary: 4 Stars
This review is for the Warner Brothers DVD released in 2005.
`Point Blank' starts out in an abandoned Alcatraz Prison circa 1967 where Walker (Lee Marvin), his wife, and Mal Reese (John Vernon - probably best remembered as Dean Wormer in `Animal House') rob an apparently illegal money payoff. Once the money is counted, Reese shoots Walker in a prison cell leaving him for dead and takes Walker's $93,000. Walker recovers from the shooting and with the help of a stranger named Yost (Keenan Wynn), Walker finds out that Reese and Walker's wife ran off to Los Angeles and Reese is now a big player in a major crime syndicate. This sets up the rest of the movie where Walker hunts down Reese but also wants all of this $93,000 back.
The movie is clearly dark in mood and substance, even though it was filmed in vibrant color. Angie Dickenson plays the role of Walker's sister-in-law Chris, who helps him find Reese. The chemistry between Chris and Walker seems overtly empty and melancholy. An animated Carroll O'Conner (best known for playing Archie Bunker in 'All in the Family') brings a lot of energy to the last segment of the movie. The film has an unmistakably late `60's look with fast and chaotic flashbacks and over-accentuated sound effects - such as loud, reverberating footsteps when an intensely focused Lee Marvin is hunting down Reese. This movie is more sexual and violent than noir films of the `40's and `50's, but is still restrained by today's standards. The film's biggest asset is how Lee Marvin confronts and handles his adversaries - each situation is original and effective, but not over the top. The plot as a whole has very few major surprises, although there is one minor twist in the end. Overall, it's an extremely good movie, but not a great one, but I still strongly recommend it.
As for the DVD, the transfer is superb. The picture quality is free of even the tiniest of flaws and the color is bright and vivid and the sharpness is terrific for a film this old. The audio is also excellent. There is option real-time commentary by director John Boorman and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, plus two short features, both made when the film was being shot in the late `60's entitled the Rock Part I &II. These two documentaries deal with the filming of the scenes on Alcatraz that were used in `Point Blank'. Part II also contains a short interview with a former prisoner who did time on "The Rock"..
Movie: B+
DVD Quality: A+
Movie Review: The Lonely Business of Revenge Is Ripe for Exploitation.
Summary: 4 Stars
Released in 1967, "Point Blank" bridges the gap between the neo-noir films of the late 1950s and 1960s that mixed elements of classic noir with social conscience filmmaking and those of the 1970s, with their disillusioned protagonists and increasing explicitness. Walker (Lee Marvin) was a cool, competent crook, convinced by his old friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) to help heist money from some other crooks on Alcatraz Island. But Reese shot Walker, left him for dead, and took off with Walker's unfaithful wife Lynne (Sharon Acker). A year later, Walker wants revenge, he wants Reese dead, and he wants his $93,000. A mysterious mobster (Keenan Wynn) who seeks control of the criminal syndicate of which Reese is a part is happy to facilitate Walker's vendetta.
"Point Blank" was director John Boorman's first color film, and he made good use of the palette, often dominating scenes with a single hue. Although it basically has a continuous timeline, the film takes brief excursions back in time, uses some slow motion photography, and, at one point, confuses us with images that exist only in Lee's mind, if at all. This was pretty risky for a studio film in 1967, and it works well. The fact that Walker is as much a criminal as his enemies is forgotten in a world where everyone is corrupt. Lee Marvin is great at this stoic, fixated kind of masculinity, but he does seem conspicuously old for the women Walker attracts. "Point Blank" is one man's revenge-driven journey, made memorable by so frequently doing the unexpected.
The DVD (Warner Brothers 2005): There are 2 featurettes, a theatrical trailer, and a feature commentary. "The Rock, Pt 1" (8 min) and "The Rock, Pt 2" (9 min) are promotional films made in 1967 about the Alcatraz location. "Point Blank" was the first film to use the abandoned prison, just 4 years after it closed. The documentaries talk about using the prison as a backdrop, interview the director, and interview a former inmate who recalls the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz. The audio commentary by John Boorman and Steven Soderbergh is very good. Soderbergh questions Boorman on various aspects of the film, including the script, structure, collaboration with Lee Marvin, technical details, and interpretations of the film. Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, and Spanish. Dubbing available in French.
Movie Review: One of Marvins better offerings
Summary: 4 Stars
Like the Killers before marvin was almost destined to play the part of Walker in this fast moving gut wrenching but always realistic thriller brilliantly collaborated by Marvin and Boorman who had no peer in this type of film.For those unenlightened souls who downplay Marvins career this was the one that to my mind surpassed most of his prior efforts with the exception of the Killers which was above par in all respects.Marvin was ahead of the pack in the 60s playing this type of hard nosed no nonsense gangster type, no other actor came close and type casted him to some extent in this type of role which unlike may actors became a positive in his career. Just to show his brilliance as an actor he gave us later comedy roles which produced more acting accolades than that material for which he was better known namely what we see in Point Blank.He carries the whole movie as did all the great actors of that era and many since which in itself is the hallmark of greatness. Marvin was a man who so perfectly personified the parts he was playing that often other actors looked wooden in comparison.He was one of the rare individuals who could take a small co starring role and end up being the star of the movie, no mean feat when you were up against the best in the business at that time and there were plenty in the 60 and 70s.To my mind Point Blank will always be a MARVIN film and this is not to downplay other good workmanlike performances in the film but it will always rank highly in Marvins body of work which is a cut above his contemporaries in the roles for which he was known and appreciated.As for the film it played out in fairly predictable fashion until the final scenes under the golden gate brige which gave a nice twist and left the viewer unsure whether Walker did in fact take his money or simply leave the scene of the set up empty handed. The obvious answer is that he waited till the coast was clear and took his money. It is hard to accept that he did otherwise.In retrospect a movie that stands up 40 odd years later and is just as watchable as it was in 67. No mean feat.