Targets
by Peter Bogdanovich
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arthur Peterson, Boris Karloff, Monte Landis, Nancy Hsueh, Tim O'KellyDirector: Peter Bogdanovich
Producer: Peter Bogdanovich
Writer: Peter Bogdanovich
Cinematographer: László Kovács
Producer: Daniel Selznick
Producer: Roger Corman
Writer: Polly Platt
Writer: Samuel Fuller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-12
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Targets
Movie Review: Frightening take on the nature of violence
Summary: 5 Stars
What does the name Peter Bogdanovich mean to you? Until I read about him on a certain well-known movie Internet site, I associated him with three things: those glasses with the thick frames you always see him wearing during interviews, his smash hit film "The Last Picture Show," and that sordid Dorothy Stratten affair back in the early 1980s. What I didn't know about this once promising director could fill a book--and probably has! I had no idea he wrote articles about cinema for Esquire before deciding on a career as a filmmaker, nor did I realize he's written many influential books about moviemaking. Unfortunately, he shared one trait with his greatest cinematic hero Orson Welles, namely great success immediately followed by career shattering hubris. It happens to the best of us, you know--a great stroke of success leads to an inability to take helpful advice from those who've been down the path before. Sometimes recovery is possible, but not in the case of Bogdanovich. He still does the occasional television project and the writing thing, but his best days seem long gone. And to think it all started under the auspices of schlock king Roger Corman.
As unlikely as it seems, the 1968 film "Targets" served as Bogdanovich's launching pad. It's not the sort of film to give birth to a legend, at least not on the surface. Starring the inestimable Boris Karloff at the end of his career, "Targets" is a rather schizophrenic film. Two narrative threads wend there way through the movie. One concerns an aging horror icon named Byron Orlok (Karloff), a man weary of making films for audiences living in a world full of random and shocking violence. Orlok feels--perhaps rightly considering the time in which he lives--that the disintegration of society, the rise of incivility and its concomitant violence, has made his brand of quaint horror passé. Why go see an old guy acting like a vampire, a mummy, or a ghoul when opening the daily newspaper or watching the evening newscast provide more than enough chills and thrills? Obviously, the film people around him aren't happy about his decision. They're even unhappier when he initially refuses to fulfill his promotional duties associated with his latest cheesefest. One of the people trying to keep Orlok on an even keel is Sammy Michaels (Bogdanovich himself). He's a film director who appreciates Orlok's living legend status even if the man himself doesn't. Orlok will eventually keep his appointment to appear at a local drive-in, much to his everlasting horror.
Here's where the second thread of "Targets" comes into play. A young, boy next door type named Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) suffers some sort of breakdown. He calmly assembles an arsenal of firearms and ammunition, murders his family, and then proceeds to go on a killing spree throughout the city. His nonchalance about what he's doing makes the blood run cold. For example, after slaughtering his loved ones, he heads over to an industrial area that will give him a clear line of sight to the highway. While munching on a sandwich and taking liberal slugs from a bottle of soda, he proceeds to take shots at passing vehicles. We literally see the bodies bucking in the cars through the scope of his rifle. Frightening. Bobby flees from the scene before the cops arrive, and continues his outrages. His last excursion takes him to the local drive-in, the same drive-in where Orlok is scheduled to make an appearance. Bobby climbs up behind the screen and begins to kill people watching the movie. A movie, coincidentally, that stars Orlok. The final sequences of "Targets" seem to fulfill Orlok's fear that real violence has eclipsed the carefully staged blood 'n guts special effects made famous by Hollywood.
It's rather obvious that Bogdanovich took Texas tower sniper Charles Whitman, whose murderous rampage took place just a few years before this film, as the primary impetus for Bobby Thompson. Tim O'Kelly's character simply shares too many similarities with that particular mass killer. He's young, he's an expert with firearms, and he kills his family before unleashing death on the general public. The comparison to Whitman would not be lost on the film's original audience. More interesting is the storyline involving Karloff. Not only does this thread involve an actor soon to pass away after a long career in the horror industry, but it's also likely the best part the aging thespian found in the twilight years of his career. Look at his filmography; he was largely reduced to taking on roles in schlocky Mexican movies and other assorted projects far beneath his talents. It's nice to see Karloff in a movie with a relevant message. That message, as far as I am able to discern, involves the escalation of violence in society versus Hollywood and the easy availability of firearms. At least I think that's what is going on.
Anyway, "Targets" is a nice little obscurity with which to spend a few hours. Extras on the disc are slim but there is a commentary with Bogdanovich that is well worth a listen. It's amusing to hear how Bogdanovich internalized Corman's penny-pinching film techniques. He says on several occasions that what we see on the screen is every second of film he shot. Not a scrap went to waste. We also learn how Bogdanovich got his start in the biz and what it was like to work with Karloff. Neat stuff. It's quite sad that Bogdanovich couldn't maintain this quality of work for the rest of his career, but "Targets" is one of his success stories.
Summary of Targets
TARGETS is a thrilling horror film that follows the story of Byron Orlok (Karloff), an aging horror film star who is contemplating his retirement. Meanwhile, Bobby Thompson (O?Kelly) is a seemingly mild-mannered husband and son whose obsession with firearms is his way of coping with his otherwise mundane life. But, when Thompson suddenly snaps and his harmless hobby turns into a dangerous reality, Los Angeles doesn?t know what hit it as Thompson unleashes undeserved fury upon innocent drivers on the L.A. freeway. And if that weren?t tragedy enough, things take a bigger turn for the worse when Orlok and Thompson?s paths cross as Orlok makes a special appearance at a drive-in theater where Thompson happens to be waiting with his arsenal.Similar DVD Movies
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