Movies - Point Blank

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	Movies - Point Blank

Point Blank is a 1967 crime film directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin, adapted from the pulp classic The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark.

Plot

The plot centres on an implacable and remorseless Walker (Lee Marvin, Parker in the novel) as a man shot by his adulterous wife (Sharon Acker) and double-crossed by his partner Reese (John Vernon's first major role). Afterward, Walker sets out to recover his lost money, chasing Reese - now a member of the corporate crime union, the Syndicate. Walker pursues his money in a series of murders up the managerial structure of the Syndicate - 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. Roger Ebert wrote, in his , "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 : "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... 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.

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Movies - Point Blank

Plot

Critical reaction

Trivia

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