Review of Point Blank (1967) by Allan C — 19 May 2017

John Boorman's brilliant hallucinatory revenge film defies genre traditions and ends up becoming something wholly new never seen on film before or since. Lee Marvin plays the laconic Walker (named Parker in the Richard Stark/Donald Westlake books), a man double crossed and left for dead by his wife and best friend.

He reemerges years later and his friend has now climbed the crime syndicate ranks, so Marvin starts at the bottom and works his way up the syndicate ranks, single handedly taking out the entire syndicate hierarchy.

The script is efficient and the film features a strong cast, led by an almost completely silent Marvin, which includes Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor, Michael Strong, and John Vernon.

With this script and cast, this would have been enough for a solid crime film in the hands of most any director. Even a journeyman like Gordon Douglas or Phil Karlson could have made a good film, but it's Boorman's visual and editing style that make this film something truly unique and a film classic.

The closest I can think to compare this film to would be proto-French New Wave director Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samouraï" (released the same year) or possibly moments in a handful of Brian de Palma films.

There are so many moments in the film that burn their way into the viewers brain, such as Walker determined march down a long hallways with the only sound being his footsteps intercut with him tracking down his first target, or Walker silently sitting on the couch next to his ex-wife as she tells why she betrayed him, or the fight sequence in a nightclub with swirls of psychedelic colors exploding across the face of Marvin to 1960s youth music, to the film's ending as the audience watch Walker's half shadowed face completely slip into darkness.

The film is a visual feast and is the strongest element of the film's many strong points. Lee Marvin's performance as well demands recognition. Marvin was always an underrated actor, but you truly cannot take your eyes off of him in this film as he single mindedly works his way through the LA crime syndicate repeating over and over, like a mantra, "I want me $83,000 dollars" "Point Blank" is a true American film classic (by a British director) that must be seen by all cinephiles.

And look fast for Sid Haig as a mob security guard.