Review of Point Blank (1967) by Ricardo O — 09 Sep 2010

Brewster: You're a very bad man, Walker, a very destructive man! Why do you run around doing things like this?

Walker: I want my money. I want my $93,000.

Brewster: $93,000? You threaten a financial structure like this for $93,000? No, Walker, I don't believe you. What do you really want?

Walker: I - I really want my money.

Brewster: Well, I'm not going to give you any money and nobody else is. Don't you understand that?

Walker: Who runs things?

Brewster: Carter and I run things. I run things.

Walker: What about Fairfax? Will he pay me?

Brewster: Fairfax is a man who signs checks.

Walker: No, cash.

Brewster: Fairfax isn't going to give you anything. He's finished. Fairfax is dead. He just doesn't know it yet.

Walker: Somebody's got to pay.

Lee Marvin plays a stone-faced thief named Walker who is shot point blank by his double-crossing friend Mal Reese, played by John Vernon in his first starring role. Both were on the island of Alcatraz to pick up the money from a robbery but Reese leaves Walker for dead in a cell and takes off with Walker's wife Lynne, played by Sharon Acker, and his $93,000. Walker miraculously survives the incident and returns to Los Angeles to seek revenge on his former friend with the help of a man named Yost, played by Keenan Wynn, and Lynne's siter Chris, played by Angie Dickinson. All Walker wants is his money and he is able to get inside of Reese's penthouse suite and The Organizaton all the while showing no kind of emotion towards the deaths he has in one way or another caused. It's ending is notable for being very ambiguous and in a way suggesting that Walker really did die in the cell in Alcatraz and had only dreamt up the whole revenge adventure.

Lee Marvin plays one of the most brutish characters of his career full of brutish characters. The man is ice-cold but with a purpose, his $93,000. The plot itself is very simple and one that has been used plenty of times but Boorman uses many different techniques to make it a fresh new take on the revenge genre. He uses flashbacks/flash-forwards to events that will happen in the near future and other memories that come into Walker's mind as well as some jump cuts that were starting to become more famous with other violent films of the time like Arthur Penn's "Bonnie & Clyde". There are many edit shifts throughout the film that give it a surreal dreamlike atmosphere. It also makes great use of colors and camera angles. But became heavily influential with it's many techniques used and portrayal of the violence shown and suggested that would inspire many of the films by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader, Brian de Palma and others who have excelled at creating crime thrillers. It would later be remade in the '90s as the Mel Gibson vehicle Payback. It is one of the best American films from the late '60s. Point Blank is a stone-cold, fascinating thriller that borrows many aspects that define the film noir genre and adds arthouse flourishes with it's expressionistic camera placement, color schemes and sound, although the only thing that badly dates the film is the music. But other than the music and some sound effects it is a film that will stand the test of time and will keep influencing more filmmakers to come. 10/10.

"You died at Alcatraz alright.".