Review of Point Blank (1967) by Zayne R — 11 Jun 2008

Lee Marvin is the greatest man who ever lived.

There. I said it. Lee Marvin is a bad motherf*cker. Sure, I'm not the first guy to say it, but I'm goign to be one of those people who says it with such conviction that people will flock to their local video stores in praise of Lee "The Man" Marvin.

This is a cool movie. But more than that, it is an excellent experiment in thrillers. This movie really could have been very traditional and safe, but John Boorman decided to do something else with it. While the story drives much the movie, the direction takes this exceptional. Flashing striking images in moments of tension, there's this adrenaline that just takes over and dominates the film in a way that is unique and powerful. There's a sturm and drang that escalates moments of revenge that counters a phrase of "It's just about the money" ringing time-and-time again. It really is a heck of a thing and quite the cinematic experience.

I always find it hard to review absolutely excellent movies. It is easy to find what is wrong with a movie, but significantly harder to discover why a movie works so well. The pacing in this movie is fantastic. We start off with flashes of the present and the past, mixed up in a way that makes you question what is happening and what isn't. There's a certain insanity that is conveyed during the actual heist. The movie is only five minutes in and you are compelled to scream "dumbsh*t!" at the screen for opening fire on the transport guys. It takes a lot to hook you in that quickly, but Point Blank pulls it off. The way he systematically goes about his list, following the voice of an unknown stranger in attempt to get his well-deserved fortune is mesmorizing. Some movies, you know that he's going to have to go down a list so it will be the same repetive format over and over. (I think, primarily, of Hannibal Rising.) Not so with this one. Each confrontation tells a new tale. There's actually some pity evoked for some of these mobsters. But you want them to get what is coming to them. This movie invokes a certain inner brutality. You want him to get the money, but there will always be soemthing in Lee Marvin's way. Even the finale tortures this character.

My favorite part of this movie is that it doesn't try to explain how Lee Marvin survives his titular gunshot. It flashes to it over and over, but doesn't dare appease my curiousity, knowing that it could never live up to whatever answer I had concocted in my head. The best answer was that "he just survived out of sheer badassery." That's what they went with and I dig that hardcore.

The one issue I have is with one super-sixties special effect that kind of pulled me out of the movie for a second. It's the shot of the naked guy falling off the balcony. I really wish they just showed a dummy fall off the balcony. Having the animation was somewhat painful. But the movie is so good, that it doesn't really detract, but I felt it should have been mentioned.