Review of Targets (1968) by Mjs M — 15 Apr 2008
This is one of those Roger Corman movies from the sixties made by someone who took the project a lot more seriously than Corman ever would have. This was Peter Bogdanovich?s first film, and it was quite a debut.
This is a strange film, but in a good way, I?m not sure I?d call it experimental but it clearly did influence a lot of other movies. The film tells two parallel stories, one is the story of an aging horror film star played by a very old Boris Karloff on the verge of retirement, the other is the story of a disturbed young man based on Charles Whitman who snaps and begins to shoot random pedestrians with a sniper rifle.
On one level the film is like a passing of the guard between dated horror films of the past and the grim horrors of the world, and a general allegory about the changing world of the late 60s. Alternatively, the film works really well as a straight up thriller, there is a real tension in parts and the shooting scenes are really just disturbing in nature, in a good way.
This review of Targets (1968) was written by Mjs M on 15 Apr 2008.
Targets has generally received very positive reviews.
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