Review of Targets (1968) by Ian M — 04 Apr 2010

Peter Bogdanovich's first movie. I've passed on this for years because early pre-fame efforts from the great '70s directors are invariably unwatchable. Not only were they novice filmmakers but they were also working in one of the worst, most self conscious eras of moviemaking - the late '60s.

Usually the box or DVD would blurb "showed his early promise with this gritty saga..." or something like that and it would end up a piece of crap like "Boxcar Bertha" from Scorcese or a dippy mess like Brian Depalma's "Greetings".

That's what I thought this would be, but "Targets" is actually a good riff on the Texas Tower Sniper and it does show Bogdanovich's early promise. It's an intelligent script, but not pretentious, and I think the low budget works in his favor and gives the movie a grounded documentary vibe.

The acting is better than most B pictures. Bogdanovich probably shouldn't have cast himself, he's the stiffest one here, but he's not distractingly bad. There are a few points made about the generation gap, it was mandatory in 1968, man, but it's not dated like most "youth" pictures of the era, and it's part of the plot.

The script is also clever enough to tie the violence into an actual filmgoing experience and it wraps up nicely. This is a top shelf B picture.