Point Blank is magnificent– pulpy revenge subject matter meets high art direction like Breathless, Shoot the Piano Player, Bob le Flambeur– clearly influenced by the French new wave here (in terms of high art meets crime genre)—which was of course influenced by American film noir—the spectacular use of architecture though actually is closer to Resnais and Antonioni than Godard, Melville and Truffaut
David Thomson writes about Lee Marvin’s character being a ghost—I don’t see it—but there are a few scenes that support that—there’s the constant reference it to being a dream Lee Marvin is having. He’s shot, then gets up and he honestly doesn’t seem to be injured. His wife doesn’t talk directly to him – she’s almost like talking to herself with him there in the scene like Sixth Sense or something—even later Angie Dickinson’s character says “you died at Alcatraz alright”
It can also be viewed as a major film in the American New Wave or movement from 1967-1979 (though Boorman is British) coming out in the important year of 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate
Nick Schager Slant Magazine- “What makes Point Blank so extraordinary is Boorman’s virtuoso use of such unconventional avant-garde stylistics to saturate the proceedings with a classical noir mood of existential torpor and romanticized fatalism.”
Background architecture as character— silent storytelling, non-linear narrative construction, the use of open space
Los Angeles very much a character in the film—Boorman insisted on location scouting himself
The entire heist is done in the opening cross-cut flashback—it’s a bit disorienting until you get on its wavelength
Walking the hallways of LAX—the use of color and lighting- -gob-smackingly beautiful. It influences Jackie Brown and Tarantino shot there as well. The scene is great not just because of the visuals but the audio— Boorman users the sound of Marvin walking and overlaps it non-diegetically onto the intercut scene and the following scene
the greatest image/sequence in a film absolutely loaded with them
Great shot of the beauty parlor hall of mirrors—
A stunner of Marvin in the car—its honestly amazing that Boorman can get wall-art from a guy sitting in a car
Influences everything today from Refn to Atomic Blonde – here Marvin beats the hell out of a guy in front of a neon light with the lights moving on Marvin’s face
The high-rise exteriors and interiors—fabulous – using structure to block the frame–
Angie Dickinson is in yellows—her sofa, cabinets, robes—drenched in it
Yellow and red pillars in the parking structure
the L.A. Rain basin set piece viaduct sequence- I mean that’s used in Grease, Terminator 2, Drive
canted angles, very expressionist and flashback heavy—I see an influence here on You Were Never Really Here and Lynn Ramsay in general
wow. just watched this today from tcm. probably wouldn’t have watched it if i didn’t see you call it a masterpiece so thank you. reminded me of dirty harry except i thought it was much better. thought it started off a bt slow but by the end it was great. lee marvin as walker was brilliant and the visuals from boorman. armond white called it the greatest color noir of all time.how do you feel about the reading that it was all a dream, do you agree. i don’t know i think it makes more sense as him getting revenge for something seemingly small. how he hides in the guys multimillion dollar house and the guy says (paraphrasing) ‘you invaded my luxury home for 93 thousand bucks.’ other great lines like ‘profit is the only principal’ a critique of greed in america. some of the more colorful scenes reminded me of blow up or other side of the wind. great film.
@Zane- Good question. I haven’t decided when I’m going to update the top 100 actors pages but Lee Marvin should certainly get some serious consideration with two mentions in the 1960’s now that I’ve corrected a few things.
Rewatched last night, definitely becoming of my favourite 60s masterpieces.
Not sure definitively but I see a lot of evidence for the ghost/dream theory.
– I unintentionally did a double viewing of Escape from Alcatraz and this yesterday. In the boat scene of Point Blank there’s audio basically recounting the escape from Alcatraz explaining the water temperature and distance to swim. An actual event in Point Blank is Marvin getting shot three times then getting into the water to swim to shore, the guards in the other movie claimed it would be impossible to make that distance by swimming so could Walker really make the swim at night after being shot up several times?
– Walker’s overall unphased nature – in the club where the screaming singer he’s too detached from his surroundings. There’s also the boat scene with Yost where the two characters talk but don’t look at each other and the scene with his wife Lynne where she essentially talks to herself with Walker sitting silently on the couch. There’s also that surreal shot that follows with Walker in the barren corner of the house (meant to look like the jail cell he would theoretically die in)
– Walker is shown to be a completely different person in the flashbacks to the reunion and courting his wife, his face is lit up and energetic.
– There’s also the car scene where he’s completely unmoved by the physics of the car and the scene where Angie Dickenson slaps him repeatedly and he will not react.
– The ending is Walker backing up into the darkness and just disappearing, abandoning this reality.
Doesn’t matter how it’s interpreted though, great film
wow. just watched this today from tcm. probably wouldn’t have watched it if i didn’t see you call it a masterpiece so thank you. reminded me of dirty harry except i thought it was much better. thought it started off a bt slow but by the end it was great. lee marvin as walker was brilliant and the visuals from boorman. armond white called it the greatest color noir of all time.how do you feel about the reading that it was all a dream, do you agree. i don’t know i think it makes more sense as him getting revenge for something seemingly small. how he hides in the guys multimillion dollar house and the guy says (paraphrasing) ‘you invaded my luxury home for 93 thousand bucks.’ other great lines like ‘profit is the only principal’ a critique of greed in america. some of the more colorful scenes reminded me of blow up or other side of the wind. great film.
@ m – very happy to hear it- thanks for sharing!
oh yeah, i forgot to say but if it really were a dream sequence than it would render sixth sense useless.
[…] Point Blank – Boorman […]
How close is Lee Marvin, as you’d have it, to being one of the 100 best actors of all time?
@Zane- Good question. I haven’t decided when I’m going to update the top 100 actors pages but Lee Marvin should certainly get some serious consideration with two mentions in the 1960’s now that I’ve corrected a few things.
Rewatched last night, definitely becoming of my favourite 60s masterpieces.
Not sure definitively but I see a lot of evidence for the ghost/dream theory.
– I unintentionally did a double viewing of Escape from Alcatraz and this yesterday. In the boat scene of Point Blank there’s audio basically recounting the escape from Alcatraz explaining the water temperature and distance to swim. An actual event in Point Blank is Marvin getting shot three times then getting into the water to swim to shore, the guards in the other movie claimed it would be impossible to make that distance by swimming so could Walker really make the swim at night after being shot up several times?
– Walker’s overall unphased nature – in the club where the screaming singer he’s too detached from his surroundings. There’s also the boat scene with Yost where the two characters talk but don’t look at each other and the scene with his wife Lynne where she essentially talks to herself with Walker sitting silently on the couch. There’s also that surreal shot that follows with Walker in the barren corner of the house (meant to look like the jail cell he would theoretically die in)
– Walker is shown to be a completely different person in the flashbacks to the reunion and courting his wife, his face is lit up and energetic.
– There’s also the car scene where he’s completely unmoved by the physics of the car and the scene where Angie Dickenson slaps him repeatedly and he will not react.
– The ending is Walker backing up into the darkness and just disappearing, abandoning this reality.
Doesn’t matter how it’s interpreted though, great film
@Harry- Love this Harry- great share.