Point Blank

It begins with the protagonist in darkness. Is he dead? He’s been shot, he’s nearly gone, it’s almost over. 

But he’s not dead yet.

Point Blank then gets on with its grim business as Walker seeks out the man who betrayed him and charges through a host of middle managers in a criminal organization to get back the $93,000 that was stolen from him. 

Based on the Donald E. Westlake book The Hunter this is a gritty, greasy tough guy flick. 

Director John Boorman and star Lee Marvin apparently conspired to make the movie they wanted to make in the face of studio pressure and other problems. 

Boorman was so new at this that Marvin (allegedly) faked a raging alcoholic spree in order to give Boorman more time to figure out his shots.

IMDB quotes Boorman on this.

“One night while filming the finale’s Alcatraz-set scenes, an exhausted and spent Sir John Boorman realized he had no idea what he was doing. Lee Marvin realized it too and asked if the director was in trouble. He told Boorman to leave it to him, and ‘suddenly he was drunk, he was shouting, laughing, and screaming,’ and the production manager approached Boorman saying there was no way they could keep filming. ‘Soon as I was off the hook, the pressure was off; it took me ten minutes to work out the shots, and Lee made this amazing recovery.’”

Wouldn’t it be great if these trivia quotes were sourced from the news articles or whatever they came from.

Given where Boorman was in his career I want to note that the first 20 minutes of this are weak. If the movie had gone on like that I would have given up. 

But something turns inside it, Boorman and Marvin get into a groove and the action sequences kick in and Marvin starts growling at people about his money and the thing becomes a blissful time in crime land. 

There is no extra toppings on this meal. No garnish, if you will. Marvin just starts beating up and threatening guys as he goes up every rung on the criminal corporate ladder. 

My fave part is that at every level whoever he is harassing tells him what he’s asking for is impossible. The next guy up the line won’t pay you either, they say. 

Walker, never wavering in his rage and disgust dutifully responds, ‘someone’s got to pay.’

And then Walker convinces whoever it is that they should reconsider. 

It’s crime movie fun. And there is a lot of fun in watching Walker outsmart his enemies and create situations that lead them to their deaths. 

Walker takes a car dealer for a wild ride but other than that he mostly just threatens and cajoles until someone else delivers the killing stroke. 

Now, we should talk briefly about whether or not Walker is a ghost as this has been a topic of discussion connected to this movie. 

Walker is not a ghost. 

There, I hope that helps. 

Boorman and Marvin’s Point Blank is (I think) to crime movies what Kurasawa’s Seven Samurai is to action films or John Ford’s The Searchers was to the 1970’s directors. A touchstone film that defined a genre. 

If you as the type of movie fan who tracks these things back then I think you will see the connections to later flicks.

You won’t have to go far to find a dozen crime movies and crime movie directors (notably Steven Soderbergh but there are plenty of others) who found inspiration out of this. Check out The Limey it’s amazing. 

And I also enjoyed the criminal up against the soulless corporation parts of it. Every empty suit would just give him his money, they want to give him his money but they can’t find a spot for it on the ledger. 

Killing Them Softly nails this bit of American corporate life perfectly with its final speech from Brad Pitt. 

“America is a business” indeed. 

Some of you might find the ending cryptic and it’s certainly part of the reason why the ghost theory came to prominence. 

Walker’s choices in the final moments don’t seem to line up with his goals. 

But I thought it made perfect sense. 

Walker began this journey in darkness and to the darkness he returned.