An existential punch to the gut

POINT BLANK (1967)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Richly textured with blazing images and oblique sounds, John Boorman's "Point Blank" might well be the type of movie David Lynch would've made back in 1967 had he been a director then. It is a souped-up, rough and tough noir picture of machismo crossed with surreal imaginings, mostly from seeing the world inside of the protagonist's mind that is Lee Marvin's Walker .

The story is very simple. Walker has participated in a bungled heist at Alcatraz that results in his friend, a mobster named Reese (John Vernon) shooting him several times and leaving him for dead, and escaping with Walker's wife. Walker miraculously survives his seemingly mortal wounds, swims across the river, and a year later, he exacts revenge on his friend and everyone else. He also wants his 93,000 dollars he was to receive from the heist. After Walker has beat and shot several people linked to this heist, he still can't get his money. Nobody will pay him. And when a moment arrives when it looks like Walker will receive his money, something goes awry.

After watching "Point Blank" I felt a little dismayed and disappointed with it, asking myself, "what on earth is this movie about other than a thief trying to get his money?" But it is also the kind of noir picture that sticks with you, and it helps that Lee Marvin, one of the best tough guys in cinema history, makes it all palatable and nuanced. Especially effective are the placement of flashbacks to a kinder, smitten Walker with his wife-to-be. Then are also recurring flashbacks to Walker seeing his friend Reese at a loud party in one of the most frenetic party sequences ever filmed, made all the more flashy for noticing how little we can actually hear their conversation until, bit by bit, it becomes clearer.

For those who have seen Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey," "Point Blank" is more than an inspiration or an homage, it is to some degree the same movie. Whereas Soderbergh's film ends with an emotional punch, Boorman's film is more an existentialist punch to the gut. "Point Blank" substitutes general murkiness for substance, though to be fair Walker lacks any real substance possibly by design, yet Lee Marvin packs in a lot of two-fisted excitement in the role and John Boorman's direction is most assured. Not my favorite modern noir but it is one of the best.