Last week the Monday Question was about Revenge movies. Dan Heaton from the Public Transportation Snob blog (which is an excellent movie blog worth checking out by the way) suggested Point Blank, which I had never seen. My thoughts on it after the break.
Walker (Lee Marvin) is a very unlucky man. In the opening of the movie we see him together with his friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) doing a robbery on Alcatraz. They succeed, but moments later he is shot and left for dead. He survives and is determined to get his revenge and get his share of the money. It’s a difficult job as he is protected by “The Organization”.
Point Blank really has a very distinct style. In the beginning you will feel as lost as Walker is, with constant cuts between the present and the past. The audio of this movie follows this style as well, there is a scene where you shortly see Walker walking and hear his footsteps, but as the footage is changed the sound of footsteps remains.Things like these sometimes make it a trippy movie to watch. It’s not only the editing, but some scenes are weird too as a bit where you see how Walker met his wife. He talks to her and for some strange reason all these men crowd around her, like something horrible is about to happen. The movie is set in L.A. and the office buildings and the storm drains of the city are anonymous cold witnesses to all the things Walker does.
Walker is a bad ass man who doesn’t mind going to extremes in order to get the information out of people, one example is a scene in which he goes to a car salesman who got some information. He joins him for a test drive, which does not turn out to go as the salesman planned. If you like revenge movies I’m sure you will be on the edge of your seat enjoying the ride.
There is a theory about this movie which I found very interesting (stop reading if you have not seen this movie yet), which is that Walker actually is close to death after being shot (we see him going into the river, which no one has ever survived) and that everything which happens in the movie actually all happens in his mind. This actually could be true as it would fit the way it was edited as well.
Score: 8