Point Blank Opens

By FocusFeatures.com  | August 29, 2009 @ 10:23 pm

Following his debut film, Catch Us if You Can, which starred the Dave Clark Five in an odd yet technically dazzling capturing of the '60s pop culture zeitgeist, John Boorman traveled to America to make his first studio picture: an adaptation of a Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark) novel, The Hunter, entitled Point Blank. And while the components of that book — the tale of a double-crossed criminal seeking the return of his share of stolen loot — might seem boilerplate, Boorman brought with him a toolkit full of innovative camera and editing techniques influenced by both the French New Wave as well as the British cinema of compatriots like John Schlesinger and Karel Reisz. The result was one of the most original crime films ever. Point Blank distilled noir to its minimalist essence while also creating a kaleidoscopic, dizzying portrait of the hippie-era '60s, finding cultural disorientation in everything from the people to the clothes to the architecture. And while the movie can be read as a simple tale about a guy — Lee Marvin in perhaps his most iconic role — trying to get his $93,000 back, it's also a metaphysical meditation on death and dying that has influenced countless filmmakers since. Its final maybe-twist foreshadowed The Sixth Sense, while filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Jim Jarmusch have publicly stated their admiration for the film. (Indeed, the production company of The Limits of Control, Jarmusch's latest, was titled PointBlank.) The film was remade by Mel Gibson as Payback, inspired the Ringo Lam Hong Kong actioner Full Contact, and its influence can be felt in Steven Soderbergh's The Limey, but while its story can be reprised, its essence cannot. Its truly original style and visual perceptiveness created a rarely repeated symbiosis between Hollywood narrative and experimental art film.