Director: John Boorman
Writers: Alexander Jacobs (screenplay), David Newhouse (screenplay), Rafe Newhouse (screenplay), Donald E. Westlake (novel ‘The Hunter’) (as Richard Stark)
Stars: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
This review is part of the feature:
The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse
Is it a dream or is it really happening? Walker (a brutal and gritty Lee Marvin) is shot and left for dead in an abandoned Alcatraz by his criminal partner Mal Reese and his wife Lynne after a job.
He survives and goes after Reese who used the money to buy his way back into the Organisation, a crime syndicate. The rest of the film is a revenge trip in which Walker chews his way through the Organisation’s operators to get his money back. Walker is helped by Chris (Angie Dickinson), the sister of his wife who killed herself after Walker returned.
The script is based on the novel ‘The Hunter’ by Richard Stark, which was also adapted in 1999 as Payback which starred Mel Gibson. That movie was good, but this is the superior film.
Boorman departs from genre conventions and adds surrealism and avant-garde stylistics, which makes this appear as a European style crime thriller. Viewers and critics have often questioned whether or not the film is really a dream – or perhaps Walker is actually dead and the film is the perspective of his angry ghost seeking bitter vengeance from beyond the grave?
Another interpretation by director Boorman is that the film is about Lee Marvin’s brutalizing experiences in World War II, which dehumanized him and left him searching desperately for a sense of self.
Marvin is effective in his gorilla-like manners, but a bit clunky at times. Jane Dickinson is very good in the crucial role of Chris.
At the time of its release, Point Blank was considered shockingly violent, though its impact has softened in an era accustomed to more explicit depictions of brutality. Still, its psychological depth and atmospheric tension remain undiminished ensuring the film’s status as a cult classic.
