Point Blank (1967)

Director:

John Boorman

Writers:

Donald E. Westlake (novel)
Alexander Jacobs (writer) ...

Release Date:

30 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

There are two kinds of people in his up-tight world: his victims and his women. And sometimes you can't tell them apart.

Plot:

Based on the theme of the individual pitted against the large, impersonal organization. Here the central...

Plot Keywords:

Organized Crime | Vengeance | High Heels | Warrior | Husband Wife Relationship

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Lee Marvin	...	Walker
Angie Dickinson	...	Chris
Keenan Wynn	...	Yost
Carroll O'Connor	...	Brewster
Lloyd Bochner	...	Frederick Carter
Michael Strong	...	Stegman
John Vernon	...	Mal Reese
Sharon Acker	...	Lynne
James Sikking	...	Hired Gun
Sandra Warner	...	Waitress
Roberta Haynes	...	Mrs. Carter
Kathleen Freeman	...	First Citizen
Victor Creatore	...	Carter's Man
Lawrence Hauben	...	Car Salesman
Susan Holloway	...	Girl Customer

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:16 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Australia:M | Portugal:17 (original rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (cut) | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (re-rating) (1998) | UK:18 (video rating) (1993) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Lee Marvin faked the recoil from the .44 Magnum when he shoots in Lynne's bed. These were in fact blanks, but afterward when shooting in Alcatraz they tried with real bullets and there was no recoil at all. Marvin said to director John Boorman, "Fiction overtakes reality".

Quotes:

Brewster: You're a very bad man, Walker, a very destructive man! Why do you run around doing things like this?
Walker: I want my money. I want my $93,000.
Brewster: $93,000? You threaten a financial structure like this for $93,000? No, Walker, I don't believe you. What do you really want?
Walker: I - I really want my money.
Brewster: Well, I'm not going to give you any money and nobody else is. Don't you understand that?
Walker: Who runs things?
Brewster: Carter and I run things. I run things.
Walker: What about Fairfax? Will he pay me?
Brewster: Fairfax is a man who signs checks.
Walker: No, cash.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dusty (2008)

Soundtrack:

Mighty Good Times

Raw, Lyrical, and Bullets

Point Blank kind of came and went in theaters but I can't imagine anyone who saw it in 1967 left forgetting John Boorman's tough and beautiful film. A simple story told in a very stylish and, at times, surreal manner. Though the storyline is a variation on "revenge" themes, it is Boorman's images that open it up and find pay-dirt. Images of Lee Marvin emptying his pistol in slow motion, the sound of footsteps over a string of pictures that curdle the mind, and the seemingly limitless use of rawness perfectly realized in the action and performance by Marvin and,interestingly, Angie Dickinson. There is a wonderful conflict between the primal Marvin and the Corporate Crime world which he cannot understand. Marvin knows survival of the fittest- not the richest. It's hypnotic and aggressive. Boorman balances perfectly on the line between the two.