Point Blank (1967)
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97% of critics liked it
(30 reviews) -
82% of users liked it
(6,981 ratings)
Based on Donald E. Westlake's novel The Hunter, John Boorman's gangster film hauntingly merges a generic revenge story with a European art cinema sensibility. In Alcatraz to divvy up the spoils from a robbery, thief Walker (Lee Marvin) is instead shot point blank by his double-crossing… More Based on Donald E. Westlake's novel The Hunter, John Boorman's gangster film hauntingly merges a generic revenge story with a European art cinema sensibility. In Alcatraz to divvy up the spoils from a robbery, thief Walker (Lee Marvin) is instead shot point blank by his double-crossing friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) and left to die while Reese takes off with Walker's wife Lynne (Sharon Acker) and his $93,000. Resurrected, the stone-faced Walker returns to Los Angeles a couple of years later to seek revenge on Mal with the help of the enigmatic Yost (Keenan Wynn) and Lynne's sister Chris (Angie Dickinson). Wanting little but his cash, Walker implacably penetrates Mal's lair and the hierarchy of the shady "Organization," registering no emotion about the string of murders left in his wake, as his thoughts repeatedly return to the past that brought him there. In his first American feature, Boorman transforms a stripped-down revenge plot into a surreal meditation on the gangster's spiritual demise, using flashbacks and startling shifts in setting to interweave Walker's fractured memories with his extraordinarily photographed odyssey through L.A. Marvin's chillingly stoic presence further hints at the ambiguities in Chris's observation that Walker "died at Alcatraz, all right." Brutal in the violence that it shows and suggests, Point Blank opened in the U.S. in the same period as Bonnie and Clyde, becoming one more testament to the genre-bending and ground-breaking possibilities of the nascent Hollywood New Wave. Although Point Blank was mostly overlooked in 1967, Boorman's visual adventurousness, and Marvin's amoral and apathetic antihero, have since made Point Blank seem one of the key films of the mid-late '60s, a precursor to revisionist experimentations from Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino. It was remade as the 1999 Mel Gibson vehicle Payback. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Directed By
- John Boorman
- Written By
- Donald E. Westlake, Alexander Jacobs
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1967 Wide
- Studio
- MGM Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Tom Huddleston, Time Out
There are moments of breathtaking visual creativity, from the not-quite-freeze-frames over the opening credits to a series of confrontational close-ups when things turn violent.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It gets back into the groove of Hollywood thrillers, after the recent glut of spies, counterspies, funny spies, anti-hero spies and spy-spier spies.
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Philip French, Observer [UK]
One of the four supreme masterworks in a major oeuvre ...
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Derek Malcolm, This is London
An almost experimental discourse on crime, punishment and revenge brilliantly shot by Philip H. Lathrop.
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Allan Hunter, Daily Express
Boorman brought a fresh eye to the LA locations in a film frequently remade but never equalled.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Lee Marvin
as Walker
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Angie Dickinson
as Chris
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Keenan Wynn
as Fairfax
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Carroll O'Connor
as Brewster
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Lloyd Bochner
as Frederick Carter
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John Vernon
as Mal Reese
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Sharon Acker
as Lynne
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Michael Strong
as Stegman
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James B. Sikking
as Hired Gun
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Sandra Warner
as Waitress
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Roberta Haynes
as Mrs. Carter
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Kathleen Freeman
as 1st Citizen
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Victor Creatore
as Carter's Man
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Lawrence Hauben
as Car Salesman
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Susan Holloway
as Customer
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Sid Haig
as Guard
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Michael Patrick Bell
as Penthouse Lobby Guard
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Priscilla Boyd
as Receptionist
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Ron Walters
as Roommates
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Rico Cattani
as Guard
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Bill Hickman
as Guard
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Chuck Hicks
as Guard
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Karen Lee
as Waitress
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Joseph Mell
as Man
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Felix Silla
as Bellhop
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Ted White
as Football Player
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Carey Foster
as Dancer
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Lou Whitehill
as Policeman
- James Sikking

