There. I said it. Lee Marvin is a bad motherf*cker. Sure, I'm not the first guy to say it, but I'm goign to be one of those people who says it with such conviction that people will flock to their local video stores in praise of Lee "The Man" Marvin.
This is a cool movie. But more than that, it is an excellent experiment in thrillers. This movie really could have been very traditional and safe, but John Boorman decided to do something else with it. While the story drives much the movie, the direction takes this exceptional. Flashing striking images in moments of tension, there's this adrenaline that just takes over and dominates the film in a way that is unique and powerful. There's a sturm and drang that escalates moments of revenge that counters a phrase of "It's just about the money" ringing time-and-time again. It really is a heck of a thing and quite the cinematic experience.
I always find it hard to review absolutely excellent movies. It is easy to find what is wrong with a movie, but significantly harder to discover why a movie works so well. The pacing in this movie is fantastic. We start off with flashes of the present and the past, mixed up in a way that makes you question what is happening and what isn't. There's a certain insanity that is conveyed during the actual heist. The movie is only five minutes in and you are compelled to scream "dumbsh*t!" at the screen for opening fire on the transport guys. It takes a lot to hook you in that quickly, but Point Blank pulls it off. The way he systematically goes about his list, following the voice of an unknown stranger in attempt to get his well-deserved fortune is mesmorizing. Some movies, you know that he's going to have to go down a list so it will be the same repetive format over and over. (I think, primarily, of Hannibal Rising.) Not so with this one. Each confrontation tells a new tale. There's actually some pity evoked for some of these mobsters. But you want them to get what is coming to them. This movie invokes a certain inner brutality. You want him to get the money, but there will always be soemthing in Lee Marvin's way. Even the finale tortures this character.
My favorite part of this movie is that it doesn't try to explain how Lee Marvin survives his titular gunshot. It flashes to it over and over, but doesn't dare appease my curiousity, knowing that it could never live up to whatever answer I had concocted in my head. The best answer was that "he just survived out of sheer badassery." That's what they went with and I dig that hardcore.
The one issue I have is with one super-sixties special effect that kind of pulled me out of the movie for a second. It's the shot of the naked guy falling off the balcony. I really wish they just showed a dummy fall off the balcony. Having the animation was somewhat painful. But the movie is so good, that it doesn't really detract, but I felt it should have been mentioned.
Just when everyone thought good old noir was under the ground, John Boorman resurrected it in style, mixing it with a little psychedelia and avant-garde techniques, adding sex appeal of blond babes Angie Dickinson and Sharon Acker, and last but not least, placing the tough guy Lee Marvin in the deadly assignment of getting the money he was double-crossed for. Topnotch example of innovative, hypnotic and thrilling filmmaking.
a decent made action movie which seems a bit outdated and has an annoying voiceover and msic. With some good dialogue and some decent acting helps makes this film passable esepcially lee marvin play the tough guy role and angie dickenson as his love interest. ps the film was remade a lot better with me gibson in the movie payback almost nine years ago.
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.
A revenge flick, steeped in noir attitudes, involving a hard boiled Lee Marvin on a pursuit to get back the money that is owed to him.
The synopsis may be familiar, because it has been remade as Payback with Mel Gibson.
Both of these movies work on the same premise, and basically the same characters, but what separates them is the protagonist. In Payback, you had Gibson, who even when trying to be a hard ass, he still had that Gibson charm. In this film, Lee Marvin does what Lee Marvin does best, is a man who you believe is as mean he shows it. He can be a cool cat to follow, but don't get on his bad side.
This movie is a very enjoyable watch, that starts off with a bang, gives us some time to know Walker, and then follows his journey for justice and his money.
The athouse nature of Point Blank makes the first viewing of this film seem quite non-sensicle. However, the more times you watch the more sense it makes. The dialogue is a bit shonky in parts eg. "You're a bad man Walker!" and some of the more shocking aspects simply come across as comic by today's standards but it is still a good film nonetheless. Be avised, however, the sight of Lee Marvin in swimming trunks will scar you for life!!!!
The perfect example of the kind of film David Cronenberg describes as being very interesting and very boring at the same time. Interesting stylistic choices and some great moments, but it fucking CRAWLS...
Slow, anticlimactic, and completely unsympathetic, but director John Boorman gives the film more style than you can wave a gune at and a lot more tension than you'd expect. A LOT more tension.
A great gangster-revenge movie with Lee Marvin playing Walker, a man gunned down by partners and left to do time for all of them. He gets out and comes looking for payback...and dishes out plenty of that. The luscious Angie Dickinson is in the cast and she looks good as always. A recommended action adventure.
Wow! This is probably THE ULTIMATE Lee Marvin film. And along with Get Carter, the ultimate revenge film.
Tough dialogue, incredible fights and Marvin ozzes badass! Oh yea, its a John Boorman film also!
They dont make them like they used too!
It was just stupid and lame. Absolutely no meaning or plot behind it at all. It just incoherent. No reason for this film to be one of the 1001 movies you need to see before you die. Marvin isn't up to his usual par in this one and just isn't particularly amazing. Neither is the suppporting cast.
One of the best American gangster movies ever made. Lee Marvin in stellar perfomance, as a criminal left for dead and returns by getting revenge on the "organization" taking them out one by one for stealing his share of the loot. An excellent plot twist at the end you never see coming. Forget Gibson's Payback, this is very superior viewing.
MCT:June 12, 2008
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