Movie Review: Point Blank (1967)

From director John Boorman comes ‘Point Blank,’ a classic early neo noir that includes Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, and Carroll O’Connor. It is based on the book “The Hunter” by Richard Stark.

Interestingly, the movie Payback (1999), starring Mel Gibson, is another adaptation of the book, and each movie takes very different approaches from the original in their screenplay. “The Hunter” was the first of a series of books that introduced Parker, a ruthless, unemotional career criminal who has an unbridled devotion to his trade, which he performs with an obsession for professionalism. Many of the books in this series have been adapted to film over the years.

Superficially, ‘Point Blank’ may seem like a run-of-the-mill story of betrayal and vengeance, but on closer examination, a discerning viewer will discover that the film packs many other interesting aspects.

The plot begins on Alcatraz, where a wounded, struggling Parker (Marvin) realizes that his crime partner Reese (John Vernon) and wife Lynne (Sharon Acker) have just double-crossed him. It is revealed that the trio planned a heist on the island by intercepting an agent of an organized crime syndicate referred to as “The Organization.” Alcatraz has been abandoned as a federal penitentiary and left empty for many years.

After a shootout, the trio nabs $150,000 from the agent, but in a sudden turn of events, Reese shoots Parker and absconds with Lynne. Parker’s narrative is suddenly interrupted by the voice of a tour guide on a tourist boat. She is now telling the history of Alcatraz and narrating many of the successful and failed escape attempts of prisoners held in its infamous prison.

Parker is seen on this tourist boat in the company of a mysterious man, Yost(Keenan Wynn), who proposes a partnership with Parker. Yost will help Parker find Reese, and Parker must help Yost bring down the Organization. The film does not explain how Parker escaped the island or how he and Yost found one another.

Yost explains to Parker that Lynne and Reese are living together in Los Angeles. Reese has since ‘redeemed’ himself with the Organization, having paid back what he had stolen from them earlier, and has moved up the chain.

Parker ambushes Lynne in her apartment, enters her bedroom, and unloads several bullets into the bed, only to realize moments later that there is no one in it. Lynne, who is addicted to sleeping pills, tells him that Reese has since left her but has a courier pay her a sum of a thousand dollars a month.

In the next scene, Parker, who has passed out on a couch at the apartment, finds Lynne dead, apparently from an overdose. He then attacks the courier who has come to the apartment to make the scheduled payment to Lynne.

The courier, threatened by Parker, reveals that he was put on the job by a car dealer, Stegman, who serves as Reese’s middleman. Stegman informs Parker that Reese can be found with Chris(Angie Dickinson), Lynne’s sister, who works as a waitress at a nightclub.

After finding Chris, Parker discovers that while Reese has fallen hard for Chris, she does not reciprocate his feelings and despises him. She, however, has always had affection for Parker. He also learns that Reese, aware that Parker is coming for him, has fortified himself in a heavily guarded penthouse of a large building.

Parker infiltrates the penthouse with Chris’s help and accosts Reese after incapacitating many of Reese’s men. Parker demands his share of the money, a sum of $93,000, from Reese. Reese informs Parker that he does not have the money with him and that Parker should get it from Carter(Lloyd Bochner), Brewster(Carroll O’Connor), and Fairfax, the men at the top of the Organization’s food chain. Parker soon gets his vengeance on Reese but still seeks his money from the Organization’s men as retribution.

Surprisingly, there are no great action sequences that follow, and the ending is relatively tame. One other minus in the movie is the absence of a diabolical villain to pose a worthy challenge to the rough and tough Parker.

Lee Marvin plays Parker effectively, showing no emotions and never giving in to a smile throughout the film. Marvin’s Parker is stoic and professional but not perfect, and he makes a few mistakes along the way. Angie Dickinson’s performance as Chris is also effective. However, casting Carroll O’Connor as Brewster was a mistake. He is neither funny nor intimidating. The twist at the end is also lame. However, there are many aspects of this movie that make it a worthwhile watch.

One outstanding attribute of the movie is its cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop. Lathrop effectively blends noir lighting techniques in many nocturnal scenes with New Wave Cinema techniques that combine long takes with abrupt scene changes. One noteworthy scene is of Parker walking along an endless hallway with the sound of his shoes reverberating in the background. The scene at the beginning, described earlier, where the sound of the guide suddenly interrupts Parker’s narrative, is another noteworthy scene.

My Musings and Some Spoilers

‘Point Blank,’ when looked at with a different mental lens, is open to many interpretations. For some critics, like Tarantino, it is simply an adaptation of Parker’s first adventure. However, John Boorman’s presentation of the movie opens up other possibilities.

Did Boorman deliberately avoid getting into details of Parker’s escape from Alcatraz and his association with Yost? We have the narrative of the tour guide suggesting that escaping Alcatraz is nearly impossible. This could suggest that Parker did not actually leave Alcatraz and the rest of the movie is his fantasy of revenge and retribution.

A careful observer would note that Parker does not kill anyone himself. This would suggest that it is not Parker but his vengeful spirit that seeks revenge and retribution. Further, his association with Yost could also be interpreted as Parker’s deal with the devil to seek out and destroy everyone who wronged him. Each of the deaths was probably caused by their own guilt dragging them to their doom.

Considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the US Library of Congress, ‘Point Blank’ should be considered essential viewing for all lovers and students of noir films.

For those interested, I have left a link to one of Tarantino’s interviews where he shares his (no so favorable) thoughts on Point Break and elaborates on other movies based on teh Parker series of books from Stark.