Point Blank

Plot synopsis:
Walker works with his friend Mal Reese to steal a large amount of cash from a courier transporting funds for a major gambling operation, with the deserted Alcatraz Island as a drop point. Reese then double-crosses Walker and shoots him, leaving him for dead. Reese also makes off with Walker's wife, Lynne.
Walker recovers. With assistance from the mysterious Yost, who seems to know everything about everybody, Walker sets out to find Reese, take his revenge, and recover the $93,000 he is owed. Reese used all of the money from the job to pay back a debt to a crime syndicate called "The Organization" and get back in its good graces.
With memories of happy times together, Walker goes to Los Angeles to pay back his wife and his best friend for their treachery. He bursts in on Lynne and riddles her bed with bullets, just in case Reese is in it. A distraught Lynne tells him she no longer wants to live, then takes an overdose of pills.
Walker is told that a car dealer named Stegman might know where Reese can be found. He takes Stegman for a wild ride in one of his new cars, smashing the car and terrorizing him until Stegman reveals where Reese is living. He is told that Reese has now taken up with Walker's sister-in-law, Chris.
Breaking in on Chris, he learns that she actually despises Reese and had considered Walker the best thing ever to happen to her sister. Willing to help in any way, Chris agrees to a sexual tryst with Reese inside his heavily guarded penthouse apartment just so she can gain access and unbolt a door for Walker. Walker ties up some men in an apartment across from the penthouse and has a call made to police to report a robbery, creating a diversion that enables him to slip into the penthouse.
With a gun to Reese's head, Walker persuades him to give up the names of his Organization superiors – Carter, Brewster, and Fairfax – so he can make somebody pay back his $93,000. He then forces a naked Reese off the balcony and watches him plunge to his death.
After next confronting Carter for his money, Walker is set up. A hit man with a high-powered rifle is assigned to kill him at a money-drop in a storm-drain river bed. Walker sees to it that Carter and Stegman are the ones who get shot.
Yost takes him to a home belonging to Brewster. Walker visits Chris in her apartment, which has been trashed by The Organization. He brings her with him to the home belonging to Brewster, claiming she will be safer with him than by herself. Walker waits for Brewster to return there. Angry at Walker's apparent disinterest in her, Chris slaps and punches him as he regards her impassively, not defending himself. Then they make love. The following morning, Brewster comes home and is ambushed by Walker, who demands his money. Brewster insists that no one will pay. Walker forces Brewster to make a phone call to The Organization to get his money. Brewster speaks with a Mr. Fairfax, telling him that if they do not pay the money, he is going to be shot. Fairfax refuses to pay, though, saying, "Threatening phone calls don't impress me." Walker then shoots the phone. Brewster says that they can still get him the money in San Francisco through "The Alcatraz Run" in which large sums of money change hands. "The drop has changed, but the run is still the same," explains Brewster.
They travel to Fort Point in San Francisco. Walker does not trust him and refuses to show himself. Brewster receives the money by a courier in a helicopter. The hit man is also in the darkness with his rifle. He shoots Brewster, who falls to the ground thinking Walker shot him. Yost emerges from the shadows, telling him that it was not Walker who shot him. Brewster calls out to Walker, "This is Fairfax, Walker! Kill him!"
Yost/Fairfax thanks Walker (who is still hiding in the darkness) for eliminating his dangerous underlings, telling him: "Our deal's done, Walker. Brewster was the last one." He then offers him an enforcer job, claiming he has looked for a man like him for years. Walker remains silent and does not bother collecting the money. Yost/Fairfax and the hit man leave.

Tags: pornographic, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, revenge

Review:
Unrelentingly downbeat, this stylish crime thriller made in 1967 seems to have fuelled virtually Elmore Leonard novel.Steely, panther-like hitman Walker (marvellous Marvin) has been fitted up, shot at and had $93,0000 stolen from him all because of ex-pal Mal Reese (John Vernon).
Love it, great film.For one thing, POINT BLANK, directed by British director John Boorman, has all the good looks of the various movements of the European New Wave, but walks the walk and talks the talk of an American thriller, and I mean that as a good thing.
Lee Marvin, in typically emotionless fashion, is the remorseless Walker who, after pulling off a successful heist from the mob, is double-crossed, shot and left for dead in the now abandoned Alcatraz prison by his wife (Sharon Acker) and his partner-in-crime (John Vernon).
Walker survives, escapes and moves to LA, where he kills his way up the ladder of a vaguely defined organized crime syndicate called "The Organization", hardly distinguishable from a legitimate cooperate business, in order to get his $93,000, occasionally aided by his sister, Chris (a great Angie Dickinson), who seems to know Walker's targets pretty well.Philip Wisethrop's widescreen compositions are absolutely stunning.
Boorman's games with narrative time, with extensive use of echoing flashbacks and jump-cuts, are the perfect reflection of Walker's dream-like struggle for justice, He's the typical tragic (noir)-hero, in a perpetual struggle to grasp what happened to him.
Several reasons come up: British Director John Boorman was at his best trying to outdo Don Siegel's The Killers (1967)-which also stars Marvin and Dickinson in somewhat similar roles.
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.
Lathrop.Betrayed by wife and friend during a robbery, Walker (Marvin) is left dying on a stone cold cell floor at closed down Alcatraz...Pure neo-noir, a film that could be argued was ahead of its time, given that it wouldn't find a fan base until many years later.
Funding the fuel around Marvin are good players providing slink, sleaze and suspicion.Deliberate pacing isn't for everyone, neither is stylised violence and stylish directorial trickery, but for those who dine at said tables, Point Blank, and Walker the man, is for you.
Walker (Lee Marvin) is a man left for dead at Alcatraz by his best friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) who has lied and betrayed him.
After surviving, he goes on a one man crusade to obtain his $93,000 that he believes is rightly his.Starting with his wife that ran away with Reese he sets about infiltrating his way into a crime syndicate known only as The Organisation to get his money and take bloody revenge on Reese for his wrong doing on Alcatraz.John Boorman's film is brilliantly styled and very violent for its time.
Lee Marvin is simply awesome as Walker, more of a force of nature wearing tailor made suits that go beyond cool rather than a human being.My favourite moment in this film is where Keenan Wynn as Yost gives Walker his wife's and Reese's address and we see him stomping down a long, coloured corridor inter cut with his wife waking up in bed and going about her business as Walker's footsteps get louder and louder until he kicks her door in and throttles her to the ground.
It is a brilliant moment.I also liked the way he remembers his life with Lynne, and how she narrates how they were so happy together before and after he met up with his long lost friend Mal Reese, its actually quite moving.There's also this excellent idea that while you watch this film you are only seeing what Walker would have wanted to happen IF he survived...and that he is still lying there in that cell on Alcatraz.Thats my theory.
After being double-crossed by his partner (John Vernon) and left for dead by unfaithful wife , a mysterious man named Walker (Lee Marvin) single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him and he seeks reckoning with a strange Organization (Lloyd Bochner, Carroll O'Connor) , a crime syndicate to which he belongs that takes on all comers .
It's amazing to think that you could go from one theater and see Bonnie and Clyde and then walk across the street and see Point Blank - and while the former is more well known and highly regarded, the fans of Point Blank will tout it high as possible as an experimental Hollywood landmark.In the middle of John Boorman's technique with the camera, of filming things with a very eerie tension and level of suspense, of early on, for example, when we see Walker (Lee Marvin) walking down a very long hallway and the footsteps audio is put over Marvin driving, his wife putting on eye-liner, back to Marvin again, back to wife.
Lee Marvin walks away with every scene in his backpocket as Walker, the betrayed man out for revenge, and in the time-honoured tradition of the strong silent badass, he doesn't say much and he will kick the living daylights out of you if you get between him and his money.
A mysterious man (Keenan Wynn) helps him locate the people who double-crossed him.The beginning is more than a little confusing and there isn't one sympathetic character to identify with but this is an excellent action film.
This movie's rapid fire editing was ahead of its time.Also the acting is great--Marvin plays the cold-blooded Walker to perfection--probably his best performance ever.
It amounts to $93,000.00, a really heavy sum back in 1967.Marvin don't want to hear excuses he wants his money and goes up the organized crime chain of command to get it, aided and abetted by the mysterious Keenan Wynn who has his own agenda.Angie Dickinson is on hand to lend Marvin some moral support and she's very helpful indeed in getting to the protected John Vernon.The one thing I notice about Point Blank is that Marvin, professional hit man that he is and no doubt tough guy, does not really kill all that many people in the film.
However, Angie Dickinson(Chris)("Dressed to Kill") put plenty of action into this film, in one scene, she beat on a guys chest so many times, I thought she was going to lose her breath.
The editing is rough, the music is loud and abysmal--and everything about the film has an ugly atmosphere.Marvin plays an entirely unpredictable character who makes everyone else around him look like the definition of sanity.
Westlake's novel, "The Hunter", the movie features Lee Marvin, super-miffed after being double-crossed by his partner (John Vernon, in his first major role), and seeking both revenge and his cut of the loot.
In order to recover his percentage, Marvin will have to go up against the corporate-structured criminal organization that's protecting Vernon, and hash it out with Vernon's girlfriend (the fetching Angie Dickinson).John Boorman directs this violent noir film, which is hard-nosed as they come.
Lee Marvin is infinitely more believable as a Mafia insider who says: "I just want my money" than is Mel Gibson in last year's Payback, the remake of Point Blank.
I have read most of these novels at least four times.I think Donald Westlake should have been most unhappy with the script for this movie.The main character in Point Blank, Walker, is a far cry from Parker in the novels.
Brilliant display of acting by Lee Marvin in a classic film directed by John Boorman..
This is a film which must have been influenced by French film maker Alain Resnais especially in the dream sequences.Point Blank is a revolutionary film as it takes us to places never seen before in the context of crime films.It is through such a bold film that we understand how criminal minds function their empire as a structured set up.As it is a film of masculine aura,feminine roles are not of much use.This is probably the reason why the presence of Angie Dickinson is not so much noticed.A revelation for all those who think that Bryan Singer's "Usual Suspects" is the best film about shrewd criminals..
Lee Marvin plays Walker, a tough, bitter, cynical man out for revenge after he has been double-crossed by his best friend and his own wife.
He is persuaded to participate in 'lifting' a handover of illicit cash from organised crime at the site of the disused prison island of Alcatraz by an old army buddy, Mal Rees (John Vernon), but he is deceived as in addition, the heist turns into the murder of the two couriers when he had been led to believe it was going to be a simple 'shakedown'.Rees shoots Walker from point blank range, leaves him for dead, runs off with his share of the robbery and Walker's unfaithful wife (Sharon Acker).
When Walker storms into the bedroom of his wife's apartment, there are obvious connotations when he looses off his gun into their empty matrimonial bed.Boorman's recently published autobiography, 'Adventures of a Suburban Boy', provides quite some detail about the making of the movie including the amusing anecdote of the inebriated Lee Marvin catching a lift home by clinging to the roof the director's station waggon.
It stars Lee Marvin as Walker and you certainly see his distinctive, staccato walk in the early part of the film.This is a hard boiled thriller with European sensibilities.
Lee Marvin stars in this stylish neo-noir, Point Blank, with a European sensibility, directed by John Boorman.
This movie and Payback are based on the same book, "Hunter." Mal Reese (John Vernon) needs money to pay organized crime bosses and talks his friend Walker (Marvin) to help him steal it.
The editing is especially crisp - we get very tiny flashbacks, and in the end, we wonder if this was a dream he has while in prison or if it all really happened.The casting is unusual as it is populated with people who worked primarily in television - Vernon and Bochner were practically mainstays on shows like Mission: Impossible, Sharon Acker was a TV actress, and Carroll O'Connor's great fame came in television.There is a starkness about this film, in an urban setting of cement lacking in much personality.
"Point Blank" is one of the best examples of tasteful movie violence, ever--equal, in every respect, to the, iconic, first three "Dirty Harry" filmsall great contributions to a genre which, sadly, has been supplanted by the endless gunfire and complete lack of substance, typical of action films, during the last two decades.
It is just as difficult to imagine a better supporting cast; John Vernon and Carroll O'Connor are in top form and perfectly suited to their roles.If you are as tired, as I am, of movies with little more than explosions and gunfire, and if "Dirty Harry" is your kind of film, seeing "Point Blank" is an absolute must!!!.
A gangster is on a revenge missionStarring Lee Marvin and Angie DickinsonScreenplay by Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse and Rafe NewhouseDirected by Donald E WestlakeThis is a below average thriller with a disappointing ending.The whole thing is too artyfarty for it's own good and the constant use of pointless flashbacks does nothing to further the tension or plot.
maybe there's a good movie buried somewhere in here,but i couldn't get far enough to find out.this thing just bored me to tears.and what i did see didn't really seem to go anywhere of any import.i had to shut it off and do something more interesting with my time.it's unfortunate,because i've seen Lee Marvin in a few films and i've liked most of his work,but not in this case.he can't be solely blamed though.the script is part of the problem as is the character.regardless,i wouldn't recommend this movie unless you have a lot of patience.and who knows,maybe things do improve past the halfway mark.bur for me,Point Blank is a 3/10.
Lee Marvin plays the laconic Walker (named Parker in the Richard Stark/Donald Westlake books), a man double crossed and left for dead by his wife and best friend.
The script is efficient and the film features a strong cast, led by an almost completely silent Marvin, which includes Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor, Michael Strong, and John Vernon.
Marvin was always an underrated actor, but you truly cannot take your eyes off of him in this film as he single mindedly works his way through the LA crime syndicate repeating over and over, like a mantra, "I want me $83,000 dollars" "Point Blank" is a true American film classic (by a British director) that must be seen by all cinephiles.
Recalling a betrayal in flashbacks, gangster Lee Marvin (as Walker) sets out on a violent revenge against former partner John Vernon (as Mal Reese) and those in the organization who shot him "Point Blank".
********* Point Blank (8/30/67) John Boorman ~ Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Vernon, Keenan Wynn.
In British director John Boorman's US debut, Lee Marvin plays an unstoppable hood out for vengeance After a successful robbery involving Mob money, a hood, Walker (Marvin), is shot by his wife (Acker) and partner (Vernon) while they split the loot in the deserted Alcatraz prison.
Lee Marvin like an irresistible force of nature who was like a steamroller flatting everyone and everything that gets in his way in his quest for the 93 grand that was taken from him and by the end of the movie he just about wiped out the entire mob from who that 93 grand originally belonged to.Remade 32 years later in 1999 as the Mel Gibson film "Payback" but far more stylish and surrealistic then the Gibson crime thriller.
Lee Marvin is perfectly cast as the hard-as-nails and highly miffed Walker, who is shot and left for dead by his "friend" during a robbery (an excellent performance by an increasingly nervous John Vernon).
After being double-crossed by both his business partner "Mal Reese" (John Vernon) and wife "Lynne" (Sharon Acker) and subsequently left for dead, a professional hitman known simply as "Walker" (Lee Marvin) returns to gain his revenge and get the $93,000 that was stolen from him.
That aside, "Point Blank" is a tough, unforgiving, portrayal of a man caught between his own strict code of honour, and the machinations of the shadow-like 'organisation' And Lee Marvin (unlike Mel Gibson), was the perfect casting choice for the Walker/Parker character.I kept seeing Lee Marvin as I read my way through the Parker novels years later.
Check out the scene in the film "The Big Heat", where the character, Vince Stone (played by Lee Marvin), hurls scalding hot coffee at Gloria Grahame."Point Blank" is a powerful film about the dark side of crime.
Legendary Hollywood hard man Lee Marvin found his finest role as Walker in John Boorman's classic art house gangster thriller 'Point Blank'.
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker (Lee Marvin) single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.The plot summary, as well as some of the characters in the film, seem to think $93,000 is a trifle.
One of the first American films to show clear influence from the french new wave, a cinematic movement in France that rewrote the book on what film could do.John Boorman's thriller was not exactly a blockbuster, but even at the time it caught the eyes of many a film makers and critics and survives as a cult classic, enduring long after it's 1999 remake was forgotten."Point Blank" stars Lee Marvin as Walker (no last name), a man who agrees to help his close friend, along with his wife, pull off a heist in Alcatraz.
He's hypnotically good, and that is perhaps what makes his journey of interest, rather than any traditional sense of like ability.Lee Marvin's performance and the intricate, constantly twisting plot are also accompanied by the most unique aspect of the film, being the way it's made.
While he enjoyed a run of good films and an Oscar for one that wasn't, this remains his finest hour-and-a-half on film.Marvin is Walker, a man with no first name and a burning desire for getting back $93,000 stolen from him by his faithless wife and his false friend, Reese (John Vernon).
Tough guy Lee Marvin stars in one of his most memorable roles as a small-time gangster who's double-crossed by his partner and his own wife!The story sees Marvin going on a rampage of revenge as he tracks down various gangsters who owe him money, including a deliciously slimy John Vernon and other effective character actors.
The image of a wounded Marvin, stalking his way around the empty concrete and barbed wire surroundings of Alcatraz is great.Marvin plays Walker, an uncompromising but simple man that helps out his mob connected friend on a heist job only to be stitched up, shot and left for dead and if that wasnt enough, he has his woman taken from him as well.Marvin comes back with two things in mind.....revenge and his share of the money.What follows is Marvin strutting from here to there with his pistol seeming like an extension of his hand.I would love to be that hard!!!!A top film, brilliantly directed (as always), by Boorman..
In Point Blank, Lee Marvin plays Walker, an ex-con who is out to regain his share of the loot from a heist in which he was set up by his wife and partners, and for which only he took the fall.
After "Point Blank", never again would he so dominate a film as he does here.As played by Marvin, Walker is a menacing enigma, a question mark with a .38 revolver.
The story is very simple – a man (Lee Marvin) is betrayed by his wife and best friend who shoot him and leave him for dead during a robbery they all commit together.
Point Blank (1967) *** (out of 4) Lee Marvin plays a man who agrees to help a friend (John Vernon) steal some money but the friend double crosses him by stealing all of it for himself and shooting Marvin leaving him for dead.