Saturday, September 26, 2009

Point Blank

Maybe I've anticipated seeing this movie too much. After all it's based on the fantastic crime novel The Hunter by Richard Stark aka Donald Westlake. Which I highly recommend you go pick up right now since it has been reprinted by The University of Chicago Press. It has also been made into an acclaimed graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke. It has also been made as mid-90's Mel Gibson vehicle Payback which I haven't seen but people like Ed Brubaker say that the director's cut is quite good. But. It stars noted anti-semite and crucifixion-porn-enthusiast Mel Gibson. I don't know if I can handle a Parker surrogate who mugs for the camera and tries to be "charming" every five minutes.

But before all that nonsense, there was Point Blank. Directed by John Boorman in a style that vacillates between "are you tripping yet maaaaaaaan?" and "bleak British crime drama" and starring The Man Himself, Mr. Lee Marvin as master criminal Walker (Parker in the book) hellbent on revenge. Or so you would know if you had read the book. For some reason the filmmakers decided to go another route and change a few plot points just so Angie Dickinson could have a part to play. But the greatest mistake they made was in jettisoning the whole opening sequence from the book.

If you've not read it, the book opens on Parker crossing the George Washington bridge in a ratty suit smoking his last cigarette without a cent to his name. Once in the city he systematically scams his way into a false driver's license, checkbook and suit, all the while plotting revenge onhis wife and the low level gangster she betrayed him to, Mal Resnick. This is all done away with for the film which starts with Walker being shot and left for dead inter-cut with flashbacks that just about make sense. And lots of echo-echo-echo sound effects. Because professional thieves and their exploits are so trippy. And inexplicable shots of Mal and Walker evidently at a Professional Thieves High School Reunion drunk as lords and babbling to each other incoherently while Mal begs Walker to help him on a heist at the abandoned Alcatraz prison.

Horribly miscast as Mal is John Vernon (forever known as Dean Wormer from Animal House) who is just too damn menacing and ruthless to be a good Mal. Mal is a supposed to be a fuck up. A loser who gets in deep to The Syndicate for $93,000 and then once he pulls a job with Walker, decides that he'll double cross everyone and steal Walker's wife for himself. So not a smart fellow at all and John Vernon is too much of a hard ass to really portray those qualities of the character. He doesn't do cowardly. Or at least to my mind. Great actor, just miscast.

Lee Marvin on the other hand is great as Walker. He's cold and efficient and focused. Always moving forward, like a shark. There is an odd angle to Walker's story in the film. He has a mysterious benefactor giving him information on how to find Mal. A character called Yost and played cryptically by Keenan Wynn.

Sharon Acker plays Walker's wife Lynne who is surprised to find Walker alive and kicking after Mel forced her to shoot him. Even though she will having nothing to do with Mal he pays for her apartment to keep her quiet. When Walker finds her and demands an explanation we get a trademarked dour 60's monotone monologue which takes some life out of the film. And out of Lynne too. Overcome with guilt she overdoses on pills leaving Walker with little help on how to find Mal. But then a knock comes at the door and it's Mal's underling delivering the rent money. Walker beats info out of the man and is soon on his way for payback.

Along the way Walker runs into Lynne's sister Chris (Angie Dickinson) who he uses to get at Mal by sending her to Mal's hotel to seduce him. For the most part this role is invented only for the film and to up the female character numbers, which is very few.

At the hotel Walker busts in on Mal and Chris and beats him and demands his half of their take. Mal cries and says it's all gone; that he used it to square himself back with The Syndicate and if Walker wants it, he'll have to go through them.

And so we come to The Syndicate. One of Westlake's favorite all purpose villains, The Syndicate is the idea of The Mob or organized crime taken to a corporate structure. He's mentioned The Syndicate or The Outfit in several books and it is a great concept. They're something for an independent thief like Walker to rebel against. And the film touches upon it quite well. Lloyd Bochner (oh dip, Cecil Colby from Dynasty) plays Carter, the west coast man in charge and Walker's next nemesis after finding Mal. And he plays it with his trademark suave and creepy charm. Carter tries to set up Walker in a money exchange but gets shot by his own man who mistakes him for Walker.

Yost then leads Walker to the next man in charge, Brewster played by none other than Carroll O'Connor (!) who is great. Contrasting the debonair Carter, Brewster constantly taunts Walker with the futility of his quest for vengeance. The Syndicate is just too big for him.

And so Brewster leads Walker to the final showdown at Alcatraz, where it all began. The final twist is that Yost is the head of The Syndicate and has been leading Walker to this moment from the beginning. Which we shouldn't try to think too hard on or the film will fall apart.

So a bit of an end to the tale and hard to square if you've read the book several times before seeing the film. My best advice would be to see this film first and then read the books. It'll be a letdown to envision Lee Marvin doing all the badass shit in the book to only see half of it make the film.

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