If you have cable television you've probably seen Point Blank's poor man cousin, Payback, starring Mel Gibson. The Mel Gibson version isn't quite a remake, but both come from the same source, a pulp novel “The Hunter.” If you’ve only seen, Payback you should try to see Point Blank.
First off, it stars Lee Marvin. Right after Steve McQueen, Marvin defines cool. And he doesn’t let down here. He plays Walker, a crook, who is robbing mobsters at a money drop-off point with his wife and his close friend. When the crime is done, his friend, Mal, and wife double cross him and leave him for dead.
A year later, a crooked cop lets the now recovered Walker know that his friend used all the money to repay the crime syndicate what he owed them and where he is staying with Walker’s wife. Walker tracks down his wife, who tells him that Mal left her a long time ago. Later that night she overdoses on sleeping pills. Walker beats the next connection to Mal from a mob courier who is delivering his wife’s monthly package. Walker, with the occasional aid of the cop, works his way up the organization trying to get his money back.
John Boorman directed this movie and it has all his brilliant touches that elevate this above just a standard crime melodrama. He uses flash backs in a way to show what walker remembers is fuzzy and sometime Walker is confused about what is really happening to him and what he is remembering.
Boorman fills the screen with titillating semi erotic imagery. Walker’s dead wife posed in the bed with her legs and behind exposed suggestively. A salesman flirts with a woman customer while stroking her dog. Mal’s undressing a woman slowly before Walker attacks him.
All of these erotic touches server to illustration how unavailable these people are to each other emotionally. The wide screen cinematography also serves this purpose. Boorman frequently puts columns, doorways and other spaces between characters when they are talking. The only close contact these people have with each other is usually in violent outbursts.
Point Blank is filled with a great cast. Angie Dickenson as Walker’s lover. Carroll O’Connor as the number two man in the crime organization. John Vernon plays Mal as the sleazy friend. Michael Strong (known more for his TV work) plays the weasely Stegman perfectly.
There is a lot going on in this movie and it deserves repeated viewing.