Point blank

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Movie
German title Point Blank
Point Blank - No One Must Survive (Video)
Original title Point blank
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1967
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (formerly 18)
Rod
Director John Boorman
script Alexander Jacobs
David Newhouse
Rafe Newhouse
production Judd Bernard
Robert Chartoff
music Johnny Almond
camera Philip H. Lathrop
cut Henry Berman
occupation
synchronization

Point Blank (Alternative title: Point Blank - Nobody May Survive , Original Title: Point Blank ) is an American crime film directed by John Boorman from 1967 with Lee Marvin in the leading role. It is a film adaptation of the crime novel Now we are quitt (original title: The Hunter ) by Donald E. Westlake , which he published under his pseudonym Richard Stark.

After a successful attack, Walker is gunned down by his accomplice and robbed of his share of the loot. After his recovery, he has only one goal left: to get his share back.

action

The taciturn dockworker Walker is shot by his accomplice Mal Reese after a successful robbery and robbed of his share of 93,000 US dollars . Reese leaves the injured man at their agreed meeting point, the disused Alcatraz Prison , and runs away with Walker's wife, Lynne. Walker manages to escape and from now on has only one goal: to take revenge and get "his" money back. When Walker locates Lynne, she commits suicide. Reese rose through the money in a criminal organization just called "the organization". Lynne's sister, Chris, helps Walker break into Reese's heavily guarded penthouse . Reese gives Walker the names of the organization's leaders who could raise his share. In a subsequent scuffle, Reese is killed. Walker sets out to find the leaders, pursued by a hit man. Finally the organization offers him a cash delivery, again in the abandoned Alcatraz. One of the leaders, Fairfax, takes the opportunity to get rid of his competition. The film ends with a stalemate : Although the money is within reach, Walker does not venture out of his hiding place, knowing full well that a sniper is on him; the organization in turn fails to get hold of Walkers.

background

Lee Marvin's contract with the MGM production company gave him a decisive say in the selection of the script, cast and crew , a position that made him support his director John Boorman. Marvin and Boorman rejected David and Rafe Newhouse's first draft of the script as too clichéd. Boorman contacted Alexander Jacobs, a former colleague at the BBC , and had him write a new script, which was completed on April 6, 1967. The name of the main character in the novel, Parker, was changed to Walker as part of the revision.

The film was shot in Los Angeles , San Francisco (including in Alcatraz Prison) and in the Hollywood studio . Margaret Booth , the influential head of the editing department, suggested a few changes while viewing the raw version and successfully defended the film against critical voices from company management.

On August 30, 1967, Point Blank had its American premiere. On March 1st, 1968 it started in the cinemas of the FRG .

After the film was released, Boorman received a letter from director David Lean congratulating him on his film.

1999 came a remake under the title Payback - Payday with Mel Gibson in the lead role in the cinemas.

German version

The German dubbing was created in 1968 in the MGM synchronization studio in Berlin .

role actor Voice actor
Walker Lee Marvin Martin Hirthe
Fairfax / "Yost" Keenan Wynn Konrad Wagner
Frederick Carter Lloyd Bochner Heinz Petruo
Big John Stegman Michael Strong Herbert Stass
Mal Reese John Vernon Michael Chevalier
sniper James Sikking Christian Brückner

Reviews

“Always wear seat belts,” recommended Der Spiegel in its review, and stated: “With […] bluff cuts, with space-time jumps, forwards and backwards and Kafka- esque fuss, the director John Boorman darkens a gangster play that otherwise would be just exciting and sadistic. Boorman, a Brit in Hollywood, follows the trend of the film factory of refining old genres with cinéast tricks. " Bonnie and Clyde ", the parade piece of the new wave, is of course more perfect. "

Die Zeit saw in Point Blank one of the “splendid” representatives of the “occupying power Hollywood”, who, despite familiar elements, also contained a ruse: “In the cinema, California has long been owned by the syndicate because there is a Syndikit [sic] in California that Hollywood is the name of and in the setting California produces gangster films in which great fellows, who do not hide their intentions and show that they have come a long way, swing in great sleds through a great area. Sometimes it is precisely the alleged distortions that involuntarily hit the nail on the head. "

The lexicon of international films judged in retrospect: "Masterfully and with icy cold staged thriller with a consistently pessimistic attitude."

Sascha Keilholz from critic.de about Lee Marvin's portrayal: “His Walker is not a vigilante , a character in so many vigilante films in the following two decades. He embodies the classic, almost old-fashioned type of the avenger, so impressive and lasting that today one can speak of Point Blank as the great revenge-gangster film of its time. [...] To let the main character work through the presence of the main actor is an outstanding and selfless achievement by Boorman. Because one thing is clear: the name Point Blank will forever be associated with Lee Marvin. "

The Protestant Film Observer also gave a largely positive assessment : "A good and ambitiously made American crime film by an English director."

literature

  • Richard Stark (i.e. Donald E. Westlake): Now we are even (original title: The Hunter ). German by Brigitte Fock. (Also contains Die Gorillas by the same author , original title: The Outfit . German by Christian Wessels.) Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-10393-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for point blank . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2014 (PDF; test number: 37 942 V).
  2. ↑ Translated, "point-blank" means "dead straight, straightforward". The terms “at point-blank range” and “point-blank shot” refer to a distance within the firing range or the firing of a weapon at close range. Source: dict.cc dictionary , accessed November 20, 2012.
  3. ^ Brian Hoyle: The Cinema of John Boorman , Scarecrow Press, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-8395-6 , pp. 29-30.
  4. ↑ a b Point Blank. In: Turner Classic Movies . Accessed December 2, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Point Blank in the Internet Movie Database .
  6. ^ A b Brian Hoyle: The Cinema of John Boorman , Scarecrow Press, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-8395-6 , p. 37.
  7. ↑ a b Point Blank. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 2, 2018 .  .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  8. ↑ Point blank in the synchronous database.
  9. ^ Coup mit Kniff , Der Spiegel, February 19, 1968, accessed on November 22, 2012.
  10. ↑ Des Syndikats own country , Die Zeit, March 22, 1968, accessed November 22, 2012.
  11. ^ Film review by Sascha Keilholz in critic.de , accessed on November 21, 2012.
  12. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 123/1970.

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