POINT BLANK (1967: Dir. John Boorman)
Rather unexpectedly, Lee Marvin won an Oscar in 1965 for the comedy film Cat Ballou, a genre that was not considered his forte up until then. It was also his first starring role in a theatrical feature, and together with the simultaneously released Ship of Fools, quickly established his credentials as a leading man. Demonstrating a healthy lack of vanity his next two films were ensemble pictures (The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen), and their undisputed box office success cemented Marvin's clout in the industry, guaranteeing him director approval and finally, his name above the title on all prints and advertising. So it was with this new-found independence that Marvin agreed to star in a film by an untested young British filmmaker John Boorman. Sharing some thematic similarities with The Killers, as well as previous co-star Angie Dickinson, Point Blank was the most modern and challenging film of Marvin's career. A near abstract and dreamlike meditation on betrayal and revenge, Boorman utilizes a bold colour palette and an alienating sense of space to foreground Marvin's unstoppable avenger, a thief double-crossed and left for dead by his partner and his wife. The script, based on Donald Westlake's pulp novel The Hunter, was largely re-written without credit by Boorman in consultation with Marvin, forgoing the novel's inviting San Francisco locations for the cold cement of Los Angeles, mercilessly captured by Blake Edwards' veteran cinematographer Philip Lathrop (Peter Gunn, Experiment in Terror). Towering over the kinetic narrative, Marvin imbues his mostly emblematic character with an awesome and terrifying determination, while at the same time conveying the hollow impotence of a man fighting forces beyond his power and comprehension. The film was, for its time, a cinematic achievement that brought fresh energy and a European sensibility to Hollywood. Audiences didn't approve, but Marvin would show his loyalty by collaborating with Boorman the next year on a very personal examination of war and racism, Hell in the Pacific. DVD & BLU-RAY
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