Point Blank (DVD)

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This is the film Mel Gibson was hoping he could duplicate. Sorry, Mel.

John Boorman's 1967 crime thriller "Point Blank" and Gibson's 1999 crime caper "Payback" are about criminals shot by their partners and left for dead, both of whom live to exact their revenge. But with Mel Gibson in the title role behaving in his usual lighthearted "Lethal Weapon" manner, we knew from the outset that everything in the remake was going to turn out all right in the end. Consequently, Gibson's movie was not as tense or as taut as the original.

With Lee Marvin in the lead, it's a whole other story. He stars in this noir gangster-land classic, part of Warner Bros.' latest batch of noir releases on DVD, which also includes the highly regarded "Dillinger" (1945), "Born To Kill" (1947), "Crossfire" (1947), "The Narrow Margin" (1952), and "Clash By Night" (1952). Incidentally, the latter five, but not "Point Blank," are also available in a box set, "The Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume 2." However, Warner Bros. must have figured "Point Blank" was too much newer than the others or still too popular to be included in the box.

In any case, "Point Blank" is one of the best, toughest, and most grimly cold-blooded mystery noirs Hollywood has given us, thanks in large measure to Marvin. Lee Marvin had spent most of the 1950s playing rowdy, mean-spirited fellows, second-string bad guys and heavies, until his big break in the 1965 Jane Fonda release "Cat Ballou," where his broken-down comic gunfighter won him an Academy Award. From then on it was starring or co-starring roles in things like "The Professionals," "The Dirty Dozen," "Hell in the Pacific," "Paint Your Wagon," "The Emperor of the North," and "The Big Red One." But in my humble opinion his very best role was right here, in "Point Blank."

To some extent, Marvin's role is similar to that of Michael Caine in "Get Carter" (1971). Both actors play gangsters, villains in the ordinary sense, for whom, nevertheless, we root. They are, in fact, quintessential antiheroes, the bad guys we love. And, interestingly, I've never heard that either of these films was ever considered by average moviegoers as among the two actors' best work. Yet both pictures are classics of their kind and some of Marvin's and Caine's finest achievements. Like "Get Carter," "Point Blank" is a small, largely overlooked gem.

Based on the novel "The Hunter" by Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake), "Point Blank" is about a hood named Walker (Marvin), just Walker, no first name to give him any more individuality or humanness, who is shot and left for dead by his so-called partner, Mal Reese (John Vernon, later of "Animal House" fame), after a heist gone wrong. The two men and Walker's wife (Sharon Acker) were supposed to pick up a money drop on Alcatraz Island, but Reese shoots the two couriers and then shoots Walker, taking the money and Walker's wife for himself.

A year goes by. Walker miraculously recovers and becomes obsessed with getting the money back that's owed him, $93,000. He doesn't seem overly concerned about revenge, about Reese, or about his wife. He just wants his money, and if anyone should get in his way, it's their bad luck. A number of people get in his way.

In his quest Walker enlists the aid of a cop named Yost (Keenan Wynn) who is after the Organization, presumably a pseudonym for the Mafia. Since Reese is now involved with the Organization and Yost wants to bring the outfit down, Yost is more than happy to have Walker do his dirty work for him. Yost is a mysterious fellow, always providing Walker with bits of information on where he can find certain people and then hanging around the periphery of the action.

The other person Walker finds to help him out is his wife's sister, Chris (Angie Dickinson). Chris was also briefly involved with Reese, knows his whereabouts, and can help Walker get close to him. Dickinson has several good exchanges with Marvin, but one stands out where she attacks him and, according to the audio commentary, actually puts bruises on the actor. The players were encouraged by the director to make their performances look as realistic as possible, and Dickinson did.

The movie uses a cool, no-nonsense, jazz-inflected score by Johnny Mandel similar to the one Lalo Schifrin wrote for "Bullitt" the next year, as well as using a similar cool, low-key approach to most of the action. This understated style makes the fight scenes all the more violent and explosive, especially when they come out of a good deal of silence, and it points up the violence in Walker all the better.

Walker is a fellow who uses his head to get what he wants but uses his gun and his fists when necessary, too. There's a great scene where he persuades a baddie to give him information by getting the guy into a car with him and then battering the car to pieces between two concrete highway pillars. Most of these action scenes seem to come out of nowhere, unexpectedly, and when they do, they are brutally realistic. In fact, the movie is so realistic, even the most hardened criminals in it can faint dead away, and the hero is not above punching a villain in his most vulnerable spot or even throwing him off a roof.